EOTO: The Radio

In 1895, an Italian inventor named Guglielmo Marconi had an idea to send a wireless Morse Code message to someone more than a kilometer away. He originally intended to use the device for use in contacting ships, but his work led to a communications revolution. He used radio waves to transmit the code. This device became known as “the radio.” Centuries later, the radio is now used as a source for information, entertainment, and communication worldwide.

FM radio, frequency modulation, has been considered to be one of the most “valuable electromagnetic waves in human discovery.” This technology is what allows us to have the emergency broadcast service that police and paramedics use today. It also allows simple things like baby monitors and microwaves.

The original form of radio was developed in “amplitude modulation,” which is what we refer to as AM radio. This form of radio was effective, but the audio quality was not very clear. There was often static, and the broadcasts could only be done on a single channel of audio. In comes Edwin Armstrong, an American inventor, and electrical engineer who developed FM radio.

Armstrong’s invention of the FM radio was the grand solution for the static heard across the AM radio waves. The bandwidth for FM radio is twenty times bigger than that of AM radio. Edwin was not initially supported by any of the large radio corporations and had to pay for most of his expenses out of pocket. 1940 finally brought a breakthrough, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allowed commercial FM broadcasting. By 1941, approximately 400,000 FM radios had been sold. This was a game changer for the music and advertising industry.

As FM radio became popular, the FCC announced that the 40MHz band that FM radio was relying on would now be shared with TV broadcasts. During this time, RCA had a significant investment in those channels. NBC and RCA were intent on stealing FM technology and felt like it was alright to use the service without paying any royalties. It wasn’t until Armstrong’s passing that the golden years of radio began.

By the 1970s, radios were being made with the AM and FM options as the FM audience had become much larger than the AM listeners.