History of Radio

The influence of radio in the early 20th century is the foundation of today's mass media. Although advancement of technology and industries helped shape radio in the early 1920's, I believe that the main forces that had a greater impact on the formation of radio was regulation and government intervention. 

When the importance of radio was first noticed in the early 1900's, the government knew that it had to protect and control this new medium. The Radio Act of 1912 was the first regulation of radio by the government, it placed the licensing of radio under the spervision of the Department of Commerce.  Regulation of the radio by the government prevented Marconi from creating a monopoly of his invention in the United States and Europe. This allowed the government to supervise the use of radio within the United States.The Radio Act of 1927 created the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) that standardized  the radio format. There would also be fines and consequences for those that did not follow the regulations set (Media Now, ch 6). 

Marconi invented the first "radio" in 1896 that uses radio waves to carry Morse code messages, its initial purpose was a wireless telegraph for business. After it was use to spread the news of the sinking of the Titanic, the government noticed how important radio was and how it could be used in the military, which lead to the creation of the Radio Act of 1912. After the radio was released back to public, the government only allowed certain companies to operate a radio transmitter by acquiring a license (Media Now, ch 6). Regulating the radio, either by the government (FRC) or other powerful companies like the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), has influenced the turn out of radio and how become the dominant medium in the 1920's.