Portable Wireless Telephone Company Inc.; Stockton, California

Brief history of Portable Wireless Telephone Company and its involvement with Atlantic-Pacific Radio Supplies Inc and Oard Radio Laboratories Inc

The Portable Wireless Telephone Company was incorporated in Stockton, California to exploit the radio manufacturing business of Oard Radio Laboratories Inc, also of Stockton. The company was founded by George A Turner, a financier who had an interest in early radio development. The company was not a manufacturer, but a distributor of radio products. With his foresight, Turner was able to organize a dealership arrangement with several hundred radio dealers in many US states to sell the Oard radios. He also appointed Atlantic-Pacific Radio Supplies Co Inc to be sole agents for the Oard sets.

Very little has been found relating to the company and it was last listed in the 1929-1930 issue of the Stockrton City Directory. It is assumed that the Great Depression saw the ending of the company. 

One lasting legacy of the company is radio station KWG of Stockton, which was first licensed on December 7th, 1921. It has been sold several times in the intervening years but is still on the air today as an AM station, broadcasting on 1230 kHz. It was claimed to be the first radio station to be licensed west of the Mississippi River.