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On March 12, 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his first "Fireside Chat."
Many prime-time radio broadcasts featured film stars recreating famous films over the air.
Roots of Radio
Roots of Radio
Since 1886 it had been proven there were radio waves and that they could be observed from great distances. It was Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi who first demonstrated the power and feasibility of radio technology. In 1895 he sent and received radio signals in Italy and, in 1899, he sent a radio signal across the English Channel. At the time Nikola Tesla was also researching radio communication, in fact, the first patent for a radio transmitter was one submitted by Nikola Tesla.
Marconi demonstrating apparatus he used in his first long-distance radio transmissions in the 1890s. The transmitter is at right, the receiver with a paper tape recorder at left.
Radiotelegraphy
Radiotelegraphy
Radiotelegraphy was one of the first practical ways people used radio communication. It used the same system of Morse code that previous telegraphs had. The use of wireless signaling increased after it was proved to be effective in communication for rescue work at sea. During the early 20th century massive advancements were made in radio infrastructure. In 1901, radiotelegraph service was established between five Hawaiian Islands and, in 1909, Robert E. Peary, an arctic explorer, radio telegraphed "I found the Pole."
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A ships radio room in 1919
Vacuum tubes and other amplifiers
Vacuum tubes and other amplifiers
In the 1900's the applications of radio hit a wall because of the lack of an efficient detector of electromagnetic radiation over large distances. Lee De Forest developed several devices that would amplify the signals from an antennae such as the triode amplifier, and the Audion, an amplifying vacuum tube. These not only allowed for signals to be received from longer distances, but it allowed for weaker signals to be used in general. The result of Lee de Forest's work was the invention of amplitude-modulated or AM radio .
Lee De Forest and one of his vacuum tubes
Sources:
Mary Bellis. (May 11, 2019). The History of Radio Technology. ThoughtCo.
https://www.thoughtco.com/invention-of-radio-1992382University of Minnesota Libraries, 2010, Understanding Media and Culture, University of Minnesota Libraries
https://open.lib.umn.edu/mediaandculture/chapter/7-2-evolution-of-radio-broadcasting/Marina Koestler Ruben. JANUARY 26, 2010. Radio Activity: The 100th Anniversary of Public Broadcasting. The Smithsonian Magazine
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/radio-activity-the-100th-anniversary-of-public-broadcasting-6555594/Page updated
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