History of The radio
The radio became very popular in the U.S.* in the 1920s as more and more people started to buy them.
The first broadcast by a commercially licensed radio station, KDKA, went on air in Pittsburgh on November 2, 1920. That radio broadcast started a radio boom throughout the world. KDKA was started by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. Harry P. Davis, Vice President of Westinghouse, realized that the radio "was an idea of limitless opportunity." He saw the radio as a way to interact and communicate with large numbers of people over thousands of miles in an instant. NBC had their first broadcast on November 15, 1926, and it cost over $50,000!
In 1922, 60,000 houses owned a radio. By 1929, there were over 10 million radios in houses across America. Most people also had radios in Germany. The German government wanted their citizens to have access to the radio, so sometimes radio was broadcast in public places. This allowed a wider spread of propaganda.
*We are only focusing on the European/American part of WWII.
The first broadcast by a commercially licensed radio station, KDKA, went on air in Pittsburgh on November 2, 1920. That radio broadcast started a radio boom throughout the world. KDKA was started by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. Harry P. Davis, Vice President of Westinghouse, realized that the radio "was an idea of limitless opportunity." He saw the radio as a way to interact and communicate with large numbers of people over thousands of miles in an instant. NBC had their first broadcast on November 15, 1926, and it cost over $50,000!
In 1922, 60,000 houses owned a radio. By 1929, there were over 10 million radios in houses across America. Most people also had radios in Germany. The German government wanted their citizens to have access to the radio, so sometimes radio was broadcast in public places. This allowed a wider spread of propaganda.
*We are only focusing on the European/American part of WWII.