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1880
The first intentional transmission of a signal by means of electromagnetic waves was performed in an experiment by David Edward Hughes in the 1880's. Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was able to conclusively prove transmitted airborne electromagnetic waves in an experiment confirming Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism. -
1890
Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi built the first complete, commercially successful wireless telegraphy system based on airborne Hertzian waves.
The British Marconi company was established in 1897 and began communication between coast radio stations and ships at sea. -
1900
In 1900, Brazilian priest Roberto Landell de Moura transmitted the human voice wirelessly for a distance of approximately a half mile. One year after that experiment, he received his first patent from the Brazilian government. Four months later, knowing that his invention had real value, he left Brazil for the United States with the intent of patenting the machine in the US. -
1910
In June 1912 Marconi opened the world's first purpose-built radio factory at New Street Works in Chelmsford, England. -
1920
The first college radio station began broadcasting on October 14, 1920 from Union College, Schenectady, New York under the personal call letters of Wendell King, an African-American student at the school.
At 9 pm on August 27, 1920, Sociedad Radio Argentina aired a live performance of Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal from the Coliseo Theater in downtown Buenos Aires. Only about twenty homes in the city had receivers to tune in this radio program. -
1930
In the early 1930s, single sideband and frequency modulation were invented by amateur radio operators. By the end of the decade, they were established commercial modes. -
1940
By 1940, they were established commercial modes.
Commercial television transmissions started in North America and Europe in the 1940s. -
1950
In 1954 Regency introduced a pocket transistor radio, the TR-1, powered by a "standard 22.5V Battery".
In 1955, the newly formed Sony company introduced its first transistorized radio. -
1960
In the late 1960s, the U.S. long-distance telephone network began to convert to a digital network, employing digital radios for many of its links. In 1960 Sony introduced their first transistorized radio, small enough to fit in a vest pocket, and able to be powered by a small battery. It was durable, because there were no tubes to burn out. -
1970
The Advanced Mobile Phone System analog mobile cell phone system, developed by Bell Labs, was introduced in the Americas in 1978, gave much more capacity. -
1980
Soon, the U.S. Navy experimented with satellite navigation, culminating in the launch of the Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation in 1987 -
1990
Internet radio attracted significant media and investor attention in the late 1990s. In 1998, the initial public stock offering for Broadcast.com set a record at the time for the largest jump in price in stock offerings in the United States. -
2000
From 2000 onwards, most Internet Radio Stations increased their stream quality as bandwidth became more economical. Today, most stations stream between 64 kbit/s and 128 kbit/s providing near CD quality audio. -
2010
The Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009 expired in January 2016, ending a 10-year period in which smaller online radio stations, Live365 among them, could pay reduced royalties to labels.
