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Important Dates in the History
of Radio & Television
- 1877 June 4: Patent application for the variable resistence carbon microphone filed by Emile Berliner.
- 1893 Feb: Genius inventor Nikola Tesla lectured on the principles of 'wireless
telegraphy'
[broadcast radio] at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, PA.
- 1893 March 1: Genius inventor Nikola Tesla first publicly demonstrated
radio by transmitting electromagnetic energy without wires, at a meeting of the
National Electric Light Assn. in St. Louis, Missouri.
- 1896: Genius inventor Nikola Tesla
built his first working radio transmitter & receiver devices (five years before Marconi).
- 1900 Aug 25: Russian scientist Constantin Perskyi coined the term 'television' in a paper read in Paris, France,
to describe still photographs transmitted over wires.
- 1900 Dec 23: Reginald A. Fessenden of Canada broadcast the first known transmission of the human voice over
the radio, for a distance of about one mile.
- 1901 Dec 12: First transmission of a radio signal across the Atlantic, sent from Poldhu, Cornwall, U.K. and
received by Guglielmo Marconi at St. John's, Newfoundland.
- 1902 Dec 17: First eastward transmission of a radio signal across the Atlantic, sent from Marconi's transmitter
station at Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada.
- 1906 Dec 24: Canadian physicist Reginald A. Fessenden made the first transmission of pre-recorded music over the radio, from Brant Rock, MA – the potential
audience was radio-telegraph operators aboard ship in the Atlantic Ocean – he is considered the first 'disk jockey'.
- 1907 Oct 17: Guglielmo Marconi began limited commercial wireless telegraph service between Nova Scotia and Ireland.
- 1911 March 24: Birthday of animator Joseph Barbera.
- 1919 Oct 17: Creation of the Radio Corporation of America.
- 1921 Jan 2: First U.S. radio broadcast of religious services, of the regular Sunday services of Calvary Episcopal Church on K.D.K.A. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
- 1921 Oct 5: First broadcast of baseball's World Series on radio.
- 1922 June 14: Warren G. Harding became the first U.S. President heard on radio, as Baltimore station WEAR aired
his speech dedicating the Francis Scott Key Memorial at Fort McHenry.
- 1923 Dec 6: The first radio broadcast of a presidential address, of President Coolidge speaking to a joint session of Congress.
- 1924 Feb 8: First coast-to-coast radio broadcast.
- 1924 Feb 12: The first radio speech broadcast by a U.S. presidant, by President Coolidge.
- 1924 Feb 22: President Coolidge delivered the first radio speech broadcast from the White House.
- 1926 Sept 9: The National Broadcasting Company was founded by Radio Corporation of America.
- 1926 Nov 15: Launch of the National Broadcasting Company, with a network of 24 radio stations.
- 1926 Dec 25: Prof. Kenjiro Takayanagi of Japan displayed a rough image transmitted electronically on a cathode ray tube.
- 1927 April 7: First successful public transmission of a long-distance television image, that of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover.
- 1927 Sept 18: Launch of the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System [later CBS] with a network of 16 radio stations.
- 1927 Sept 23: Invention of electronic scanning devices for television broadcast and receiving by
Philo T. Farnsworth.
- 1928 Dec 23: National Broadcasting Company set up a permanent coast-to-coast radio network.
- 1932 Dec 25: The British Broadcasting Company inaugurated the Empire Service {forerunner of B.B.C. World Service). King George V gave the first royal broadcast to the
Empire, written by author Rudyard Kipling.
- 1933 Jan 30: First broadcast of the "Lone Ranger" radio program, over station WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan; the radio series ended 3 September 1954.
- 1934 June 19: The Federal Communications Commission was created, replacing the Federal Radio Commission.
- 1934 Aug 25: First public demonstration of electronic scanning television by Philo T. Farnsworth at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, PA.
- 1935 Dec 19: First public demonstration of F.M. radio, by American inventor
Edwin Howard Armstrong.
- 1936 Nov 2: The British Broadcasting Corp. began 'high definition' television service from Alexandra Palace in London.
They also broadcast the first television news that same year.
- 1938 Oct 30: Orson Welles's notorious "War of The Worlds" radio hoax, aired over the C.B.S. Network.
- 1939: R.C.A. began selling the first commercial television receivers.
- 1939 July 18: First broadcast from a commercial FM radio station, in Alpine N.J.
- 1939 Aug 16: First major league baseball games shown on television, over experimental station W2XBS – a double header between the Cincinnati Reds and the
Brooklyn Dodgers.
- 1940 Feb 12: Debut of weekly radio program "The Adventures of Superman", starring Bud Collyer.
- 1941 July 1: First ever TV ad, for Bulova Watches, on W.N.B.T. New York City.
- 1943: The U.S. Supreme Court found that
Nikola Tesla was the inventor of wireless radio, based on the
1893 publication of his lecture at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- 1943 Oct 14: Radio Corporation of America completed sale of its NBC Blue Network for $8 million to businessman
Edward J. Noble; soon renamed the American Broadcasting Company.
- 1946 Oct 30: R.C.A. publicly demonstrated an all-electronic system of color TV, on a 15x20-inch screen.
- 1947 Jan 22: Station W6XYZ in Los Angeles, CA changed call letters to KTLA-TV 5, the first commercial TV west of Chicago.
- 1947 Oct 5: President Harry S. Truman delivered the first televised White House address.
- 1948: The United States leaped from fewer than 200,000 TV sets to 975,000 TV sets by the end of the year.
- 1948 Feb 16: First nightly television news broadcast, "The Camel Newsreel Theatre" on NBC-TV, showing Fox-MovieTone
newsreels narrated by John Cameron Swayze.
- 1948 June 8: Debut of "Texaco Star Theater" on NBC-TV starring Milton Berle.
- 1949 Jan 31: Debut of the first network daytime 'soap opera' television program "These Are My Children" from the
N.B.C. afffiliate station in Chicago, which lasted only four weeks.
- 1949 Sept 15: First broadcast of the "Lone Ranger" television program, over the A.B.C. network; the last new episode of the TV series aired 6 June 1957.
- 1951 June 25: First commercial color television broadcast - CBS transmitted a one-hour special program from New York City to four other cities.
- 1951 Sept 4: First live, coast-to-coast television broadcast as President Truman
addressed the nation from the Japanese peace treaty conference in San Francisco, CA.
- 1952 Jan 14: Premiere of NBC's "Today Show" with Dave Garroway as 'communicator' (host).
- 1952 April 22: The first nuclear explosion shown live on network television, as a 31-kiloton bomb was dropped to the Nevada desert from a B-50 Superfortress.
- 1952 Sept 6: Canadian television broadcasting began in Montreal, PQ.
- 1953 March 19: Academy Awards ceremony televised for the first time.
- 1953 Dec 17: First national broadcasts of R.C.A./N.T.S.C. color television, on C.B.S. at 6:15 pm and on N.B.C. at 6:30 pm.
- 1954 Jan 1: N.B.C. broadcast the Pasadena Rose Parade in color on 21 stations.
- 1954 March 9: The "See It Now" (CBS News) program televised a report {[video 25:50]} produced
by Fred Friendly and hosted by Edward R. Murrow that exposed the 'hysterical disregard for the Constitution' of
Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy using his own speeches and statements.
- 1954 April 6: Four weeks after Edward R. Murrow's on-air exposé,
Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy delivered a filmed response
{[video 26:35]} on "See It Now" (CBS News) charging that Murrow had in the past "engaged in
propoganda for Communist causes".
- 1954 April 13: Murrow ended the next week's "See It Now" program with a rebuttal to McCarthy's false accusations
{[video 6:31]}.
- 1954 Sept 11: First network broadcast of the Miss America Pageant on A.B.C.
- 1954 Sept 27: Debut of NBC's 'Tonight!' show, hosted by Steve Allen.
- 1954 Nov 25: First coast-to-coast live broadcast of a comedy/drama – and it was in color! A 1-hour live episode of Lux Video Theatre,
"A Medal For Benny", adapted by S.H. Barnett from the 1945 movie
co-written by John Steinbeck & Jack Wagner;
directed by Buzz Kulik; starring Rick Jason, Anne Bancroft & J. Carrol Naish
- 1955: First nationally-televised Emmy Awards Show, hosted by Steve Allen.
- 1955 Oct 3: Premieres of "Captain Kangaroo" on the CBS-TV Network and of "The Mickey Mouse Club" on the ABC-TV Network.
- 1956: Indoor TV antennas, called 'rabbit ears', went on the market.
- Fall 1956: First wireless remote control for televison sets introduced - the Zenith Space Command.
- 1956 Oct 29: "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" news program premiered as NBC's nightly tv news broadcast, replacing
"The Camel News Caravan" (which began in Feb 1948).
- 1959: With only three national TV networks in the U.S., there were 48 primetime Western TV series on the air.
- 1959 Oct 2nd: Debut of Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone" TV series on the C.B.S. Network; the original series ran thru 1964 and was revived 1985-89 and again 2002-2003. Yet another revival begins on CBS All Access in April 2019.
- 1960 Oct 1: Debut of the "Flintstones" prime-time TV cartoon series from Hanna-Barbera.
- 1961 April 29: Jim McKay began working as the first host of the "ABC's Wide World of Sports" program.
- 1961 May 9: Television programming condemned as a 'vast wasteland' by F.C.C. Commissioner
Newton N. Minow in a speech at the National Association of Broadcasters.
- 1962 April 24: Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieved the first satellite relay of a television signal, between Camp Parks, California and
Westford, Massachusetts.
- 1962 September: ABC TV Network began broadcasting color programs.
- 1967 Sept 9: Debut of the comedy program "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" on NBC; the pilot and 140 episodes were broadcast, ending in March 1973.
- 1970 Sept 21: "NFL Monday Night Football" debuted on ABC-TV.
- 1971 Sept: Implementation of the F.C.C.'s Prime Time Access Rule that restricted the amount of network programming that local television stations owned by or affiliated with a network could air during 'prime time'; the policy was repealed in 1996.
- 1974: Two-thirds of U.S. homes had color TV sets.
- 1976 Dec: Media mogul Ted Turner originated the 'superstation' cable channel concept
by transmitting via satelite from WTCG-TV in Atlanta, Georgia; Turner Broadcasting was
later sold to Time Warner.
- 1979 Sept 7: Launch of cable TV network E.S.P.N. (Entertainment & Sports Programming Network).
- 1980 June 1: Debut of C.N.N. {Cable News Network}.
- 1991 Dec: Ted Turner named Time Magazine's Person of The Year (first such for a media figure).
- 1996 Oct 10: Time Warner purchased and merged with Turner Broadcasting.
- 1996 Oct 17: Launch of the Fox News Channel.
- 2000 Jan: A.O.L. {America Online} purchased and merged with Time Warner (announced January 10, filed February 11);
company name was changed to AOL Time Warner.
- 2003: Drastic changes in internet business created gigantic loss in A.O.L.'s value; power shift at AOL Time Warner included dropping AOL from company name.
- 2009 June 12: The end of analog television broadcasting in the U.S., the final switch-over to digital broadcast TV.
- 2009 Dec 2: Cable giant Comcast announced its offer for 51% ownership of NBC-Universal broadcast TV network. NBC Universal is valued at $30 billion; Comcast offered
parent General Electric $6.5 billion in cash and $7.25 billion in assets to offset $9.1 billion in debt to third party lenders.
- 2010 Jan 22: Progressive radio network Air America [est. March 2004] ceased operations and filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy, due to incompetent management.
- 2010 Oct: Public television station K.C.E.T. in Los Angeles, California announced its intention to pull out of the
P.B.S. affiliate ranks at year’s end after 40 years as a flagship West Coast outlet & producer for the network.
- 2014 Feb 13: Cable giant Comcast offered to buy Time Warner Cable for $45 billion.
- 2014 Dec 21: The Fox News Channel decided to play hardball and not negotiate for renewed carriage on the Dish Satellite Network, so when the contract expired, Dish removed Fox from its scheduling. Fox's audience dropped 45% (1.65 million in 2013 versus 939,000 same week in 2014). By year's end, Fox had promoted 20,000 telephone calls threatening to cancel the callers' Dish subscription. But Dish doesn't much care about that, since the satellite service has 14 million subscribers (and 25,000 U.S. employees).
- 2015 April: Norway announced that it will switch off its nationwide analog radio dial; the plan is to go completely digital, using Digital Audio Broadcasting technology, in January 2017.
- 2017 April 19: Fox News Network’s biggest star Bill O’Reilly ('The No-Spine Zone') was fired over the multiple recent allegations of sexual harassment against him.
JM's detailed chronology of U.S. television history
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