The world's first radio broadcast took place a hundred years ago on Christmas Eve 1906. Here's the story of Reginald Fessenden and this historical event.

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/december2006/king_of_the_radio_waves.htm

Or perhaps not ????

http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0052/t.437.html

Neither article mentions the the development of the diode tube in 1904 by J. Ambrose Fleming, only after which did Lee DeForest come up with the triode. James C. Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz were the real pioneers of electromagnetic waves, proving that they exist and defining some of their most fundamental properties. Marconi built on their findings and developed the first wireless telegraph, sending Morse code and other coded messages.

Maxwell's equations, although not as well known as Maxwell's Silver Hammer, are the oats and barley of the study of the propagation of electromagnetic waves in free space. Without the mathematical tools derived therefrom todays modern broadcast frequency and bandwidth management would be impossible.

After reading the RWonline article, it looks like we should be celebrating AM's 100th birthday next year. Note that the RW article says that there were wired broadcast systems in place (using telephone lines) as early as the 1880s!

Very interesting stuff, especially in light of the radio play airing this long weekend, mostly on college stations across Canada: http://www.rwonline.com/dailynews/one.php?id=10147

To me, the landmarks in Radio after Spark Gap were the broadcast and receiving of a carrier on a specific frequency, which could be turned off and on to create Morse code. And then the simultaneous broadcast on two very close frequencies and receiving it as an audible tone based on the difference in the frequencies. Third would be to actually be able to continuously vary that second frequency and its amplitude, to produce sound based on an input device like a microphone or playback device.

I've always felt that history has placed too much emphasis on Usage rather than original accomplishment. For example, what radio station began a regular broadcast schedule, typically argued between KDKA and CFCF? That seems far less important than figuring out how to do it, and actually demonstrating that it can be done.

NPR "Weekend Edition" aired a 100 year anniversary feature this morning:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6669973&ft=1&f=10

It's a good story, even if it *might* not be 100% accurate !

I'm now rethinking my last comment about what we should celebrate. I may have invented pre-echo in 1970 at a campus radio station in their Production control room. Or someone like me may have years before. But it was Isaac Hayes who first used it in a recording released 6 months later. I'd give the credit to Isaac. And that is who I'd celebrate.

Here is another one:

www.Hello-Radio.org