ing 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 home in 1916, although the real potential of radio wasnt 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). Fessendens first broadcast was for entertainment, but radio wasnt to be used widely as such for some time. WWI proved radios value to the army, and later its commercial uses were realized by entrepreneurs who encouraged the public to buy receivers or radios. 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 20s. 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. 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 le...
