History of Radio

It is argued that radio is losing its value, especially with young people. However the media form radio has expaned massively over the past few years with the invention of internet and DAB radio, but how did it all start?

The first radio transmissions were in 1896 by Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), these were coded signals that reached approximately a mile. Marconi was an italian student studying at the University of Bologna. His inspiration for his work was from Hertz's theory and discovery of radio waves and signals, Marconi soon realised that radio waves could be used for sending and recieving data, information and messages.

However, voices on the radio did not emerge until 1921, again discovered by Marconi. There have been many disputes and court cases over who the actual inventor of the radio was, with many people suggesting Marconi was not the only man who made the discovery.

Nikola Tesla argued that he invented the 'radio' years prior to Marconi's discovery. Tesla had been experimenting with wireless telegraph and had invented a theoretical model for the radio in 1884. After many court cases for many years, it was finally renewed in 1943 that Nikola Tesla was indeed the inventor of the radio.

Radio is now a huge part of the media industry. There are more than 33,000 radio stations in the world and more than 2 billion radio sets being used. However, has the radio industry decreased as the television industry has been booming? Is the radio still as popular as it was?