Niamh Gibbs

Media Studies

The Radio
Radios are a part of everyday life. Theyre
used to play music or used as alarms in
the morning. They are also used in other
technology such as; mobiles, baby
monitors, garage door openers, toys,
satellites, and radar. Radios also play an
important role in communications through all sorts of jobs, including the
emergency services.
Guglielmo Marconi successfully sent the first radio message across the
Atlantic Ocean in December 1901 from England to Newfoundland.
Marconi's radio did not receive voice or music. Rather, it received buzzing
sounds created by a spark gap transmitter sending a signal using Morse
code.
The radio got its voice on Christmas Eve 1906. As dozens of ship and
amateur radio operators listened for the evening's traffic messages, they
were amazed to hear a man's voice calling "CQ, CQ, meaning calling all
stations, I have messages, instead of the customary dots and dashes of
Morse code. The message was transmitted by Professor Reginald Aubrey
Fessenden from a small radio station in Brant Rock, Massachusetts.
In the years from 1904 to 1914, the radio went through many refinements
with the invention of the diode and triode vacuum tubes. These devices
enabled better transmission and reception of voice and music. Also during
this time period, the radio became standard equipment on ships crossing
the oceans.
The radio came of age during World War I. Military leaders recognized its
value for communicating with the infantry and ships at sea. During the
WWI, much advancement was made to the radio making it more powerful
and compact. In 1923, Edwin Armstrong invented the superhet radio; the
basic principles used in the superhet radio are still in use today.
Radios consist of many specialized electronic circuits designed to perform
specific tasksradio frequency amplifier, mixer, variable frequency
oscillator, intermediate frequency amplifier, detector, and audio amplifier.

Niamh Gibbs

Media Studies

On November 2, 1920 the first commercial radio

station went on the air in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
It was an instant success, and began the radio
revolution called the "Golden Age of Radio." The
Golden Age of Radio lasted from the early 1920s
through the late 1940s when television brought in
a whole new era. During this Golden Age, the radio
evolved from a simple device in a bulky box to a
complex piece of equipment housed in beautiful
wooden cabinets. People would gather around the radio and listen to the
latest news and radio plays. The radio occupied a similar position as
today's television set.
On June 30, 1948 the transistor was successfully demonstrated at Bell
Laboratories. The transistor allowed radios to become compact, with the
smallest ones able to fit in a shirt pocket. In 1959, Jack Kilby and Robert
Noyce received the first patent for the integrated circuit. The space
program of the 1960s would bring more advances to the integrated
circuit.
Radios are being combined with computers to connect the computer to
the Internet via satellites. Eventually radios will convert from analog to
digital broadcasting. Analog signals are subject to fade and interference
whereas digital signals are not. They can produce high quality sound like
that found on a CD. These digital radios can be programmed for specific
stations, types of music, news, etc.
Eventually, radios will have mini-computers built in to process sounds in
numerical patterns "digits" rather than an analog waveform. This will allow
listeners to program their radios for favourite radio stations, music type,
stock quotes, traffic information, and much more.