WEBVTT - The Golden Age of Radio 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.040 Get in touch with technology. It was tex Stuff from 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:14.040 dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:16.959 Jonathan Strickland and I am joined by a special guest, 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:19.680 my buddy Christian, who is here. Hey Jonathan, Hey Christian, 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:23.200 how you doing. I am good? Windy outside it is. 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:25.920 It's a little windy, a little rainy outside in Atlanta today. 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:28.760 It's terrible because this morning it was it was, it 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:32.080 was raining, but the temperature was about twenty degrees warmer. Yeah, 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:36.599 and it dropped significantly. I'm regretting my choice of jackets well, 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:39.440 especially because it was in the seventies yesterday. Yeah. Yeah, 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:42.240 And now this is this is Atlanta people complaining about 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:44.839 whether right. Yeah. Sorry for all of you who are 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:47.840 in Montreal or New York or you know, any place 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:51.919 where the temperature drops below, say zero, on a regular basis. 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:57.240 Here we're like, it's a little chilly, that's raining. Uh. Today, 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:00.480 Christian and I are going to talk about a subject 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:02.720 that was suggested by a listener, And first of all, 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:06.280 I must apologize to said listener because despite my heroic 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:09.800 efforts of researching where this suggestion came from, I couldn't 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:12.240 find it. So I'm guessing this was actually an older one, 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:15.960 but said the forward thinking, bad prediction story about Hugo 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:18.280 Gernsback got me thinking about how crazy it must have 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:20.639 been to have lived through the debut of public radio, 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:24.560 all the excitement and so little understanding, fireside chats, fearmongering 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:28.160 about radio death rays. A history episode about the promises 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:31.360 in popular notions surrounding radio could be fun and uh 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:34.800 so we wanted to talk about the dawn of broadcast 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:38.480 radio before we get into that. I should mention that 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.640 way back in April two thousand eleven, Chris Pallette and 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:45.400 I sat down and recorded an episode titled Who Invented 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:49.840 the Radio, which was mostly about the inventors who discovered 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:53.640 radio waves and found ways to generate radio waves, obviously 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:57.720 including the two big names Tesla and Marconi. Anyone who 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:00.880 knows anything about the patent wars knows about there was 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:04.400 a big kerfuffle between the two of those guys. Uh 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:07.960 little peek behind the curtain. That is the first time, 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:11.119 and I think the only time I have recorded an 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:15.840 entire episode and immediately said we can't use that, let's 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.640 do it again, or recorded it all over because the 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:21.400 ghost of Marconi was haunting you there was that, and 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.000 we had in the old studio we had a portrait 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:27.720 of Nicola Tesla on the wall. We felt judged, but 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:31.160 mainly Chris and I both felt that we gave such 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:36.040 a disjointed story that we were jumping around so much 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:38.200 that it made no sense. And so we we after 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:42.120 talking it through once we went back re recorded, so 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.240 that first episode that we recorded it's lost to time. 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:47.799 We don't have it anymore, at least I hope will 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:50.840 be more organized today. But I'll tell you just from 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.520 going through all this research that this is such a 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:58.600 vast amount of information for this period of time, and 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.639 I feel like it's in you can you can get 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:05.639 a PhD in radio communication in the history of radio 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:09.720 and understanding these things, and it's yeah, we will probably 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:13.640 only scratch the surface today. Ig Yeah, there there and 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:19.440 there's so many crazy dramatic stories of the trail of 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:23.920 of con men, of big media. It's like this pirate 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:28.400 industry of people just messing with each other. It's it's fascinating. 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:31.200 In fact, there there's probably two or three podcast worth 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.560 of information that we could cover, but we're gonna try 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:36.760 and get this in one if we can. So first 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:38.720 thing I got to mention is that radio and broadcast 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.320 radio are two different things. You know, radio in the 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:43.880 sense of what Tesla and Marconi were looking at, they 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:48.680 were looking at ways of transmitting short signals across distances 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:51.840 without using wires, so that was it. They were looking 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:54.560 largely at using Morse code. So they might use a 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:59.880 spark gap technology where they would create sparks and send 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:04.080 messages that way. But you couldn't really do a sustained 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.840 message that way without creating a lot of static and noise, 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:10.600 and that was a real problem. So we need to 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:14.960 look at another person for broadcast radio. That would be 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:19.640 a Canadian by the name of Reginald Fessenden, who essentially 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:24.680 invented a M radio that would be uh, the amplitude 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:29.239 modulated radio. And so from your notes here your notes, 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:34.520 it says he worked with Edison for Edison. Actually he 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:37.520 actually worked for both Westinghouse and Edison at different points 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.480 in his career. So yeah, he just like Tesla, Tesla 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:44.440 also worked for both, although you know, again working for 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.600 like it's like me saying that, you know, I worked 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:51.320 for the head of our parent company. Technically I do, 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:54.599 but I don't have any contact with them. So uh, 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:56.360 he had dropped out of school as a young man. 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.600 He actually did not complete his school work, but he 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:03.719 was mainly interested in electricity and this potential to transmit 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:07.480 messages wirelessly, and he was using that spark gap technology. 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:08.960 But that was the problem, was that it was creating 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:11.120 so much static and noise that it was very difficult 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:15.240 to get any intelligible message across. Yeah. So actually I 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.479 want to interject here for a second. So, um, in 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:23.240 like the model of human communication, when scholars are looking 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.480 at how human beings communicate with each other regardless of media, 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:33.479 they actually use uh this Fessenden Marconi uh model of 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.720 transmissions as like the baseline for it. And it's all 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:40.720 about like sending and receiving with feedback and feed forward 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:43.680 and then there's a signal to noise ratio. That's how 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:46.320 it's all understood, whether you and I are sitting here 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:49.960 talking in the same room, or it's mass media or 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.400 it's uh like like in the early days of radio, 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:55.800 that the way they literally thought of it was two 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:58.559 ships that were thousands of yards away from one another 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:02.000 trying to contact each other using this old radio technology, 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:04.360 and they would have so much static they would have 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:07.440 to constantly give each other feedback and feed forward to 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:10.400 make sure the message was understood. It makes perfect sense, 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:14.360 I mean, especially when you see the brilliance of Fessenden. 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.600 He thought, well, they I can. I can create these 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:21.080 sparks of electricity, create these electromagnetic fields and thus creating 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:24.719 radio waves, but it isn't giving me the fidelity I 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:28.279 need in order to communicate properly. He then thought, what 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:32.080 if I used a continuous wave. So I create a 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:37.680 sign wave and oscillating wave with the same amplitude, same frequency, 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.200 So it's just steady. Now that's not carrying any information 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:44.480 by itself. It's if you could if you could hear it, 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.200 it would just be a steady tone. But it's actually 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.559 talking about using frequencies above the limit of human hearing. 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:54.599 So let's say you create this wave, and then you 0:06:54.680 --> 0:07:00.200 were too introduce a second wave, one that was created 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:03.240 by your voice. So you speak into a microphone, it 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.400 gets converted into electric waves. You add that on top 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:10.240 of the uh the existing wave you've already created, and 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:14.800 you allow it to change the amplitude of that wave. 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:18.480 As the two waves are overlaid on top of one another. Sure, 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:22.440 it's genius. It is genius. It's absolutely genius. Uh. So 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:26.600 this was a M radio. This was the idea that 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:30.200 what that became a M radio because it does modulate 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:33.440 the amplitude of that wave. So the amplitude, by the way, 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:38.360 is the the peak to peak uh difference, Right, it's not. 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:40.920 It's not how many oscillations. This is just the the 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:46.560 amplitude of the wave itself, how tall the peaks are, 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:49.600 how low the troughs are, if you were looking at 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:53.720 the wave across a line the way. It's assuming that 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:59.120 this innovation of his significantly reduced the noise and static. 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.920 It did, it did. It did still have issues and 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:06.000 that you could have interference with other waves that were 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:09.960 created at that same frequency. It also meant that you 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:14.080 could get interference with other electromagnetic phenomenons, like like a 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:18.360 lightning strike. So also if you pass below, like if 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:20.640 you go under a bridge, you would hear, you know, 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:24.680 the disruption of the signal. So it wasn't perfect, but 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:30.720 it was an incredible step forward. And this was a 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:34.960 revolutionary I mean he tested it successfully. He did a 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:39.439 short distance test between two towers and it worked fine. 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:42.599 And then in nineteen o six he had his infamous 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:47.040 Christmas concert for sailors. See this is yeah, this is 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:50.360 where I think that that boat to boat idea comes from, 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:54.360 right yeah, Because it turns out the disaster of the 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:59.800 Titanic would end up really making this uh clear that 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:03.120 needed to be some radio communication for ships at sea. 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:05.120 But what he wanted to do was he wanted to 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:09.679 send out a message to essentially telegraph operators aboard ships. 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:13.480 That was his plan. So he proceeded the concert with 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:18.880 an actual telegraph message that essentially translates into hey, pay attention. 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:21.679 And then once he did that, he started it was 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:24.960 coming right. They were not, most of them. They just 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:28.440 knew to pay attention because I got yeah there. They 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:31.320 were like, well, here's the message. Whatever is going to happen, 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:34.000 We need to really focus. And so what they were 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:36.600 expecting to hear were just the noises they would hear 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:39.679 for the dots and dashes of Morse code. So then 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:43.880 he he gives a short speech, he plays a violin 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:47.319 uh and plays a Holy Night. There were supposed to 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:49.680 be other people who talked into the microphone too, but 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:51.920 most of them chickened out because they they got like 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:55.000 terrible stage fright because they realized all of a sudden 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:58.959 that they were speaking to like hundreds of people, right, Yeah, 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.040 And so anyway, it ended up being a big hit. 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:05.280 Sailors up and down the Atlantic coast we're we're able 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:07.960 to hear him and reported back to it. So it 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.280 was known to be a success, and that's how AM 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:16.560 radio got started. Yeah, yeah, I like that. Yeah, so 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:20.920 that's a nice start to it ends up being. Yeah, 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:26.080 so so he he demonstrates this capability, and immediately other 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:31.080 physicists and engineers start to experiment with it because some 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:33.600 of them had been independently working on the same kind 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:36.840 of idea. Fessendon ended up being the first to make 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:40.080 it really work in a public demonstration. So you had 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:42.640 a lot of other people who were who either adopted 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:46.280 his ideas or continued to develop their own ideas, and 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:52.679 a lot of amateurs were starting to experiment with radio transmissions, 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:57.640 including transmitting out to telegraph operators, who often were very 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.200 much entertained by this because it was different from just 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.480 listening to clicks on the headphones. This is the part 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:06.880 that's the most fascinating about the evolution of radio to 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:11.080 me is that even though the technology is ultimately made 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:14.360 for mass communication. People originally started using it as one 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:19.079 to one communication across long distances, replacing a telegraph. And 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:24.839 then uh, these amateur operators, these like d I y 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:28.920 uh people in their in their garage, is just you know, 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:31.480 tinkering around with the technology that they could get a 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.360 hold of. We're able to turn it into this mass 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:36.960 communication then yeah, And it's funny because when you look 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:39.760 at the early ones, obviously they were using very low 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:43.720 wattage transmitters, so that meant that they couldn't transmit very far, 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:46.480 most of them. I mean, if you were a big name, 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:48.480 you might be able to work with someone like General 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:52.120 Electric to get a really big transmitter and be able 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:55.280 to send a signal far away, because the signals reach 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:58.079 is largely dependent upon the power of the transmitter. Right. 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:00.320 The further way you get, the weaker the signal is, 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:03.120 and the less you'll be likely you are able to 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:07.199 pick it up with a receiver. So in the early days, 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:12.000 people were happy to experiment with this, and there was 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:16.080 really no regulation because there there hadn't been a demonstrable 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:19.800 need to regulate yet, because no one had the power 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:25.840 to interfere that much with anything that was important. Seven 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:28.880 Festan would invent a high frequency electric generator to create 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:32.200 radio waves in the Hurts frequency, which was really important, 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:36.679 and in night. Dr Charles Aaron Culver, who was newly 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:40.040 hired as a professor of physics at Beloit College or 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:48.920 bell Watt if you prefer um. It's it's in a 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:52.680 town called bell Watt actually um, but set up a 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:56.200 radio telegraph assembly which became the foundation for the college 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:59.160 is radio station, though voice in music transmission wouldn't be 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:01.559 part of it until the ninth twenties. But this this 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:05.800 became like again, it was someone a physics professor, in 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.240 this case, a physics professor who was already interested in 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:11.880 radio and had been working on it independently, setting up 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:16.080 a thing that would eventually evolve into an early early 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.920 radio station. Yeah, and that's kind of another interesting aspect 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.960 of this too, is that these early amateur radio stations 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:29.000 weren't just uh d I y kind of hobbyists doing 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:32.120 it on their own. A lot of it was educational institutions, 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:34.280 not just colleges but also high schools that were just 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:38.000 you know, trying to use it for educational purposes. And 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:42.640 that it's interesting later on what happens when amateur radio 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:45.160 sort of gets more regulated. It really reminds me of 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:48.760 the early days of personal computers and how how it 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:52.880 first started off as a hobbyist thing, and then you know, 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:56.720 you had bleeding edge adopters who might not build a computer, 0:13:56.840 --> 0:13:59.240 but they're curious about how they might use it. And 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:03.480 then later who had people who were uh you know 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.400 more it became more and more mainstream as time went on. 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:09.840 So we've seen other emerging technologies that have followed a 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:14.559 similar pathway to radio. Uh. Not always with the dramatics. 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:16.840 I mean, there were some definite dramatics and early personal 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:20.880 computers too. But we got some crazy stories to tell. 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.760 But first we have another big name in radio that 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:25.680 we have to mention. Yeah, so in nineteen ten, this 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:30.360 guy lead to Forest uh really broadcasted like the first 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:36.120 sort of broad meant for mass communication radio broadcast uh, 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:40.800 specifically of a guy named Enrico Caruso singing. I believe 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:44.160 it was opera singing from what I understood, UM, and 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:48.160 that he he ushered in this area era of radio communications. 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:52.600 And unfortunately, though even though he was broadcasting probably on 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:56.000 Fessenden's new system, for the most part it was static 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:59.320 and radio interference, so the audience barely heard anything. But 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:02.800 you know, for a decade afterwards, radio fans were both 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:08.280 using uh, these amateur radio units to broadcast and receive. Yeah, 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.360 it wasn't just them receiving. Yeah, it wasn't like they 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:14.960 were a passive audience. They were creating as well. And again, 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:19.360 depending upon the power of their radio transmitters. It maybe 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:21.720 that they were only transmitting to people in their general 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:26.280 neighborhood or even small town, but you wouldn't be able 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:28.520 to necessarily pick up that signal for much further. It 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:30.640 also depends on the quality of the receiver as well. 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.720 Like you could build a very simple a radio receiver 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:37.480 that doesn't even require a battery and as a crystal, 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:41.600 a very long antenna and some headphones and uh, you 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.200 can pick up radio signals if you're close enough to 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.080 a transmitter. Uh. And in fact, that's a fun project 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:48.960 to do. You can look up how to do that online. 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.080 So also in nineteen ten, the same time Leada Forest 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:54.240 was was experimenting with us, you had a guy named 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:58.000 Charles David Harold who opened a school that he called 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:01.280 the Herald College of Engineering and Wireless and he was 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:04.320 experimenting with wireless voice transmissions as early as nineteen o 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:08.240 nine and providing a thrill to telegraph operators who suddenly 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:10.720 were able to hear voices over the telegraph lines. Now 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:14.840 this is out in California, so he's surprising people out 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:18.040 there who normally they weren't expecting it at all, but 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.080 they loved it because he would imagine, this job is 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:25.360 a little probably very tedious. Yeah. So he actually started 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:29.720 setting up a regular broadcast time, like the first radio 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:32.920 programming in a way, And by nineteen ten he had 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:36.200 created this, uh, this program that would include reading out 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:40.640 news to telegraph operators. And his wife Sybil, got involved 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:43.880 and she started playing records that the description I said 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:46.200 was the kind of records young people like to listen 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:52.000 to back in nineteen Yeah, so playing records, So playing 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:58.120 music for these telegraph operators and holding the first radio contests. 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:02.240 And here's how already contest work. Back then, she would 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:06.159 instruct people listening to come by their house sign a 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:08.280 guest book with their name and where they were from, 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.600 and then they might win a little prize. Number seven. No, 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:15.560 wasn't calling number seven. Uh. And here's the coolest part. 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:19.280 I think this little amateur station. Eventually, over time in 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:25.080 ninety one would become kq W, and in nineteen it 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:30.760 would evolve into k CBS as then the CBS. Yeah, 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:33.240 I thought that was really interesting, especially like we'll talk 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.800 later about, CBS is sort of importance in the big 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:40.440 game of radio development. Yeah. So nineteen ten is also 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:43.320 when the US passed the Wireless Ship Act, which required 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:45.920 all ships of the US traveling more than two miles 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.679 off the coast and carrying more than fifty passengers to 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:52.359 have a wireless radio equipment on board with a with 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:55.720 an operator, and the transmission range had to be at 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:59.000 least a hundred miles. And that meant that it created 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:03.240 a lot more our radio transmissions broadcast without any regulation. 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:06.760 This is where the United States government starts to say, 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:09.560 this is going to become a problem because now we 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:11.560 we already have a lot of radio traffic going on 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:15.240 just through amateurs as well as ship to land land 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:17.880 to ship communication. Uh, it's starting to get a little 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:20.080 crowded and we're starting to get interference. We need to 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:22.760 figure out how to handle this. So in nineteen twelve 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:25.280 they passed the Radio Act of nineteen twelve, which is 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:26.879 good because if they had passed the Radio Act of 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:30.440 nineteen twelve, and like nineteen eleven, everyone would have been confused. Uh. 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:32.480 And it marked the first time the US government required 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:36.240 radio stations to be licensed. So the licensing was really 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:39.560 just to create order in chaos. Uh. And it was 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:43.080 really kind of like, you know, we want to make 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:46.359 sure that we're keeping certain frequencies free so that we 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:50.840 can have these these very important transmissions go uninterrupted because 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:55.240 am transmissions, if you transmit two things on the same frequency, 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:58.480 you get lots of interference, which is different from there 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.639 was a military on it too. This as well because 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:04.600 World War One was on the horizon, was happening, and 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:11.720 they the government banned amateur radio broadcasting during the war 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:14.399 for you know, the reason that they were trying to 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:18.400 transmit signals to one another of important nature. If somebody 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:22.400 was talking in their garage about uh, you know, their 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:25.840 favorite records or something or young people. Yeah, the ones 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:28.240 that the young people listened to, they would overlap and 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:30.520 they wouldn't get these important messages. So they shut it 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:34.600 all down. And also just radio detection to the the 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:39.359 remote possibility that they might detect radio transmissions from either 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:45.000 allies or enemies. It would mean that before they had Yeah, yeah, 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:47.760 this is this is before the whole Bletchley park On 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:50.440 Dygma thing, which is I've talked about that in the 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:53.719 previous episode of tex stuff. But fascinating story. So nineteen 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:58.159 fourteen Edwin Armstrong, who's going to be important throughout this conversation, 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:01.600 and his story is a ma using and tragic. Uh. 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:05.800 He patents a radio receiver circuit that increases the selectivity 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:08.600 which allows you to tune into specific frequencies and the 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:11.960 sensitivity of radio receivers. That means it was able to 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:16.160 pick up weaker radio signals than previous receivers. So selectivity 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:18.359 obviously very important. You want to be able to say 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:21.960 I'm looking at this particular band of frequencies and I 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:25.600 don't want anything outside of that um and we would 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.000 see that get better and better. In en he would 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:34.480 invent the super heterodyne radio receiver or superhead. So this 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:37.399 principle is actually really fascinating, and I gotta admit to you, 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:41.320 a Christian, I had to really sit down and read 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:43.200 this a few times to kind of get what was 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:47.399 going on. Yeah, because I mean this is radio electromagnetic 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:51.679 and radio broadcast I have a basic understanding of it, 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:54.160 but it does go well beyond what I studied in school. 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:56.400 And it took a while, but now I think I've 0:20:56.440 --> 0:20:58.400 got to explain it to me, because yeah, I'm more 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:01.560 of the on the side of the leg cultural examination 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:06.040 of radio, whereas like the technology of it escapes me sometimes, 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:09.680 So yeah, hit me. All right. Let's say, let's say 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:14.160 I want to transmit a radio signal at a high frequency, 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:16.720 so it's not going to interfere with anything else, but 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:21.399 that processing high frequencies is a little tricky, So you 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:25.040 might have a receiver that can process frequencies up to 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:30.320 I'm just gonna take an arbitrary number hurts. But I 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:34.840 want to transmit at five hundred killer hurts. If I 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:38.919 were to introduce that frequency to an oscillator tuned to 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:44.640 a different frequency, suddenly I would be able to receive that. Uh, 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:47.240 not just at the original frequency I transmit at, but 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:51.679 the difference between that and the oscillating one. So another 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:55.200 easy example, let's say they have an oscillating frequency at 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:59.320 a thousand killer hurts. Okay, that would mean that if 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:05.000 you use a receiver tuned to five killer hurts, killer hurts, 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:08.120 or two thousand five Killer Hurts. You would pick up 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:11.280 that signal and could process it. Okay, So and I'm 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:14.639 imagining that this is a process that's still used today. Yeah. 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:18.639 This is the principle of transmitting and and receiving with 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:20.959 a radios so that your radio doesn't have to have 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:25.159 as wide a spectrum. It's called interminute frequency. And it 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:27.159 took me a long time to figure out what was 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:29.440 going on. Is the oscillator that was throwing me off? 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:31.480 And then I realized, oh, the oscillators tuned to a 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:34.800 different frequency, and that's what gives you the broader range 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:38.600 that you can pick up. It's pretty fascinating. And again 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:42.239 Armstrong was absolutely brilliant coming up with this. Uh. And 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:45.119 then we move up to the nineteen twenties. Yeah, and 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:47.639 the twenties is when this educational stuff that I was 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:49.760 talking about earlier it really hits a boom. There was 0:22:49.800 --> 0:22:53.720 like more than two hundred educational organizations across the United 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:57.919 States of America that, uh, we're requesting broadcasting licenses so 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:01.879 that they could transmit, and whether they were using it 0:23:01.920 --> 0:23:04.920 as a an opportunity for their students to learn about 0:23:04.960 --> 0:23:09.200 the technology or to broadcast educational information, it didn't really matter. 0:23:09.560 --> 0:23:12.640 The unfortunate thing is that thirteen years later, by nine 0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:18.920 three or more of these educational institutions had folded and 0:23:18.920 --> 0:23:21.120 and basically it was because of and this is going 0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:23.320 to be a huge theme of this episode, because of 0:23:24.080 --> 0:23:28.120 ad based programming and stronger stations, commercial stations that were 0:23:28.119 --> 0:23:32.960 able to overlap their signal. Yeah, you essentially had not 0:23:33.080 --> 0:23:37.120 just the fact that the companies had more technological behind them, 0:23:37.240 --> 0:23:41.199 but that the government was favoring those over the educational ones. 0:23:41.840 --> 0:23:45.120 When we get into a little bit more about the politics, 0:23:45.320 --> 0:23:48.000 you're going to hear that repeated a few times, and 0:23:48.040 --> 0:23:51.600 it's it's a little upsetting, honestly. And I also i'd 0:23:51.640 --> 0:23:54.679 like to say, like, it's interesting because, despite whatever my 0:23:54.720 --> 0:23:58.239 political beliefs are reading. One of the articles that we 0:23:58.400 --> 0:24:01.360