A Brief History of Radio Advertising

The first recreational Radio broadcast occurred in 1906, Ships at sea could hear Reginald Fessenden playing "O Holy Night" on his violin and then reading a verse from the Bible.

From then on Radio continuously expanded in popularity throughout the early 1900’s, however, broadcasting was (and still is) very expensive. In order to keep up with the financial implications of running a radio station, the idea of selling “toll broadcasting” to advertisers, in which businesses would underwrite or finance a broadcast, in exchange for being mentioned on the radio.

WEAF of New York is credited with airing the first paid radio commercial, on August 28, 1922, for the Queensboro Corporation, advertising an apartment complex. This trend continued with the expansion of radio until the end of World War 2. With television overshadowing radio, there was a massive overhaul of audiences moving from radio to television.

Yet even today, with 95% of the population listening to the radio every week, radio is far from dead.