Editing Golden Age of Radio (section)

==Origins==
[[File:Crystal radio advertisement.png|thumb|upright=1.2|A family listening to the first broadcasts around 1920 with a [[crystal radio]].  The crystal radio, a legacy from the pre-broadcast era, could not power a loudspeaker so the family must share earphones.]]

During the first three decades of [[radio]], from 1887 to about 1920, the technology of transmitting sound was undeveloped; the information-carrying ability of radio waves was the same as a [[electric telegraph|telegraph]]; the radio signal could be either on or off.  [[Radio|Radio communication]] was by [[wireless telegraphy]]; at the sending end, an operator tapped on a switch which caused the radio transmitter to produce a series of pulses of radio waves which spelled out text messages in [[Morse code]].  At the receiver these sounded like beeps, requiring an operator who knew Morse code to translate them back to text.   This type of radio was used exclusively for person-to-person text communication for commercial, diplomatic and military purposes and hobbyists; broadcasting did not exist.

The broadcasts of live drama, comedy, music and news that characterize the Golden Age of Radio had a precedent in the [[Théâtrophone]], commercially introduced in [[Paris]] in 1890 and available as late as 1932. It allowed subscribers to eavesdrop on live stage performances and hear news reports by means of a network of telephone lines. The development of radio eliminated the wires and subscription charges from this concept.

Between 1900 and 1920 the first technology for transmitting sound by radio was developed, AM ([[amplitude modulation]]), and [[AM broadcasting]] sprang up around 1920.

On [[Christmas Eve]] 1906, [[Reginald Fessenden]] is said to have broadcast the first radio program, consisting of some violin playing and passages from the Bible. While Fessenden's role as an inventor and early radio experimenter is not in dispute, several contemporary radio researchers have questioned whether the Christmas Eve broadcast took place, or whether the date was, in fact, several weeks earlier. The first apparent published reference to the event was made in 1928 by H. P. Davis, Vice President of [[Westinghouse Electric (1886)|Westinghouse]], in a lecture given at [[Harvard University]]. In 1932 Fessenden cited the Christmas Eve 1906 broadcast event in a letter he wrote to Vice President S. M. Kinter of Westinghouse. Fessenden's wife Helen recounts the broadcast in her book ''Fessenden: Builder of Tomorrows'' (1940), eight years after Fessenden's death. The issue of whether the 1906 Fessenden broadcast actually happened is discussed in Donna Halper's article "In Search of the Truth About Fessenden"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rwonline.com/article/922|title=In Search of the Truth About Fessenden|work=Radio World Online|author=Halper, Donna|date=14 February 2007|access-date=23 December 2016|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120912104304/http://www.rwonline.com/article/922|archive-date=12 September 2012|url-status=usurped}}</ref> and also in James O'Neal's essays.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0052/t.437.html|author=O'Neal, James E.|title=Fessenden: World's First Broadcaster? – A Radio History Buff Finds That Evidence for the Famous Brant Rock Broadcast Is Lacking|work=Radio World Online|date=October 25, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070129095540/http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0052/t.437.html|archive-date=29 January 2007|url-status=usurped}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rwonline.com/article/72046|author=O'Neal, James E.|title=Fessenden – The Next Chapter|work=Radio World Online|date=December 23, 2008|access-date=June 29, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090916012103/http://www.rwonline.com/article/72046|archive-date=September 16, 2009|url-status=usurped|df=mdy-all}}</ref> An annotated argument supporting Fessenden as the world's first radio broadcaster was offered in 2006 by Dr. John S. Belrose, Radioscientist Emeritus at the Communications Research Centre Canada, in his essay "Fessenden's 1906 Christmas Eve broadcast."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.radiocom.net/Fessenden/BelroseXmas.pdf|title=Fessenden's 1906 Christmas Eve broadcast|author=Belrose, John S.|access-date=23 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170110170636/http://www.radiocom.net/Fessenden/BelroseXmas.pdf|archive-date=10 January 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

It was not until after the [[RMS Titanic|''Titanic'']] catastrophe in 1912 that radio for mass communication came into vogue, inspired first by the work of [[amateur radio|amateur ("ham") radio]] operators. Radio was especially important during World War I as it was vital for air and naval operations. World War I brought about major developments in radio, superseding the [[Morse code]] of the wireless telegraph with the vocal communication of the wireless telephone, through advancements in [[vacuum tube]] technology and the introduction of the [[transceiver]].

After the war, numerous radio stations were born in the United States and set the standard for later radio programs. The first radio news program was broadcast on August 31, 1920, on the station [[WWJ (AM)|8MK]] in [[Detroit]]; owned by ''[[The Detroit News]]'', the station covered local election results. This was followed in 1920 with the first commercial radio station in the United States, [[KDKA (AM)|KDKA]], being established in [[Pittsburgh]]. The first regular entertainment programs were broadcast in 1922, and on March 10, ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' carried the front-page headline: "Radio Sweeping Country: 1,000,000 Sets in Use."<ref>Sayles, Ron. ''Old-Time Radio Digest'', Volume 2009, number 51.</ref> A highlight of this time was the first [[Rose Bowl Game|Rose Bowl]] being broadcast on January 1, 1923, on the Los Angeles station [[KHJ (AM)|KHJ]].