The Story of Communication:

Radio—Timeline

1600: William Gilbert’s theory ties electricity and magnetism.
1819: Hans Oersted’s electromagnetism discovery will be essential to communication.
1831: Faraday’s research in electromagnetism will lead to communication.
1864: James Clerk Maxwell publishes theory that leads to radio wave discovery.
1883: Edison stumbles onto “Edison effect”; later, basis of broadcast tubes.
1886: Amos Dolbear gets patent for wireless communication using induction.
1888: Heinrich Hertz proves that radio waves exist.
1890: In France, Branly’s coherer conducts radio waves.
1895: In Italy, Guglielmo Marconi sends a radio signal more than a mile.
1896: Nikola Tesla invents a spark radio transmitter.
1896: Turned down by Italy, Guglielmo Marconi takes radio gear to England.
1897: In England the Marconi Company sets up wireless telegraphy business.
1898: A loudspeaker is invented.
1899: Radio gear installed in British warships, signals across English Channel.
1899: Nathan Stubblefield claims to transmit voice by radio, but he will die in poverty.
1900: University of Wisconsin experiments with radio transmissions.
1901: In Germany, Karl Braun discovers that a crystal can detect radio waves.
1901: In Newfoundland, Marconi picks up the letter “s” from England.
1902: U.S. Navy installs radio telephones aboard ships.
1904: E.F. Alexanderson’s huge alternator adds distance to radio signals.
1904: Ambrose Fleming invents the diode tube, improves radio communication.
1906: International Radiotelegraph Union is founded.
1906: Lee De Forest’s three-element vacuum tube, the audion.
1906: Dunwoody and Pickard build a crystal-and-cat’s-whisker radio.
1906: Fessenden plays violin on radio, talks to startled ship wireless operators.
1907: De Forest broadcasts music from phonograph records.
1907: Marconi starts transatlantic radio service, Ireland to Newfoundland.
1909: Radio distress signal saves 1,700 lives after ships collide.
1909: Marconi and Braun share Nobel Prize in Physics for wireless.
1909: First broadcast talk; the subject: women’s suffrage.
1910: U.S. requires radio transmitters on some passenger ships.
1910: Radio hobby craze; Quaker Oats boxes used to build crystal, cat’s whisker sets.
1910: De Forest’s radio carries Enrico Caruso’s voice from the Met; heard at sea.
1911: Cincinnati broadcaster gets the first U.S. radio license.
1912: U.S. passes Radio Act to control radio broadcasts; licenses are easy to get.
1912: Howard Armstrong’s regeneration circuit boosts radio reception.
1912: Titanic sinking leads to U.S. government controls on radio transmission.
1912: University of Minnesota broadcasts football games by wireless telegraph.
1913: Armstrong discovers that audion tube can transmit; De didn’t know.
1914: Radio message is sent to an airplane.
1914: Wireless telegraph baseball game by innings: N.Y. Giants vs. Memphis Turtles.
1914: Amateur radio licenses in most countries are suspended for WW I.
1915: Wireless radio service connects U.S. and Japan.
1915: Radio-telephone carries voice from Virginia to the Eiffel Tower, Paris.
1916: Radios get tuners.
1917: Condenser microphone aids broadcasting, recording.
1917: U.S. enters WW I; amateur radio transmitters shut down; Navy controls radio.
1918: Wireless radio widely used by armies, navies in war.
1918: Howard Armstrong’s superheterodyne circuit improves radio reception.
1919: Shortwave radio is invented.
1919: With war’s end, amateur radio transmitters return, now with vacuum tubes.
1919: In Pittsburg, Frank Conrad builds a radio station, later KDKA.
1919: Radio Corporation of America (RCA) is established.
1920: AT&T, GE, RCA patent agreement permits radio equipment manufacturing.
1920: KDKA begins regular schedule, starting the era of radio broadcasting.
1920: In England, Marconi creates the first shortwave radio connection.
1920: XWA, Montreal, begins first regularly scheduled North American broadcasts.
1921: Broadcast of Dempsey-Carpenter fight widens awareness of radio.
1921: Baseball’s World Series is reported by radio.
1921: Quartz crystals keep radio signals from wandering.
1921: Radio becomes family fun as hobbyists turn in headphones for speakers.
1921: Many radio licenses are issued. Many radio “firsts,” especially sports.
1922: The radio license floodgates open, but only three frequencies in U.S.
1922: 100,000 radio sets are manufactured in the U.S.
1922: A commercial is broadcast. U.S. radio will be built on “toll broadcasting.”
1922: Britain gets its first radio station. The BBC goes on the air.
1922: The first portable radio. Experimental car radio.
1922: On a Schenectady, NY, station, the first radio drama is presented.
1923: Ribbon microphones become the studio standard.
1923: A.C. Nielsen Company begins to measure radio audiences for advertisers.
1923: In the U.S., creation of the National Association of Broadcasters.
1923: Half a million radios are sold in U.S., a five-fold increase in one year.
1923: Several radio stations hook up by phone to form a temporary network.
1924: Radio hook-ups broadcast Democratic, Republican conventions.
1924: The Eveready Hour is the first sponsored radio program.
1924: At KDKA, Conrad sets up a shortwave radio transmitter.
1924: E. Howard Armstrong builds first portable radio, a gift to his bride.
1924: In the U.S., 1,400 stations are broadcasting to 3 million radio sets.
1924: K. Jansky’s radio astronomy reports of “star noise” published, ignored.
1924: Almost daily sports broadcasts.
1924: Two and a half million radio sets in the U.S.
1925: Transcontinental radio hook-up carries Coolidge inaugural to 24 stations.
1925: A British radio broadcast is heard in the United States.
1925: The first broadcast soap opera: The Smith Family.
1926: Some radios get automatic volume control.
1926: The first radio jingle, for Wheaties.
1926: NBC is formed and takes over AT&T Red Network.
1926: Coin-operated radios are put in public places, 5 minutes for 5 cents.
1926: Unregulated radio stations drown each other out, beg for government controls.
1927: Advertising locks in as the economic base of U.S. radio broadcasts.
1927: CBS is formed. Radio broadcasting is becoming a mass medium.
1927: New U.S. Federal Radio Commission regulates radio transmission, not content.
1927: Electric plugs and single knob tuning make radio more than a hobby.
1927: U.S. Radio Act declares public ownership of the airwaves.
1928: New home radios can use ordinary electric current instead of batteries.
1928: Amos ‘n’ Andy broadcasts to huge audiences. Even movies are interrupted.
1928: Syndication of recorded shows begins with Amos ‘n’ Andy.
1929: The car radio. Expensive and you have to stop to mount an antenna.
1931: Annual U.S. radio advertising: $31 million as depression worsens.
1931: Effort by black journalist fails to cancel radio program Amos ‘n’ Andy.
1930: “Golden Age” of radio begins in U.S.
1930: Lowell Thomas begins first regular U.S. network newscast.
1930: Most nations use radio to educate. The American School of the Air is U.S. effort.
1930: A practical, affordable car radio goes on sale.
1930: Archibald Crossley improves the radio rating method.
1931: Radios sit in 2 of every five U.S. homes.
1932: Jack Benny goes on the air, the first of many variety comedy shows.
1932: Lindbergh baby kidnapping shows power of radio news to capture listeners.
1932: NBC and CBS allow prices to be mentioned in commercials.
1933: U.S. newspapers pressure AP to cut service to radio, start “Press-Radio War.”
1933: Radio stations fight back with own correspondents; UP, INS keep radio service.
1933: In just 90 minutes over special line, CBS bulletins attempted assassination of FDR.
1933: Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels employ power of radio to influence the masses.
1933: FDR begins radio Fireside Chats, bypasses hostile newspapers.
1934: International Telecommunication Union merges telegraph, radio groups.
1934: Benny Goodman on NBC’s Let’s Dance starts big band swing era on radio.
1934: Mutual Broadcasting System becomes fourth U.S. network.
1934: FCC is created to regulate U.S. broadcasting and telecommunication.
1934: Half of the homes in the U.S. have radios.
1935: Howard Armstrong introduces FM radio, but its real future is 15 years off.
1935: Martin Block’s Make Believe Ballroom introduces disc jockeys.
1935: U.S. radio stations win “Press-Radio War” started by newspapers.
1935: Demagogues on U.S. radio: Huey Long, Charles Coughlin, Gerald L.K. Smith.
1935: Sponsors develop, control U.S. radio programs.
1936: A.C. Nielsen acquires M.I.T. audimeter to measure radio audiences,
1936: Republican National Committee invents negative radio campaign soundbites.
1936: 33 million radio sets in the U.S.
1937: NBC has 111 affiliate stations; CBS has 105.
1937: Crash of the zepplin Hindenburg is captured on a recording, then broadcast.
1937: Recording of the Hindenburg crash is the first coast to coast broadcast.
1937: More than half of all American homes now boast a radio.
1937: NBC refuses government talk on venereal disease.
1938: Radio broadcasts can be taped and edited.
1938: 50 million radio sets in the U.S.
1938: CBS World News Roundup ushers in modern newscasting.
1938: Orson Welles’ radio drama, War of the Worlds, causes national panic.
1939: Both houses of U.S. Congress get radio broadcasting galleries.
1939: Radio brings the public first reports of World War II events.
1940: Start of Peabody Awards for broadcasting excellence.
1940:Regular FM radio broadcasting begins in a small way.
1941: Microwave transmission.
1941: In “Mayflower” decision, FCC rules that broadcasters cannot editorialize.
1941: In U.S., 13 million radios manufactured. War will shut down production.
1941: Motorola manufactures a two-way AM police radio.
1941: FCC’s chain broadcasting report weakens network domination of the air.
1942: Warring nations use radio as propaganda tool.
1942: U.S. war censorship outlaws man-in-the-street, other ad-lib interviews.
1942: U.S. Office of Censorship bans mention of weather in baseball broadcasts.
1943: NBC Blue becomes ABC.
1943: The “walkie-talkie” backpack FM radio.
1944: First U.S. radio network censorship: sound cut on Eddie Cantor show song.
1946: U.S. has 1,000 licensed AM radio stations.
1946: After WW II freeze, U.S. manufacturers turn out 15 million radios this year.
1947: The transistor, invented at Bell Labs, will replace vacuum tubes.
1947: A record 97% of all AM stations in U.S. are affiliated with a network.
1948: CBS raids NBC for radio, TV top talent.
1950: FCC Fairness Doctrine reverses 1941 Mayflower; stations must carry opinions.
1950: Average U.S. home has two radios.
1952: Sony sells a miniature transistor radio.
1953: Conelrad emergency radio system tested across U.S.
1954: Texas Instruments produces transistors commercially.
1954: Transistor radios are sold.
1954: In U.S., television revenue surpasses radio revenue.
1955: Network affiliation of AM radio stations in U.S. drops to 50%.
1956: Transistors go into car radios.
1958: Cable carries FM radio stations.
1959: An all-transistor radio can fit into a shirt pocket.
1961: FCC approves FM stereo broadcasting; spurs FM development.
1963: In the U.S., the Emergency Broadcast System, with periodic air tests.
1969: Supreme Court’s Red Lion decision codifies Fairness Doctrine for broadcasting.
1969: Public Broadcasting Service, PBS, is created.
1969: In U.S., FCC bans broadcast advertising of tobacco.
1970: FM stations target population segments, introducing “narrowcasting”.
1970: Some FM stations offer stereophonic music.
1973: George Carlin’s “Seven dirty words” results in court slap for Pacifica Radio.
1975: Citizens band (CB) radio service available for public use.
1985: Sony builds a radio the size of a credit card.
1992: Digital AM radio broadcasting is tested.
1994: Radio stations open Net locations.
1994: The most popular radio format in the U.S. is country music.
1994: Radio HK, a 24-hour Internet-only radio station.
1995: The FCC allows radio stations to operate with no one there.
1995: The average U.S. home has nearly six radios.
1996: South African factory makes Bayliss radio receivers operated by windup spring.
1996: Loosening of rules allows multiple station ownership of radio, TV in same city.
2000: FCC authorizes low power, non-commercial FM radio stations.
2000: Supreme Court ends Personal Attack Rule, last vestige of Fairness Doctrine.
2001: 13,012 radio stations in U.S.
2001: 99% of all homes in U.S. have at least one radio set.
2004: HD car radios go on sale, digital AM and FM signals boasting CD-quality.
2004: Satellite radio popularity grows, about 2 million subscribers.
2004: FCC fines radio stations for obscene language on the air.

Please report any errors to info@radapress.com

Other Resources for Radio

• Fascinating Facts

• Websites to Explore

• Sample Chapter (you must have Adobe Reader)

Writing | Printing | Mail | Telephone | Recording | Photography |
Movies | RADIO | TV | Computers | Internet