Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 8, 1995 TAG: 9510090124
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GENEVA LENGTH: Medium
Little did Guglielmo Marconi know that his 1895 experiment would lead to discoveries that let parents monitor a sleeping baby in the next room, drivers open garage doors by remote control, and vast numbers of people reach out and touch someone on the other side of the world.
The telecommunication industry's quadrennial showcase, Telecom '95, took pause from high-tech wizardry Saturday to reflect on pre-radio methods of long-distance signaling - drums and fire - and on the humble birth of radio.
It's not clear exactly when the first radio signal was transmitted, but was sometime during 1895. The Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union decided Oct. 7 was as good a day as any to mark the 100th anniversary.
Even credit for the invention is disputed. The Russians claim it was their own Alexander Popov; the rest of the world attributes it to Marconi, who did his experiments at his father's estate near Bologna.
Marconi moved to Britain in 1896 and continued his work. He finally succeeded in 1901 in receiving signals in Canada that were transmitted from Britain.
Five years later, a radio program of two musical selections, a poem and a short talk was broadcast in the United States by Reginald Aubrey Fessenden from Brant Rock, Mass., and picked up by ships in the Atlantic.
Radio programming really began to develop after World War I. Then came television, radar and other inventions.
Today, no one knows the number of radio stations worldwide. The United States alone has 11,000 commercial radio stations and 1,000 television stations.
by CNB