Radio facts and facts about radio: signals, sets, and the voices that traveled without a wire.
18 facts on this shelf
In the 1940s, the FCC assigned television's Channel 1 to Mobile Services (two-way radios in
taxicabs, for instance) but did not re-number the other channel assignments. That's why your TV
set has channels 2 and up, but no channel 1.
Radio waves are the radiation and detection of a range of frequency of electromagnetic waves. Frequency is the number of wavelengths that pass a particular point in one second and for radio waves the frequency is from 3 kHz to 300 GHz. Radio waves like all electromagnetic waves are able to carry information through space. Radio waves can travel unimpeded through objects like buildings or people but light waves can not. This is because radio waves have a very long wavelength allowing them to pass through objects that have shorter wavelengths like you and me without problem.
The giant Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, featured in movies like "GoldenEye," collapsed in 2020 after its support cables failed.
German physicist Heinrich Hertz proved that radio waves exist in the late 1880s, and the unit of frequency, the hertz, is named after him.
In 1901, Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic radio signal, the Morse code letter "S," sent from England to Newfoundland.
Guglielmo Marconi is usually credited with inventing the radio, but a 1943 US Supreme Court decision invalidated key parts of his patent, recognizing earlier work by others including Nikola Tesla.
Reginald Fessenden is credited with what is often called the first radio broadcast of voice and music, on Christmas Eve in 1906.
When the Titanic sank in 1912, its radio operators sent distress signals that brought the ship Carpathia to rescue survivors.
KDKA in Pittsburgh made the first commercial radio broadcast on November 2, 1920, reporting the presidential election results.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt used radio broadcasts called fireside chats to speak directly to Americans during the Great Depression and WWII.
Orson Welles's 1938 radio drama "The War of the Worlds" reportedly caused mass panic, but historians now think the panic was greatly exaggerated by newspapers.
Edwin Armstrong invented FM radio in the 1930s, and it offered much clearer sound with less static than AM.
The Regency TR-1, released in 1954, was the first commercially sold transistor radio.
The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 World's Fair and was supposed to be torn down after 20 years, but it was saved because it was useful as a radio antenna.
Celebrities secretly voiced many of the callers on Frasier's radio show.
When MTV launched on August 1, 1981, the first music video it played was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles.
Cleveland DJ Alan Freed helped popularize the term "rock and roll" in the early 1950s.
The Grand Ole Opry has been broadcasting since 1925, making it the longest-running radio broadcast in US history.