Except for the name on the peghead, the Fender Broadcaster is familiar throughout the guitar world as the Telecaster – the instrument that revolutionized the music world as the first commercially successful solidbody electric.

The Broadcaster debuted in October of 1950 as a two-pickup version of Fender’s first model, the Esquire. The Gretsch company, a prominent guitar maker and instrument distributor since the turn of the 20th century, had marketed a Broadcaster drum model, and Gretsch asked Leo Fender to find another name. Fender complied immediately by clipping the “Broadcaster” part of the logo decal.

Early in 1951 the model was rechristened Telecaster.