Radio History
Joe Clark
January 21, 2002
Mrs. Perkins
AP U.S. History
The radio has evolved over time. The radio we listen to today has a different format, purpose, viewer reach, and clarity than it did before the 1950s. The radio has survived the threat of the television industry by changing with the times. It has been dealt with in the law through acts and the creation of the government regulating agency (FCC). Today the radio is the cheapest and most affective way to communicate with everyone around the world. It began with the invention of the telegraph by Samuel Morse in 1844 and developed as the knowledgeable minds of inventors and engineers worked from the late 1800s to the present to create the powerful communications medium we know today as the radio. The radio was developed through the collaboration of many inventions and ideas from the minds of experts in the scientific fields. As early as 1844 messages were being transmitted from person to person by telegraph, which was invented by Samuel Morse (Vivian 252). By 1861 the messages could be sent from coast to coast and only five years later wires beneath the ocean floor allowed trans Atlantic communications. This development was still only point to point voiceless communication but placed the framework for future thinkers to expand on it (Campbell 113). In the 1860's James Clerk Maxwell theorized the existence of electromagnetic waves. His theories were proven by Heinrich Hertz in 1887. Hertz name became adapted to the measure of radio frequencies (Keith 2). All of these men's inventions and theories led to the wireless technology of radio. Up until 1901 the ability communicate was only possible from land to land through wires. It was necessary to create a method for ships to communicate with each other and land for their own security. It was an Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi who made it possible to communicate through space, bringing Hertz's discoveries to life (Ditingo 15). Wireless
January 21, 2002
Mrs. Perkins
AP U.S. History
The radio has evolved over time. The radio we listen to today has a different format, purpose, viewer reach, and clarity than it did before the 1950s. The radio has survived the threat of the television industry by changing with the times. It has been dealt with in the law through acts and the creation of the government regulating agency (FCC). Today the radio is the cheapest and most affective way to communicate with everyone around the world. It began with the invention of the telegraph by Samuel Morse in 1844 and developed as the knowledgeable minds of inventors and engineers worked from the late 1800s to the present to create the powerful communications medium we know today as the radio. The radio was developed through the collaboration of many inventions and ideas from the minds of experts in the scientific fields. As early as 1844 messages were being transmitted from person to person by telegraph, which was invented by Samuel Morse (Vivian 252). By 1861 the messages could be sent from coast to coast and only five years later wires beneath the ocean floor allowed trans Atlantic communications. This development was still only point to point voiceless communication but placed the framework for future thinkers to expand on it (Campbell 113). In the 1860's James Clerk Maxwell theorized the existence of electromagnetic waves. His theories were proven by Heinrich Hertz in 1887. Hertz name became adapted to the measure of radio frequencies (Keith 2). All of these men's inventions and theories led to the wireless technology of radio. Up until 1901 the ability communicate was only possible from land to land through wires. It was necessary to create a method for ships to communicate with each other and land for their own security. It was an Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi who made it possible to communicate through space, bringing Hertz's discoveries to life (Ditingo 15). Wireless
Cited: Campbell, Richard. Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin 's, 2002. Ditingo, Vincent M. The Remaking of Radio. Boston, Focal Press, 1995. Keith, Michael C., and Joseph M. Krause. The Radio Station. Boston, Focal Press, 1986. Smulyan, Susan. Selling Radio: The Commercialization of American Broadcasting 1920-1934. London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994. Solely, Lawrence. Free Radio. Boulder Colorado: Westview Press, 1999. Vivian, John. The Media of Mass Communications. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1997.