The possibility for merchants to show their goods through the world was the first usage of the "electroscope" (some kind of television apparatus) imagined by the author of the hoax published in the "New York Sun", 30 March 1877. The first such attempt at broadcasting shopping news occurred on February 1, 1927 with the establishment of WASN radio in Boston; owned by John Shepard III, WASN boasted reports from fifteen different department stores in Greater Boston every two hours, mixed with pre-recorded and live orchestra music. Due to technical issues, the format was dropped after five months, and the station eventually merged operations into co-owned WNAC, today known as WBIX. The first experiments at broadcasting home shopping on television occurred in the UK as early as 1934.