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1860 BCE
1860s
James Clerk Maxwell showed in theoretical and mathematical form in 1864 that electromagnetic waves could propagate through free space. -
1830s
The idea of wireless communication predates the discovery of "radio" with experiments in "wireless telegraphy" via transmission through the ground, water and even train tracks from the 1830s on. -
1880s
It is likely that the first intentional transmission of a signal by means of electromagnetic waves was performed in an experiment by David Edward Hughes around 1880. -
1890s
Starting in 1894 the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi built the first complete, commercially successful wireless telegraphy system based on airborne Hertzian waves (radio transmission). Marconi demonstrated application of radio in military and marine communications and started a company for the development and propagation of radio communication services and equipment. Personally this is so cool to me that someone this early creates wireless radio -
1900s
In 1900, Brazilian priest Roberto Landell de Moura transmitted the human voice wirelessly for a distance of approximately a half mile.Christmas Eve 1906, Reginald Fessenden used a synchronous rotary-spark transmitter for the first radio program broadcast, from Ocean Bluff-Brant Rock, Massachusetts. In June 1912 Marconi opened the world's first purpose-built radio factory at New Street Works in Chelmsford, England. -
1920
The first radio news program was broadcast August 31, 1920 by station 8MK in Detroit, Michigan, which survives today as all-news format station WWJ under ownership of the CBS network. 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.[38] -
1947
Att month 2ADD (renamed WRUC in 1947), aired what is believed to be the first public entertainment broadcast in the United States, a series of Thursday night concerts initially heard within a 100-mile (160 km) radius and later for a 1,000-mile (1,600 km) radius. In November 1920, it aired the first broadcast of a sporting event. -
1955
In 1955, the newly formed Sony company introduced its first transistorized radio.[47] It was small enough to fit in a vest pocket, powered by a small battery. It was durable, because it had no vacuum tubes to burn out. -
1960s
By 1963, color television was being broadcast commercially (though not all broadcasts or programs were in color), and the first (radio) communication satellite, Telstar, was launched was launched. 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. -
1970s
In the 1970s, LORAN became the premier radio navigation system. -
1990s
November 1994, a Rolling Stones concert was the "first major cyberspace multicast concert. November 7, 1994, WXYC (89.3 FM Chapel Hill, NC USA) became the first traditional radio station to announce broadcasting on the Internet 1995, Scott Bourne founded NetRadio.com as the world's first Internet-only radio network. NetRadio.com was a pioneer in Internet radio. March 1996, Virgin Radio - London, became the first European radio station to broadcast its full program live on the internet -
2000s
To focus attention on the consequences of the impending rate hike, many US Internet broadcasters participated in a "Day of Silence" on June 26, 2007. May 1, 2007, SoundExchange came to an agreement with certain large webcasters regarding the minimum fees that were modified by the determination of the Copyright Royalty Board. Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009 expired in January 2016, ending a 10-year period in which smaller online radio stations.
