Radio Timeline

  • 1888

    Heinrich Hertz detects and produces radio waves.
  • 1894

    Marchese Guglielmo Marconi builds his first radio equipment, a device that will ring a bell from 30 ft. away.
  • 1900

    American scientist R.A. Fessenden transmits human speech via radio waves.
  • 1901

    Marconi transmits telegraphic radio messages from Cornwall to Newfoundland
  • 1903

    Valdemar Poulson patents an arc transmission that generates continuous radio waves, producing a frequency of 100 kHz and receivable over 150 miles.
  • 1904

    First radio transmission of music at Graz, Austria
  • 1905

    Marconi invents the directional radio antennae.
  • 1921

    RCA starts operating Radio Central on Long Island.
    The American Radio League establishes contact via a shortwave radio with Paul Godley in Scotland, proving that shortwave radio can be used for long distance communication.