I heard it on my radio—

The technology behind the radio allows for mass communication without using wires. Nikolai Tesla lectured on wireless communication in 1893 in St. Louis, Missouri at the World’s Fair. His theories laid the scientific groundwork for the development of the radio as we know it today.

Marconi (with light hat) and members of the administration of Newfoundland, Signal Hill, St. John’s (MIKAN 3380817)

Guglielmo Marconi is the person most associated with the radio and he has ties to Canada. He tested his transmission equipment on Signal Hill, St. John’s in Newfoundland, 1901. His early successes spurred the use of radio for long distance messaging using Morse code. The technology was not able to transmit speech at the time. However, advances during and after the First World War provided both the military and civilians with access to radios that sent transmissions as recognizable speech.

Donald Manson, an employee of the Marconi Company (MIKAN 3193105)

Members of the R. A. Radio Acting Group (MIKAN 4297976)

Local stations and federal agencies were created such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and broke into the news, music, and entertainment realms from the 1920s to the 1940s. Mass media was here to stay. Radio gave way to television, and then to the internet. Despite these leaps and bounds of its technological siblings, radio technology is widely used today due to its easy access and reliability.

Female workers at the Dominion Arsenals plant relax and listen to a radio in their apartment, Québec, Quebec (MIKAN 3193885)

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