1938 Radio Post Office, Portland, Oregon?

Here's another odd cover. It seems to be a promotional gimmick for radio station KEX in Portland, OR, which claimed to be the "World's first radio post office." It was in operation once a week, from 11 p.m. to midnight, for four consecutive weeks in 1938. The tie-in was to honor Airmail Week, this was "Mail Via Air."

Does anyone know more about this? Did they actually read letters over the air?

Hi Greg,
I asked Jim Haxby about your cover and he related that he had not ever seen one.

I do have this unused U521 (magenta surcharge) cover from 1927 promoting the Boston Radio Aero Show with an illustration showing ground-to-plane radio transmission. They appear to have had this Boston event in 1927 and 1928 but I have not found additional info.


Don

Not sure about the nominclature but probably one of many covers inspired by early aviation.

Boston Radio Aero Show – 1928

Held at Mechanics Blvd. October 1-6, 1928

LONG SHOT
But could be promising, Dr H M Gunn and KEX

Dr H M Gunn

KEX
(Same Paper)
I have included the jokes for your entertainment.

Hipstamp

FYI, KEX was one of, and perhaps the earliest, radio stations in Portland. It also became one of the most powerful, operating at 50,000 watts since 1948. Today it's part of the Clear Channel Network and simulcasts talk radio on both AM and FM.

I spotted another one of these covers on ebay going pretty cheap, if anyone is interested. The cachet is bolder and it was cancelled on May 14, also at 11:30 pm, in the middle of the hour-long time slot. Looks like these mail-by-air broadcasts were all done late on Saturday nights.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/CACHET-COV...184608564988

Remains a mystery:

In 1938, KEX was owned by the same company that ran The Oregonian, the state's biggest paper. It's hard to believe that they gave the event zero coverage. I think there's probably an article somewhere. Does anyone subscribe to Newspapers.com?

I have a newspapers.com account. It doesn't search the Oregonian. A search of all Oregon newspapers for 1938 on the string "kex radio postoffice" (not in quotes for the search string as a whole) turned up 31 hits but nothing specific to the KEX radio postoffice event. There were hits with a few state papers on matters pertaining to the National Airmail Week event that year, but as said, nothing about the KEX radio event.

From https://feedback.pdxradio.com/forum...il-5/page/2/