Practicum Journal 1 - A Timeline of Radio's History Leading up to the Golden Age of Television
-
Radio Act of 1912
The Radio Act of 1912 helped to establish a means for a licensing system, requiring all radio operators to be federally licensed. This was also monumental toward water-travel safety, as it required all ships to maintain consistent radio alert to be on the lookout for distress signals. This first piece of communications legislation came a month after the sinking of the British ship, Titanic. -
1919 Formation of the RCA
The formation of the Radio Corporation of America in October of 1919 was a re-vamping of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America (American Marconi). It was designed to be US owned and it functioned as a patent pool. Companies would share patents and assets in order to control a piece of hardware technology. Some of these partners included General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T, United Fruit Company. -
Election Day of 1920
The Election Day of 1920 revolutionized the idea of news broadcasting as we know it today. Prior to the day of the election, Westinghouse launched their first ever radio station, KDKA Pittsburgh, where they were able to broadcast to places as far as Chicago. The point behind the launch of the station around this time was to allow listeners to hear the results of the election without having to wait for the newspaper to produce a story. -
1922 WEAF New York
In August of 1922, AT&T's New York radio station WEAF aired the first ever radio advertisement for a set of apartments in Queens, marking the beginning of "toll broadcasting". Essentially, AT&T would grant airtime on the radio to anyone willing to pay for it. In addition to the introduction of toll broadcasting, WEAF was also a pioneer in the interlinking of other broadcast stations to create "chain broadcasts", developing an elaborate national radio network. -
1926 Formation of NBC
In November of 1926, David Sarnoff founded the nation's first permanent radio network, the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC). With it's grand beginning marked by a four-hour radio gala program in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, NBC's formation was the work of the RCA, AT&T, and Westinghouse coming together. NBC formed two semi-independent networks Red and Blue, Red being the upgrading of WEAF New York. -
Radio Act of 1927
The Radio Act of 1927 created the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), which would later turn into the FCC (Federal Communications Commission). This replaced/negated the aforementioned Radio Act of 1912, placing the federal government in higher power over radio communication through the FRC. The FRC sought to license broadcasters and reduce radio interference, benefiting both broadcasting networks and the public.