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Discovery of Radio Waves
In the late 1880s, a German physicist; Heinrich Hertz, proved thr existance of radio waves in nature. He theorized the existance of radio waves in as late as 1867. He also created a meathod to measure these waves that we still use today. -
Invention of Radio
Gugliemo Marconi is the inventor of the radio and the first documented man to have sent a radio signal. However, it it widely beleived that he was not the true inventor of the radio, but was only credited for it for being the first to come foward about it in a widely public manner. -
Radio Becomes more Applicable
The invention of the audion by Lee Da Forest, actually made the wide use of radio possible. By utalizing a vaccum tube with metal coils in it, he was able to amplify signals. Works by turning a smaller amount of watts into a much larger amount, allowing the system to draw more power from weaker sources. -
The Radio In Real-world use
Before radio, ships had absolutly no way to communicate with the people on land. This is why the radio was so quick to be adopted by the marine industry. If a ship began to sink, they could signal other ships in the area to help save the passangers. Ex: When the titanic sank, the crew sent out distress signals to other ships in the area. without the signals, everyone that was on the titanic may have died. -
Birth of Radio Stations
This is the first time radio had been a household form of entertainment, and was recognized as an artistic medium. The first of these stations was hosted by Frank Conrad, called the KDKA. The station broadcasted things like daily news, election polls, and some music at times. The station is still around today. -
Advertisments
Primary source of revenue for Radio stations. The first advertisment was for an apartment complex. It was 10 minutes long and cost $50 to air. -
The Man stops the fun
Because advertisers paid to be on the air, they felt that the amount of radio stations was too vast, so their ads would oly reach a small percentage of listeners. To combat this, the government created the FRC, requiring a license to own a radio station. -
Call Letters
Because radio frequencies could be reused 60 or so miles from each other, there was no easy way to keep track and name all of them. so call latters were created. Any station west of the mississippi started with a "K", while east of the mississippi, they started with "W". -
FM & AM Waves
Am stands for "amplitude modulation", meaning to change the height of the radio waves. The waves ususally ranged from 535 to 1605 KHz. FM means "frequency modulation" or to change the frequency of the wave. These waves ranged from 88 - 108 MHz. 1000 KHz = 1 MHz -
Golden Era
During the Great Depression, Everyone Listened to radio. Radio was a sort of escape from the work load of trying to make ends meet in the Depression. People often saved up for a radio set instead of fixing their other appliances.
