A Brief History of Radio

We might as well start from the start. Radio has been an important form of communication for more than 100 years. The really cool thing is that this “ancient” technology is still as popular as it ever was, with millions of people all over the world using shortwave radios. In the beginning, radio was known as wireless telegraphy, later shortened to wireless, because at that time, there were no transmissions of sound.

According to Wikipedia, “Radio is the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light.” Basically, radio is the sending and receiving of signals that bounce of the planet's ionosphere.

One of the earliest uses of radio was by sailors, sending and receiving messages from ship-to-shore. Early transmitters were referred to as spark-gap machines. Eventually, all ships were set up with wireless systems. During World War I, radio was used by the military for communications.

Amateur radio gained popularity in the early 1900's, and by 1909, there were enough amateur radio stations to require a listing, and the First Annual Official Wireless Blue Book of the Wireless Association of America was published. Wireless stations in Canada and the US were listed, and this list contained 89 amateur operators. Today, the number of amateur operators throughout the world numbers in the millions.

In 1906, the first radio broadcast, with sound, was sent from Massachusetts. Sailors and crew on ships at sea heard a Christmas Eve broadcast, which included a reading from the bible. Following this first broadcast, much advancement were made in the technology, and on August 31, 1920, a radio station in Detroit, Michigan transmitted the first news broadcast. Incidentally, this station is still in operation as a all-news station, owned by CBS. A Union College in Schenectady, New York, began operating the first college radio station in October, 1920.

In 1940, the station, which had changed its call letters from Wendell King to WRUC, aired what may possibly be the very first entertainment-based radio program for the public, a weekly concert series. In the beginning, this broadcast was heard by people within a 100 mile radius of the station, and later, a radius of 1,000 miles. This station also aired the first sports broadcast in the US, and the first live performance.

From here, radio kept growing in popularity. Every home had a radio, and listening to certain regular broadcasts became events, where the entire family would gather around the radio and listen to the broadcast.