Summer Celebrations! National Radio Day

Thursday August 20^th

National Radio Day

radio | Definition, History, & Facts | Britannica

Photo Credit: Britannica

You get in your car, turn it on, and almost immediately you hear music or the dulcet tones of radio DJs chatting; you hear your radio. Today, we celebrate the often underrated and overlooked radio and how it has changed the world.

Radios first became a possibility in the 1800s as many scientists and inventors made early discoveries with electromagnetic waves. In the 1880s, Heinrich Hertz conclusively proved the existence of electromagnetic waves and their unit of frequency was named after him. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Guglielmo Marconi and Nikola Tesla became the first to transmit electromagnetic waves through the air. The credit for who actually transmitted the first wireless telegraph using electromagnetic waves and created the foundation of the radio, is up for debate, as Marconi won the Nobel Prize in physics after sending the first transatlantic telegram transmission. However, many believe Tesla was first as he had patented most of the inventions used in telegrams but couldn’t beat Marconi due to a lab fire.

Radio, as we now know it, was first introduced commercially around 1910. Families would often sit around the radio listening to news, sports, or radio shows. Some examples of radio shows that were broadcasted were singing competitions, story telling, talent shows, one-man bands, quiz shows, comedians, kids’ shows, and many more. Over time and with the invention of the TV, radios were used less for fundamental entertainment and were mostly only seen in cars, but they are still an essential component of each of our daily lives. Sine waves, a more advanced version of the early radio waves, are used in our cell phones so that we may call each other, send text, watch videos, and even read blogs about radios and their electromagnetic waves.

From theory to discovery of electromagnetic waves, to transmitting radio waves for remote control boats and telegrams, to radio programs, and to the sine waves used in cell phones, radio waves are crucial to our current way of living. So, as you go about your day, remember the humble beginnings of radio and how it has and continues to change the world.

Ways To Celebrate:

· Help UNESCO advocate for pluralism in radio

· Learn how your phone is both a transmitter and receiver of radio waves

· Make a simple radio transmitter

· Turn off the TV and listen to the radio

Watch Pirate Radio and learn more about the history of restrictions and regulations put on public radio

Recommended Reading:

· American Babel: Rogue Radio Broadcasters of the Jazz Age by Clifford Doerksen

· I Hid It Under the Sheets: Growing Up with Radio by Gerald Eskenazi

· Listener Supported: The Culture and History of Public Radio by Jack W. Mitchell

· Radio’s Civic Ambition: American Broadcasting and Democracy in the 1930s by David Goodman

· The Biographical Encyclopedia of American Radio by Christopher H. Sterline, Cary O’Dell, and Michael C. Keith