Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
From about 1920 to 1945, radio developed into the first electronic mass medium, monopolizing “the airwaves” and defining, along with newspapers, magazines, and motion pictures, an entire generation of mass culture. About 1945 the appearance of television began to transform radio’s content and role.
When radio was introduced in the early 1920s, many predicted it would kill the phonograph record industry. Radio was a free medium for the public to hear music for which they would normally pay. While some companies saw radio as a new avenue for promotion, others feared it would cut into profits from record sales and live performances.
In 1896, Marconi patented his design for a radio wave-based communication system in Britain, taking his first formal steps towards creating the radio. However, it was not until December 12, 1901, that Marconi audaciously showcased the world-changing potential embedded in his invention.
Guglielmo Marconi is credited for inventing the radio in 1895. He was successful in sending and receiving Morse-based radio signals in 1896 over approximately 4 miles (6 kilometers) in England. After this success, Marconi applied for and was granted the first patent in wireless telegraphy globally.
The invention of vacuum tubes brought radio into ordinary people's homes in the 1920s. AM radio waves can travel long distances but are more likely to sound distorted. Frequency-modulated radio, or FM radio for short, was invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong in 1933.
In 1907, American inventor Lee De Forest introduced his patented Audion signal detector--which allowed radio frequency signals to be amplified dramatically.
The timeline of radio lists within the history of radio, the technology and events that produced instruments that use radio waves and activities that people undertook. Later, the history is dominated by programming and contents, which is closer to general history.
The invention of radio communication was preceded by many decades of establishing theoretical underpinnings, discovery and experimental investigation of radio waves, and engineering and technical developments related to their transmission and detection.
The exact start of the history of radio is impossible to pinpoint. While many early inventors in history, like Reginald Fessenden, Fleming, and Armstrong, took part in radio technology and broadcasting, the debate is mainly between Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi.
In the early 1900s, the development of radio was hampered by the lack of an efficient detector of electromagnetic radiation. It was De Forest who provided that detector. His invention made it possible to amplify the radio frequency signal picked up by antennae.