Brief History Of Radio In The 1920's

Before being the industry giant that it is today, radio had simplistic but innovating beginnings. It started with an Italian inventor named Guglielmo Marconi who took the discoveries of electromagnetic fields and used them outside of a scientific setting. He went into his backyard and successfully broadcasted information from two short distances. By 1899, newspapers surprised everyone when they read about Marconi being on a ship at sea and how he telegraphed the outcome of some yacht races to a New York station. In 1906, physicist Refinald Fessenden sent a transmission from his station in Massachusetts to Virginia, but this time it had human voices and music with it instead of telegraphs. After that, more discoveries came into place and radio stations began popping up everywhere to provide entertainment. The 1920's through 1950's became known as the golden age of radio. One of the very first radios was the crystal radio, a small device that can have earphones plugged in and could be made with less than $6. A piece of lead galena crystal and a cat whisker was all it took to find a signal, but the static made any sound emitting from it very weak. Although it wasn't very efficient, magazines inspired boys to make it so everyone can join the hype.

60% of American households had one sitting around somewhere and families would gather around it to listen to it together. Radios back around 1925 cost $150 and were a much larger piece of equipment than modern ones, requiring the owner to string a 100-foot external antenna to be able to pick up transmissions from stations. In 1927, the radio could be plugged into an electrical socket, removing the need to have dry-cell batteries that had only a 3-week duracy before they needed replacement. The price lowered to $60-$90 and the new appliance became more convieniant. In only 7 years, radio sales jumped from $60 million to $842