Editing Hugo Gernsback (section)

== Legacy ==
In 1954, Gernsback was awarded an Officer of Luxembourg's [[Order of the Oak Crown]], an honor equivalent to being [[knighthood|knighted]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.luxtimes.lu/en/luxembourg/luxembourg-remembering-the-father-of-science-fiction-602d259fde135b9236ff373d|title=Remembering the father of science fiction|date=December 11, 2017|website=Luxembourg Times}}</ref>

The [[Hugo Award]]s or "Hugos" are the annual achievement awards presented at the [[World Science Fiction Convention]], selected in a process that ends with vote by current Convention members. They originated and acquired the "Hugo" nickname during the 1950s and were formally defined as a convention responsibility under the name "Science Fiction Achievement Awards" early in the 1960s. The nickname soon became almost universal and its use legally protected; "Hugo Award(s)" replaced the longer name in all official uses after the 1991 cycle.<ref name=SFAwards-hugo>
{{cite web |url=http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/Hugo.html |title=Hugo Awards |work=The Locus Index to SF Awards: About the Awards |publisher=[[Locus Publications]] |access-date=March 24, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100103034223/http://locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/Hugo.html |archive-date=January 3, 2010 }}</ref><ref name="91minutes">
{{cite web|title=Minutes of the Business Meeting 1991 |url=http://www.timill.co.uk/smofs/w1991.htm |publisher=World Science Fiction Society |access-date=March 24, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110507072847/http://www.timill.co.uk/smofs/w1991.htm |archive-date=May 7, 2011 |url-status=dead }} Preliminary Session No. 1, Item E.2; Main Session No. 1, Item F.3 (August 30/31, 1991).</ref>

In 1960 Gernsback received a special Hugo Award as "The Father of Magazine Science Fiction".<ref>{{cite web | url= http://worldcon.org/hy.html | title= The Hugo Awards by Year | publisher= World Science Fiction Convention | at= 1960 | access-date= February 3, 2013 | url-status= dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130120190123/http://www.worldcon.org/hy.html | archive-date= January 20, 2013 }}</ref><ref name=SFAwards>
[http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomLit38.html#1925 "Gernsback, Hugo"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150327043746/http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomLit38.html |date=March 27, 2015 }}. ''The Locus Index to SF Awards: Index of Literary Nominees''. [[Locus Publications]]. Retrieved March 24, 2013.</ref>

The [[EMP Museum#Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame|Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame]] inducted him in 1996, its inaugural class of two deceased and two living persons.<ref name=sfhof-old>
[http://www.midamericon.org/halloffame/ "Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521070009/http://www.midamericon.org/halloffame/ |date=May 21, 2013 }}. Mid American Science Fiction and Fantasy Conventions, Inc. Retrieved March 23, 2013. This was the official website of the hall of fame to 2004.</ref>

Science fiction author [[Brian W. Aldiss]] held a contrary view about Gernsback's contributions: "It is easy to argue that Hugo Gernsback ... was one of the worst disasters to hit the science fiction field ... Gernsback himself was utterly without any literary understanding. He created dangerous precedents which many later editors in the field followed."<ref>Aldiss, Brian W., ''Billion Year Spree: The True History of Science Fiction'' (1973), Doubleday and Co., p. 209</ref>

Gernsback made significant contributions to the growth of early broadcasting, mostly through his efforts as a publisher. He originated the industry of specialized publications for radio with ''Modern Electrics'' and ''Electrical Experimenter''. Later on, and more influentially, he published ''[[Radio News]]'', which would have the largest readership among radio magazines in radio broadcasting's formative years. He edited ''Radio News'' until 1929. For a short time he hired [[John F. Rider]] to be editor. Rider was a former engineer working with the [[US Army Signal Corps]] and a radio engineer for [[Alfred H. Grebe]], a radio manufacturer. However, Rider would soon leave Gernsback and form his own publishing company, [[John F. Rider|John F. Rider Publisher]], New York around 1931.

Gernsback made use of the magazine to promote his interests, including having his radio station's call letters on the cover starting in 1925. [[WRNY (New York City)|WRNY]] and ''Radio News'' were used to cross-promote each other, with programs on his station often used to discuss articles he had published, and articles in the magazine often covering program activities at WRNY. He also advocated for future directions in innovation and regulation of radio. The magazine contained many drawings and diagrams, encouraging radio listeners of the 1920s to experiment themselves to improve the technology. WRNY was often used as a laboratory to see if various radio inventions were worthwhile.

Articles that were published about television were also tested in this manner when the radio station was used to send pictures to experimental television receivers in August 1928. The technology, however, required sending sight and sound one after the other rather than sending both at the same time, as WRNY only broadcast on one channel. Such experiments were expensive, eventually contributing to Gernsback's [[Experimenter Publishing]] Company going into bankruptcy in 1929.<ref>{{cite journal| last1= Massie |first1= K.| last2= Perry |first2= S. D. |year= 2002| title=Hugo Gernsback and radio magazines: An influential intersection in broadcast history |journal= Journal of Radio Studies |number=9 |pages= 264–281}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine| last1=Stashower |first1= D. |date=August 1990| title= A dreamer who made us fall in love with the future |magazine=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]] |volume= 21 |number= 5 |pages= 44–55 }}</ref> WRNY was sold to Aviation Radio, who maintained the channel part-time to broadcast aviation weather reports and related feature programs. Along with other stations sharing the same frequency, it was acquired by [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] and consolidated into that company's [[WEPN (AM)|WHN]] in 1934.

In 2020, Eric Schockmel directed the documentary feature film ''Tune Into the Future'', which explores the life of Hugo Gernsback.<ref>[https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/387042/ Review of "Tune Into the Future" in CinEuropa]</ref>