Samuel Morse

• The first telegraph line is set up between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland in 1844. For the first time in history, communication exceeds the speed of land transportation (p.107)

The History of Radio: Timeline

Marconi

• An Italian inventor begins experiments on wireless telegraphy in 1894. He sees his invention as a means for point-to-point communication (p.108)

Wireless Ship Act

• In 1910, Congress passes this act requiring that all major ships be equipped with wireless radio (p.112)

Practical Use for Wireless Technology

• Wireless operators saves 700 lives during the Titanic tragedy in 1912, boosting interest in amateur radio across the United States (p112).

Amateur Radio Shutdown

• The navy closes down all amateur radio operations in 1917 to ensure military security as the United States enter World War I (p.112).

Commercial Radio

• The first advertisements beginning in 1922 cause an uproar as people question the right to pollute the public airwaves with commercial messages.

David Sarnoff

• The first lasting network of radio stations, NBC, is created in 1926. Connected by AT&T long lines, the network broadcasts programs nationally and plays a prominent role in unifying the country (p115).

Radio Act of 1927

• Congress begins issuing radio licenses (p118).

William Paley

• CBS is founded in 1928 and becomes a competitor to NBC (p. 117).

Golden Age of Radio

• By 1930, living rooms are filled with music, drama, comedy, variety and quiz shows, and news (p. 120).

Federal Communication Act of 1934

• After intense lobbying by radio industry, Congress passes this act which allows commercial interests to control airwaves (p118).

Radio Suffers

• In wake of TV’s popularity in the 1950s, radio suffers but is resurrected via rock and roll and transistor radios (p 122).

FM

• A new radio format begins to gain national popularity in the 1960s (p.123)

Talk Radio

• Talk radio becomes the most popular format of the 1990’s especially on Am stations (p128).

Telecommunications Act of 1996

• This new bill effects a rapid unprecedented consolidation in radio ownership across the United States (p132).

Satellite Radio

• A new format begins service in 2002

(p. 137).

Internet Radio

• Internet Radio, a term that refers to a variety of technologies, has come a long way since the first Internet streams were offered in the late 1990s. The concept has matured and, as of April 2010, most terrestrial stations are on the Internet. Hundreds of Internet-only radio stations exist, and there are also customized Internet radio websites.

It All Started with MP3• MP3 was created in 1987 by the Fraunhofer Institut fur

Integrierte Schaltungen in Germany. The format was intended to offer the ability to record sound onto computers in a tightly compressed format (i.e. one that wouldn't take up much space). The name MP 3 is short of MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (MPEG stands for Motion Picture Experts Group---a misnomer in itself since MP3 became synonymous with audio not video). It was the creation of this slightly misnamed file format that allowed streaming music and audio to be offered on the Internet.

Real Audio

• Real Networks created the Real Audio player in 1995, and it offered consumers a novelty---the ability to listen to a streaming version of MP3 rather than a prerecorded version of the material. The software was a hit, in spite of the fact that most people at the time still connected to the Internet through slow dial-up connections rather than broadband.

Windows Media

• Real Audio was such a hit that Microsoft decided it simply could not leave this market alone. As a result, it created the free WMA format allowing people to stream music in this proprietary format, but only if they used Microsoft's products. The new standard was not compatible with Real Audio.

The First Terrestrial Radio Station on the Internet

• WXYC, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was the very first radio station to be broadcast live over the Internet in 1994. The stream was originally broadcast using the MP3 format and soon led to hundreds and then thousands of other radio station following in its footsteps.

Internet Only Radio Stations

• In spite of the name, Radio HK was not a radio station broadcasting from Hong Kong; rather, it was broadcast from California. However, it was the first Internet-only radio station. The station broadcast music from independent bands and was created by Norman Hajjar and the Hajjar/Kaufman New Media Lab.

Personalized Internet Radio• Pandora Radio, a name that has become synonymous with

personalized Internet Radio didn't start out quite that way. The concept for Pandora started out back in 1999 when Tim Westergen got together with a few friends of his and discussed the concept of the Music Genome Project. Westergen figured that he could break down songs musically by around 600 different "genes" and then figure out what someone might like to listen to based on what they already knew they liked. He started offering the service as a kiosk service, and only in 2005 did he hit on the idea of making his project into a personalized radio station. Pandora soon spawned numerous imitators and led to a world where traditional Internet Radio has become increasingly obsolete.

Podcasts • A Brief History• Adam Curry, former MTV Video Jockey, with the

cooperation of RSS feed developer Dave Winer, created podcasting, a sophisticated method of broadcasting that makes audio content available to listeners at their convenience, in an always on state. Starting at the grassroots level through the "Daily Source Code" podcast, a podcast was directed by the developers who worked at iPodder.com. From there, many of these developers improved the code and produced their own iPodders. When people discovered that they could create and host their own radio shows, a community of pioneer podcasters was born.