National Museum Of Communications

The National Museum of Communications was started in 1979 in Dallas by William J. Bragg with 41 items he had collected. High rent and lack of financing forced Mr. Bragg to close his labor of love in 1983. To his surprise, the original items, which he had brought to the location in one U-Haul truck, had grown to fill 21 large moving vans.

He found a home for the museum in a new movie studio location in Irving. The museum has been going strong and growing ever since, and now includes such items as the camera that broadcast the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald, Charlie Chaplin's movie camera, and Walter Cronkite's microphone.

Through his involvement in the museum, Mr. Bragg was offered the use of an audio sub-carrier on satellite, with which he could start an audio satellite superstation. He used the technology to preserve the history of early broadcasting by broadcasting old-time radio shows via satellite. Yesterday USA - "YUSA" - is a full-time cable radio superstation dedicated to preserving old time radio.