The Growth and Influence of Radio Broadcasting in the Unite States

“The growth and influence of radio broadcasting in the United States is one of the most dramatic chapters in the history of communication. In less than three decades 90.7 percent of…families..have acquired radio receivers. This means 33,998,000 “radio homes” or about 130,000,000 potential listeners” (Bartlett). For countless years in the United States, Americans have turned on the switches of their radios, whether in their cars, in their homes, or in their workplaces, and they have been greeted with the sound of the most popular music at the time and radio hosts discussing the most controversial topics of the time. The radio has become a common household object in homes across America creating a culture of its very own. The use of the radio has made a significant impact in American culture from its early beginnings, to its amateur recreational use, to its professional broadcasting companies, and its use in connected the country as a whole.

The radio works because of sound waves being transmitted from one receptor to the next. Electrons moving through a wire create a magnetic field and when a second wire is placed next to the first the electrons are transmitted. The second wire is then able to turn the moving electrons into an electrical current which produces the same sound that created the moving electrons in the first wire (Gugliotta). Italian inventor, Gulielmo Marconi received the British patent for the radio in 1897. In 1901, Marconi discovered that radio wires did not have to be close to each other to work and that radio signals could be transmitted over very large distances. On December 13, 1901 Marconi successfully transmitted a radio wave 2,000 miles across the ocean from Poldhu, England to St. John’s, Newfoundland. U...

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