FREE ESSAY ON RADIO: MAKING WAVES IN AMERICA

RADIO: MAKING WAVES IN AMERICA

Radio-wave technology is one of the most important technologies used by man. It has
forever changed the United States and the world, and will continue to do so in the
future. Radio has been a communications medium, a recreational device, and many other
things to us. When British physicist James Clerk Maxwell published his theory of
electromagnetic waves in 1873, he probably never could have envisioned the sorts of
things that would come of such a principle. His theory mainly had to do with light waves,
but fifteen years later, a German physicist named Heinrich Hertz was able to electrically
generate MaxwellOs ?raysO in his lab. The discovery of these amazing properties, the
later invention of a working wireless radio, and the resulting technology have been
instrumental to AmericaOs move into the Information Age.
The invention of radio is commonly credited to Guglielmo Marconi, who, starting in 1895,
developed the first ?wirelessO radio transmitter and receiver. Working at home with no
support from his father, but plenty from his mother, Marconi improved upon the
experiments and equipment of Hertz and others working on radio transmission. He created a
better radio wave detector or cohere and connected it to an early type of antenna. With
the help of his brothers and some of the neighborhood boys he was able to send wireless
telegraph messages over short distances. By 1899 he had established a wireless
communications link between England and France that had the ability to operate under any
weather conditions. He had sent trans-Atlantic messages by late 1901, and later won the
Nobel prize for physics in 1909. 
Radio works in a very complicated way, but hereOs a more simple explanation than youOll
get from most books: Electromagnetic waves of different wavelengths are produced by the
transmitter, and modulations within each wavelength are adjusted to carry ?encodedO
information. The receiver, tuned to read the frequency the transmitter is sending on,
then takes the encoded information (carried within the wave modulations), and translates
it back into the sensory input originally transmitted. Many of the men who pioneered
radio had designs for it. Marconi saw it as the best communication system and envisioned
instant world-wide communication through the air. David Sarnoff ( later the head of RCA
and NBC) had a vision of ?a radio receiver in every homeO in 1916, although the real
potential of radio wasnOt realized until after World War I. 
Before and during World War I, radio was used primarily to send long distance messages
across continents and oceans. Reginald A. Fessenden made the first radio broadcast in the
U.S. from an experimental station in Brant Rock, Massachusetts on Dec. 24, 1906. It was a
Christmas eve program of music, and a speech from the inventor (Marconi). FessendenOs
first broadcast was for entertainment, but radio wasnOt to be used widely as such for
some time. WWI proved radioOs value to the army, and later its commercial uses were
realized by entrepreneurs who encouraged the public to buy receivers or ?radios.O
New technologies made more portable, cheaper, radio devices that were much more appealing
to the consumer. Advances such as vacuum tubes and regenerative circuits enabled smaller
radios, and later transistors and printed circuits further decreased their size. These
advances really helped to spread the use of the radio in America. The radio was
affordable enough for the public once mass-production began on public-model radios around
the late 1910s and early O20s. As its popularity increased, commercial radio began to
take off. Radio KOW in San Jose Ca. was the first commercial broadcast station to begin
?regular programming as early as 1912.O The station recognized as the first successful
commercial broadcaster was KDKA in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, going on the air in 1920 with
the results of the presidential race between Harding and Cox. Their success led to the
rapid growth of radio over the next two years, resulting in over 500 licensed stations by
the end of 1922. 
Around the 1970s microcircuits replaced printed circuits. Plastics were put to use in the
casing of the components, instead of a heavy wooden covering. Amplifiers of the radio
currents enabled modern style speakers to be used to translate electrical impulses and
currents into sound. The development of radio throughout the 20th century has led to many
new and wonderful uses and products. These include: television, radar, the Global
Positioning System of satellites, remote-control, cellular mobile telephones, cordless
telephones, and commercial and private satellite communications. 
The cost of radio devices has also changed American society. Modern radio receivers for
purely audio broadcasts are pretty cheap, some types obtainable from dollar stores (for
$1 obviously). Televisions, wireless and cellular phones, and other advanced radio
systems are more expensive, yet not impossibly expensive for a working middle-class
citizen. This availability to the majority of the population has increased use of radio
devices, raising awareness of local, national, and global news. Unfortunately, this
increased use also created a new part of society which is lazy and ?addictedO to
television in many cases.
Radio is now a very widely used technology. Almost everyone uses it to communicate and to
get news. Through both television and public radio news people are able to find out about
things going on all over the world. Cellular phones, Citizen Band (CB) radios, two-way
radios (?Walkie-TalkiesO), satellite phones, and cordless phones all help people to
communicate from places where phone lines are not necessary or cannot be laid. Commercial
companies use it for advertisement. Most frequently, people use the radio or television
for entertainment and relaxation. People watch engaging programs broadcast over radio
waves and received by television sets or satellite dishes. They laugh at comedians from
around the world, are amazed by incredible action, scared out of their wits by horror and
suspense, and cry with tragedies, all portrayed in a fashion much like that of the
Elizabethan theater magnified ten thousand times over. Everyone wanted a radio to listen
to when it came out. Several years after television was invented, everyone wanted one of
those too. Since then, radio entertainment has become as much a part of American culture
as the hot dog. Now commercial ships and aircraft use radio for navigation as well.
Almost everyone in the U.S. uses radio today and most find it very helpful and
entertaining.
The U.S. Government uses radio as well. Through years of research and development the
military discovered the use of the radar bands (a group of waves within the
electromagnetic wavelengths designated as radio) of radio for detecting objects. They
also use radio waves for telemetric navigation (triangulating position by transmitting to
three points and calculating the distance). Since the 60s it has enabled outer space
missions to be undertaken, allowing for ground units to assist in the delicate maneuvers
of space travel and play the role of ground based environmental information service.
Pilots of separate space vehicles also can use radio to simultaneously communicate and
calculate their distance from each other by the delay time in transmissions. NASA uses
them to receive information from space probes, and to talk to shuttle crews. 
Overall, radio is a marvelous invention and there are many inventive uses for it. The
good uses and attributes of radio include: Communication with anywhere instantly, new
technologies enabled, news source, profitable advertising medium, very entertaining.
Radio is one of the most useful things ever discovered and used by man. It enables people
to transfer information incredibly quickly, so deals, research, and personal business
around the world can all be done without having to travel too far. The possible bad uses
and attributes of radio include: subliminal and barrage advertising, atrophy of
imagination from TV, unhealthy over-bombardment by radio waves. Also, radio waves can be
easily distorted or scrambled, blocked, and received. This makes them not very private or
powerful, unless huge power sources are utilized and transmissions are made at very high
frequencies.
Radio has helped the US economy and helped all citizens become more informed about world
issues and news. It has made life much easier for everyone and aided us all in obtain
better knowledge about our surroundings. It has advanced our science and knowledge past
our own planet, and assisted in furthering our technology. On the other hand, we all
could become detached from the world with the ease given us by the technology we have
created. Advances such as television, while having the ability to help us by making us
more aware, entertaining, and educating us, also have proved (with overuse) to become a
bad habit and capable of causing atrophy of the imagination. Radio has shown us, as many
inventions do, what great moderation and responsibility we must use with any new
discovery.
Bibliography
?Fenton, Brian C. ?RadioO
ComptonOs Interactive Encyclopedia CD
?1994 ComptonOs NewMedia
??RadioO Infopedia 2 CD
1994 Funk and WagnallOs Encyclopedia
Cambridge MA: SoftKey Multimedia Inc. 1992-1996
?White, Thomas E. ?United States Early Radio History:
Articles and ExtractsO United States Early Radio History
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