[Swprograms] Fessenden: King of the Radio Waves

["Richard Cuff" <rdcuff@xxxxxxxxx>]

>From the BBC Press office.

Times shown at the bottom are for the Europe stream.

Richard Cuff

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Discovery - Fessenden: King of the Radio Waves

The world's first radio broadcast took place a hundred years ago on
Christmas Eve 1906. The broadcast, a programme of live music, readings
and phonograph recordings, was transmitted to ships in the Atlantic
Ocean by Reginald Fessenden – a prolific inventor largely forgotten by
history.

Presenter Richard Hollingham traces the events of the world's first
radio broadcast in Discovery - Fessenden: King of the Radio Waves on
Wednesday 20 December.

In the early 1900s, people communicated by radio using Morse code.
Fessenden, a Canadian rival of Marconi, decided to broadcast a voice
message. His invention of AM radio was years ahead of its time.

On 24 December 1906, radio operators at sea were startled to hear a
voice coming over their receivers. Before the word broadcast had even
been invented, they heard a mix of speech with live and recorded music
– including a rendition of 'silent night'. However, Fessenden's
innovation failed to take off commercially and it wasn't until the
1920s that the massive potential of radio for entertainment was
realised.

Fessenden originally planned to broadcast across the Atlantic to
Scotland. With considerable effort, masts and equipment were built at
the small hamlet of Brant Rock near Plymouth, Massachusetts and at
Machrihanish on the west coast of Scotland. When, at the last minute,
a storm destroyed the Scottish installation, he decided to broadcast
to ships at sea instead.

Presenter/Richard Hollingham, Producer/Georgie Robinson

Broadcast Times:        Discovery : 1 programme x 25 minutes
 Wednesday 20 December, 1230
 Listen online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/index.shtml
 Contact:  tel: 020 7557 2941

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