COME HERE A MINUTE! I WANT TO TELL YOU SOMETHING!

Come here a minute! I want to tell you something!

Next year, 2010, radio will be hitting the big 9-0. That's right; it'll be 90 years old! Yeah, kiss me, I'm 90! When the first braodcast came out over KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsilvania, it was to present the election results that resulted in the election of William Harding as President of the USA. It was, of course, the first voice transmission heard in the USA...
Or was it?
Research indicates that the first audio broadcast sent to wireless listeners was in 1906 on Christmas Eve, when Roger Fessendon broadcast a special Christmas Eve broadcdast to the ships.
But it wasn't until 1920 that commercial radio began to take root. And that Election Night broadcast that year was the drop that started the deluge. And what sounds we've heard over the years: The War of the Worlds, the outbreak of World War II, D-Day, elections too numerous to mention, Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel," Lou Gherig's speech on July 4th., 1939, JFK's assasination, the Top 40 era with stations like WLS in Chicago and WABC in New York, the Cuban Missle Crisis and the heart-rending near holocaust in 1962, the Blizzards of many winters, Live Aid, the Olympics, Woody Herman's live concert....yes, and so much more.
Radio has changed a lot. From the tinny wireless sets to sophisticated stereo sound, FM radio, digital radio, and so much more. From Satellite to Internet, the world's radio stations sharing culture, music, news, sports, entertainment and propaganda.
And who could forget the shortwave radio stations like Radio New York International, Radio Moscow, the Voice of America, the BBC's General Overseas Service, HCJB in Ecuador, and so many more around the world? Exchanging national viewpoints with the rest of the world(notwithstanding their ideological differences, of course) became the norm as radio progressed.
There's so much more that we'll be talking about in this blog, but I've got a certified mail to run to the post office right now.