This invention [radio] brought people closer, brought entertainment to the doorsteps of homes … it contributed to the happiness and welfare of human society. — R. Parthasarathy

Stuff you might not know about radio

A brief history

• Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) is widely recognized as the father of radio as we know it. He received a patent for his "wireless telegraph" in 1896 in England.
  
  
• Marconi later discovered that radio waves traveled farther at night as they followed the curvature of the earth.
  
  
• Voice was first sent by radio waves in 1906, by American Reginald Fessenden, a disciple of Alexander Graham Bell.
  
  
• The first radio station in America, with the call letters 8XK, began operations in 1919—out of Frank Conrad's garage in Pittsburgh.
  
  
• FM radio made its first appearance in 1939.

By the numbers
204,395,100 The approximate number of people 12 and older in the U.S. and Puerto Rico who hear radio every day.
186,000 The speed, in miles per second, that radio waves travel.
700  The speed, in miles per hour, that sound waves travel. (A voice broadcast over the radio can be heard 13,000 miles away sooner than it can be heard at the back of the room where it originated.)
13,717  The approximate number of radio stations currently operating in the United States.
6,972  The number of new radio stations since 1970.
1,053  The approximate number of hours the average listener 12 and older hears radio each year.
48  The approximate number of different station formats.
Sources: Arbitron Ratings, The Media History Project, and the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) Chris Johnson Arbitron Ratings 9705 Patuxent Woods Drive Columbia, MD 21046-1521 1-800-638-7091

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