| The invention of radio is perhaps one of the most | | | | would really begin to be used as a source of |
| important innovations of the last century. Not only did | | | | entertainment. The first radio news broadcast was |
| the radio become a focal point of entertainment, it was | | | | sent in August 1920 from a station in Detroit, MI called |
| a news source, an information source, and even a | | | | "8MK." A station in Buenos Aires broadcast opera |
| source of community involvement. | | | | music in August 1920. |
| Although you may think of radio as being something | | | | A few months later, in October 1920, Union College in |
| that started in the 1900's, you may be surprised to | | | | New York started a college radio station, the first ever, |
| learn that, like so many things in the 20th Century, radio | | | | in fact. A station called "2ADD" that same month |
| technology was a product of experimentation and | | | | broadcast a few concerts on a Thursday night (that |
| discovery in the 1800's. | | | | could be heard from up to 100 miles away). It is |
| A dentist in America named Mahlon Loomis exhibited a | | | | believed that this was the first entertainment |
| process called "wireless telegraphy" by connecting | | | | broadcast in the US. |
| two kites to each other without wires, making one | | | | In Writtle, England at the Marconi Research Centre in |
| move by the force of the other. This was the first | | | | 1922, regular radio broadcasts began airing. In the |
| time that wireless aerial communication was recorded | | | | 1920's, radio technology was also used to broadcast |
| in history. | | | | pictures (early television). FM radio was invented in the |
| Radio waves themselves were predicted to exist by | | | | 1930s by amateur radio station operators, but FM |
| James Clerk Maxwell, a physicist from Scotland, in the | | | | stereo broadcasting would not become the norm until |
| 1860's. Later that decade, Heinrich Rudolph Hertz of | | | | the 1960's. |
| Germany showed that fast changes in electrical | | | | Color television went into regular broadcasting in the |
| current were able to be transmitted through the air in a | | | | early 1960's. TELSTAR (the first radio communication |
| way that mimicked heat and light. | | | | satellite) was set up in 1963. LORAN radio navigation |
| By the end of the 19th century, Guglielmo Marconi (an | | | | system was the first of its kind, which started in the |
| inventor from Italy) demonstrated that radio | | | | 1970s, followed by GPS technology launched in 1987. |
| communication was possible. The first radio signal was | | | | Today, there are countless applications of radio |
| transmitted and received by Marconi in the year 1895 | | | | technology, including wireless internet found in routers |
| in Italy. In 1899, he was able to successfully send a | | | | and wi-fi hotspots. According to predictions by |
| wireless transmission straight over the English Channel. | | | | researchers, internet radio is poised to replace both |
| In 1902, the first transatlantic radiotelegraph message | | | | terrestrial (AM/FM) radio and satellite radio by 2020. |
| was sent and received in Newfoundland (sent from | | | | The advent of Wi-Max or other widespread |
| England). | | | | broadband wireless internet ("internet everywhere") |
| 1901 was the first year when wireless communication | | | | could impact the proliferation of many new radio wave |
| really started gaining momentum. It was set up and | | | | based and internet based technologies and |
| used for telegraphs being sent between five Hawaiian | | | | entertainment sources. Many major US cities are |
| Islands that year, as well as used by the Navy for | | | | already experimenting with blanketing their entire city |
| homing pigeons and visual signals. | | | | with internet access carried by radio frequency. |
| It would be a couple more decades before radio | | | | |