This Popular Science article from July, 1940 tells how Les Paul and his neighbors would run a little "radio station" of their live performances through their New York apartment building — as the Modern Mechanix blogger says, "I wish Les Paul would start a private radio sation in my building."
TO ENTERTAIN friends and neighbors in a New York apartment house, a group of professional radio performers operates a unique basement "broadcasting" station. Every Friday and Sunday evening, led by Les Paul and Earnie Newton, they go on the air from their homemade soundproof studio near the furnace room. Programs go to all the apartments through a two-wire ground and aerial system which had been built into the structure and previously never used. The control room is in a closet on the second floor. Frequently, "big-name" musicians drop in to lend a hand, and guest announcers whose voices are heard regularly on nation-wide hook-ups have fun taking turns at the basement microphone. Even "Static," the apartment-house cat, occasionally goes on the air with amplified purrs and meows.
