Radio in the 1920’s

By: Ms. Geiss

Radio began in 1920 when KDKA produced their first historic radio broadcast.

Yet, how did they get there?

In 1896, Nikola Tesla first demonstrated radio waves.

Then Guglielmo Marconi stumbled upon wires that could transmit radio waves over hundreds of yards.

In 1906, Reginald Fessenden was the first to successfully transmit a long-distance radio signal.

What did he transmit?

Silent Night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JszhyeW73Q4

After KDKA’s 1920 broadcast, there came Chicago’s KYW.

By the end of 1922, there were 600 radio stations.

But This CreatedSome

Serious Problems

1926 - The Federal Radio Commission1927 – Radio Act created the Federal Radio Commission.

1926 – RCA became the first Radio Network.

1923 – $6 million in radio sales

1929 - $842 million in radio sales

MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS

$6 $150

1923 - 1930, 60% of American families had a radio. 

"There is radio music in the air, every night, everywhere. Anybody can hear it at home on a receiving set, which any boy can put up in an hour."

Work Cited“KDKA Begins to Broadcast 1920.” A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries. WGBH, 1998. Web. 10 Feb. 2015. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dt20ra.html>.

“Life in the 1920’s: Radio Craze.” Class Zone: World History. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2008. Web. 10 Feb. 2015. <https://www.classzone.com/net_explorations/U7/U7_article2.cfm>.

“Radio Fever.” U.S. History: Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium. Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia, 2014. Web. 10 Feb. 2015. <http://www.ushistory.org/us/46g.asp>.