Roaring Radio- Entertainer of the 1920s

     It is safe to say that conventional radio today is nowhere near as popular as it used to be back in the early 20th century. The combination of television, satellite radio, and internet make conventional AM/FM radio much less significant than it was in the 1920s. Back then, radio was a technological revolution that changed the shape of entertainment as well as the advertising and news industries. The emergence of the radio as the main source of entertainment and news all happened because of one technological invention called the vacuum tube in 1906 by a man named Lee de Forest. 

     Before the invention of the vacuum tube, "wireless telegraphs" (later to be called radio) was already being used to keep contact with oceangoing ships across the atlantic that could not reach telegraph lines. They used Morse Code to communicate, which involves dots and dashes representing each letter of the alphabet to relay messages back and forth. It was not until 1906 when the vacuum tube- which could transmit and receive sound, voice, and music- opened up the possibilities for conventional use radios by the public. 

1920's Radio Clips

(Soundboard with various broadcast clips from the 1920's)

   After World War I, public interest in radio began to rise. Companies began to see the potential of radio starting with Frank Conrad and the Westinghouse Company in 1920. Once he set up the first regularly scheduled radio broadcasts in the country, radios started being sold more than ever to the public so they could tune in. Other companies began seeing the various uses for radios, particularly advertising. Entertainment shows could sell advertising spots to companies during broadcasts, the news industry could broadcast around the nation much faster than print news, and schools and churches could use radio to broadcast educational shows to a large audience of listeners. The possibilities were almost endless, and radio soon became the biggest industry of the age. The true TV of it's time, radio industries flourished off of music shows, news broadcasts, and educational lectures, all of which wouldn't have been possible without the development of the vacuum tube in which sound itself was made transmittable.