Broadcast
1900 – 1960. The wireless wave becomes a public utility. Radio in the 1920s, sound film in 1927, television by the 1950s. For the first time, millions of people consume the same content at the same time without leaving their homes. Mass culture is invented.
Part of Media
29 moments in this segment.
- — Fessenden's First Audio Broadcast. Christmas Eve 1906, Reginald Fessenden broadcasts a programme of music, a Bible reading, and his own violin performance from Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Ships at sea listening on wireless telegraph receivers hear human voices coming out of their headphones for the first time.
- — KDKA Pittsburgh — First Licensed Radio Station. On November 2, 1920, Pittsburgh station KDKA broadcasts the results of the Harding-Cox presidential election to a few hundred listeners with crystal sets. The first commercially licensed radio broadcast. Within five years there are 1,400 American radio stations.
- — The Jazz Singer — Sound Film Era Begins. Warner Bros. premieres The Jazz Singer on October 6, 1927 — synchronised sound on disk via Vitaphone. Al Jolson's "You ain't heard nothin' yet!" line breaks the silent-film convention. By 1929 every American studio is shooting in sound.
- — The Jazz Singer — Sound Film Era Begins. Warner Bros. premieres The Jazz Singer on 6 October 1927, synchronising sound to film via the Vitaphone disc system. Al Jolson's ad-libbed "You ain't heard nothin' yet!" makes it a sensation and effectively ends the silent-film era within a few years.
- — FDR’s Fireside Chats. Roosevelt’s radio "fireside chats" showed how broadcast could speak intimately to a whole nation at once.
- — BBC Begins Regular TV Broadcasts. On 2 November 1936 the BBC launches the world's first regular high-definition public television service from Alexandra Palace in London, alternating between the Baird and Marconi-EMI systems. Television moves from laboratory demonstration to a scheduled broadcast medium.
- — The Golden Age of Radio. In the 1930s–40s radio drama, comedy, music and news made the radio set the centre of the family home. This photograph dates from 1938.
- — Welles — "War of the Worlds". Orson Welles’ 1938 radio drama, mistaken by some for real news, proved broadcast’s power to move (and panic) the public.
- — Television unveiled at the World’s Fair. RCA’s 1939 World’s Fair demonstration introduced television to the American public.
- — First U.S. Commercial TV Broadcast. On 1 July 1941 WNBT (later WNBC) in New York airs the first legal U.S. television commercial — a ten-second Bulova watch spot — after the FCC authorises commercial TV. The advertising-funded broadcast-television business model begins.
- — Shannon's Mathematical Theory of Communication. Claude Shannon, working at Bell Labs, publishes "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" in the Bell System Technical Journal. He invents information theory, defines the bit, and proves that any communication channel has a calculable upper bound on its data rate. Every digital medium afterward is a special case of his result.
- — Color Television Arrives. Color television reaches U.S. homes in 1954 as NBC broadcasts the Tournament of Roses Parade using RCA's compatible color system, adopted by the FCC in December 1953. Color would take a decade to become the norm, but the standard set here defined American TV for a generation.
- — Sputnik 1. The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957 — the first artificial satellite. Its steady radio beep, audible to amateur operators worldwide, opens the space age and directly spurs the creation of the satellite and computer-network infrastructure that later carries global media.
- — The Kennedy–Nixon TV debate. On 26 September 1960 the first televised U.S. presidential debate showed a tanned, composed Kennedy beside a pale, sweating Nixon. Radio listeners thought Nixon won; TV viewers chose Kennedy — proof that television had changed the nature of political power.
- — The TV news anchor. Network evening news made the anchor a trusted national figure and television the primary source of news. This photograph dates from 1998.
- — Sputnik 1. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1 — the first artificial satellite. It carries no instruments except two radio transmitters broadcasting on 20.005 and 40.002 MHz so amateur radio operators worldwide can pick up its beep-beep-beep tone. Communication satellites become a real concept overnight. The subject dates from 1957; this photograph was taken in 2004.
- — The transistor. Bell Labs’ transistor shrank electronics — soon putting a radio in every pocket and a computer on every desk. The subject dates from 1947; this photograph was taken in 2006.
- — Color Television Arrives. NBC broadcasts the 1954 Tournament of Roses Parade in color on January 1, using RCA's NTSC standard. The subject dates from 1954; this photograph was taken in 2010.
- — BBC Begins Regular TV Broadcasts. On November 2, 1936, the BBC launches the world's first regular high-definition television service from Alexandra Palace, London — alternating Baird's mechanical 240-line system and Marconi-EMI's 405-line electronic system, finally settling on the latter in 1937. The subject dates from 1936; this photograph was taken in 2012.
- — First U.S. Commercial TV Broadcast. An RCA TRK-12 television camera at the 1939 New York World's Fair — the broadcasting infrastructure that made the 1941 Bulova ad possible. WNBT (later WNBC) New York airs the first commercial television broadcast on July 1, 1941 — a Bulova watch ad shown before a Brooklyn Dodgers vs Philadelphia Phillies baseball game. Bulova pays $9 for nine seconds. There are an estimated 4,000 TV sets in the New York area. The subject dates from 1941; this photograph was taken in 2013.
- — Magnetic tape recording. AEG's Magnetophon (1935) made high-quality magnetic tape recording practical. Tape let broadcasters record, edit and time-shift audio — and later, video — transforming how programmes were made.
- — The 45 rpm single. RCA answers the LP with the 7-inch 45 rpm single in 1949 — cheap, durable and with a big centre hole for jukebox changers. The 45 becomes the format of the pop single and the currency of the hit-parade and radio-request culture of the 1950s and 60s. The subject dates from 1949; this photograph was taken in 2014.
- — The transistor radio. The pocket transistor radio made broadcast personal and portable — and helped spread rock ’n’ roll. The subject dates from 1954; this photograph was taken in 2015.
- — The LP record. Columbia introduces the 33⅓ rpm long-playing record in 1948, fitting over 20 minutes a side on vinyl microgrooves. The LP makes the album — rather than the single song — the unit of recorded music, shaping how music is written, sold and listened to for the next half-century. The subject dates from 1948; this photograph was taken in 2016.
- — KDKA Pittsburgh — First Licensed Radio Station. KDKA in Pittsburgh signs on 2 November 1920 with live results of the Harding–Cox presidential election — widely regarded as the first licensed commercial radio broadcast. Within two years hundreds of stations are on the air and radio becomes the first electronic mass medium in the home.
- — Shannon's Mathematical Theory of Communication. Claude Shannon publishes "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" in 1948, founding information theory. By defining the "bit" and the limits of noiseless communication, he gives every later digital medium — from CDs to the internet — its mathematical bedrock.
- — "I Love Lucy" & the sitcom. I Love Lucy pioneered the multi-camera sitcom, reruns and the syndication economy of TV.
- — Edwin Armstrong invents FM radio. Edwin Armstrong demonstrated frequency modulation (FM) in 1933, delivering static-free, high-fidelity sound. Suppressed for years by AM interests, FM eventually became the home of music radio.
- — Fessenden's First Audio Broadcast. On Christmas Eve 1906 Reginald Fessenden transmits what is often cited as the first audio radio broadcast — a violin, a Bible reading and a greeting — to astonished ships' operators along the Atlantic coast, proving radio could carry voice and music, not just Morse code.
