Radio: From the Beginning to the Evolution of Today's Technology

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Radio: From the Beginning to the Evolution of Today's Technology

Broadcast media has been around for many, many years and the grandfather of them all is the radio. The radio has been around for so long and has become such a prominent fixture in our society that we take it for granted. Every day many of us are exposed to some form of radio without realizing it. From the beginning of its technology, other forms of media have evolved also; television, wireless internet, and cellular phones, which most of us use daily. Something we do not think of is, where did it all start, whose idea was this to begin with, and what will the radio of tomorrow be like or will there even be radio in the future. I guess we will see.

What is Radio?

Many of us know what a radio is. We think it comes in your car, or when you buy a home stereo, only then it is known as a tuner, or how about those little radios that fit in your shirt pocket. Some of us work for companies that have company radios mounted in our company vehicles. However, what is a radio really?

According to Encarta Encyclopedia (2007), a radio is a "…system of communication employing electromagnetic waves propagated (transmitted) through space." The range of these waves varies from a few kilohertz to several gigahertz.

A normal radio communication system is made of two separate components, a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter emits an electrical fluctuation at a frequency known as the carrier frequency. Frequency modulation has more than just one pair of sidebands, which produces the variations that translate into the speech or any ot...

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...crosoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007. Retrieved December 8, 2007 from http://Encarta.msn.com/text_761569907_0?Radio.html

White T., (n.d.). Early government regulation(1903-1946). United States Early Radio History. Retrieved December 4, 2007 from http://earlyradiohistory.us/sec023.htm

Howeth, Captain L.S., (1963). From regulation to attempted government monopoly. History of Communications-Electronics in the United States Navy, Chapter 27, (p 313-318). Retrieved December 4, 2007 from http://earlyradiohistory.us/1963hw27.htm

Gordon, T., (January, 2006). Podcasting vs radio. Ezine @rticles. Retrieved December 12, 2007 from http://ezinearticles.com/?Podcasting-Radio&id=125224&opt=print

Barr, S., Barr, D., (2002). Four theories of the press. Retrieved January 11, 2008 from http://coolschool.k12.or.us/courses/190200/lessons/lesson3/fourtheories.html

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