Radio and Television History

First Electromagnetic Waves Transmission

Jan 1, 1888

Heinrich Rudolf was able to conclusively prove transmitted airborne electromagnetic waves in an experiment.

First Wireless Telegraphy

Jan 1, 1894

Guglielmo Marconi built the first wireless telegraphy based on airborne Hertzian Waves.

First Voice Transmission

Jan 1, 1900

Brazilian priest Roberto Landell de Moura transmitted his voice for the first time ever for approximately over a half mile radius.

First Radio Factory

Jan 1, 1910

The first purpose-built radio factory was built in 1990.

First Radio News Broadcast

Aug 31, 1920

The first news broadcast was broadcast from Detroit, Michigan by 8MK. It is still running today. It's known as WWJ.

Frequency Modulation

Jan 1, 1930

Single sideband and frequency modulation were made by amateur radio operators, and by the end of the 30's it was an established commercial mode.

The Start of Phones

Jan 1, 1947

AT&T commercialized the Mobile Phone Service. They introduced it to 100 towns and highway corridors. It was a rarity at the time and only about 5,000 people had it.

Transistor Radio

Jan 1, 1955

Sony created a pocket sized transistor radio. It was powered by batteries. It had no vacuum tubes to burn out either.

TV!!!!!

Jan 1, 1960

Color television was being broadcast commercially. Although not all TV was in color.

LORAN

Jan 1, 1970

This became the premier radio navigation system.

GPS

Jan 1, 1980

The U.S. Navy experimented with satellite navigation, culminating in the launch of the Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation in 1987.

DARPA and U.S. Army

Jan 1, 1994

1994, the U.S. Army and DARPA launched an aggressive, successful project to construct a software-defined radio that can be programmed to be virtually any radio by changing its software program.