In the summer of 1915, the Radio Telephone Company received an Experimental license for station Radio 2XG, located at its Highbridge laboratory.
In late 1916, Lee de Forest renewed the entertainment broadcasts he had suspended in 1910, now using the superior capabilities of vacuum-tube equipment.
Lee DeForest broadcasting Columbia phonograph records (October 1916)
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2XG's debut program aired on October 26, 1916, as part of an arrangement with the Columbia Graphophone Company to promote its recordings. Beginning November 1, the "Highbridge Station" offered a nightly schedule featuring the Columbia recordings.
These broadcasts were also used to advertise "the products of the DeForest Radio Co., mostly the radio parts, with all the zeal of our catalogue and price list", until comments by Western Electric engineers caused de Forest enough embarrassment to make him decide to eliminate the direct advertising.
The station also made the first audio broadcast of election reports - in earlier elections, stations that broadcast results had used Morse code - providing news of the November Wilson-Hughes United States presidential election, 1916.
The ''New York American'' installed a private wire and bulletins were sent out every hour. About 2000 listeners heard ''The Star-Spangled Banner'' and other anthems, songs, and hymns.
With the entry of the United States into World War I on April 6, 1917, all civilian radio stations were ordered to shut down, so 2XG was silenced for the duration of the war.
The ban on civilian stations was lifted on October 1, 1919, and 2XG soon renewed operation, with the Brunswick-Balke-Collender company now supplying the phonograph records. In early 1920, de Forest moved the station's transmitter from the Bronx to Manhattan, but did not have permission to do so, so district Radio Inspector Arthur Batcheller ordered the station off the air.
De Forest's response was to return to San Francisco in March, taking 2XG's transmitter with him. A new station, 6XC (KZY), was established as "The California Theater station", which de Forest later stated was the "first radio-telephone station devoted solely" to broadcasting to the public.
Later that year a de Forest associate, Clarence "C.S." Thompson, established Radio News & Music, Inc., in order to lease de Forest radio transmitters to newspapers interested in setting up their own broadcasting stations.