Birth of public radio broadcasting

Birth of public radio broadcasting is credited to Lee de Forest. Chase's, p. 84, "Radio Broadcasting: 90th Anniversary. Jan 13, 1910. Radio pioneer and electron tube inventor Lee De Forest arranged the world's first radio broadcast to the public at New York, New York. He succeeded in broadcasting the voice of Enrico Caruso along with other stars of the Metropolitan Opera to several receiving locations in the city where listeners with earphones marveled at wireless music from the air. Though only a few were equipped to listen, it was the first broadcast to reach the public and the beginning of a new era in which wireless radio communication became almost universal."] A 1907 Lee De Forest company advertisement said, cquote| "It will soon be possible to distribute grand opera music from transmitters placed on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House by a Radio Telephone station on the roof to almost any dwelling in Greater New York and vicinity... The same applies to large cities. Church music, lectures, etc., can be spread abroad by the Radio Telephone."

First public broadcast

Date

On January 13, 1910, the first public radio broadcast was an experimental transmission of a live Metropolitan Opera House performance of several famous opera singers. cite web|url= http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/history/deforest.htm|title= Lee De Forest history|accessdate= 2008-06-24] cite web|url= http://www.nrcdxas.org/articles/who1st.txt|title= Radio's version of "Who's On First?"|accessdate= 2008-06-24] cite web|url= http://www.smart90.com/deforest|title= Television International magazine article - "Lee De Forest" - (1873 - 1961)|accessdate= 2008-06-24] cite web|url= http://learfielddata.blogspot.com/2006_01_08_archive.html|title= Today in History, Jan 13|accessdate= 2008-06-24]

Performers

The first public radio broadcast was performances of "Cavalleria Rusticana" and "Pagliacci". Riccardo Martin performed as "Turridu", Emmy Destinn as "Santuzza", and Enrico Caruso as "Canio". cite web|url= http://www.concertoperaboston.org/cavalleria.html|title= Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci|accessdate= 2008-06-24] cite web|url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CEFDE103FF937A25752C0A966958260&sec=&spon=|title= Sound; Out of De Forest and onto the air came music|accessdate= 2008-06-24] This wireless radio transmission event of the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso of a concert from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City is regarded as the birth of public radio broadcasting. cite web|url= http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/btfore.html|title= People and Discoveries|accessdate= 2008-06-24]

The New York Times reported on January 14, 1910, cquote|Opera broadcast in part from the stage of the New York City Metropolitan Opera Company was heard on January 13, 1910, when Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn sang arias from Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci, which were "trapped and magnified by the dictograph directly from the stage and borne by wireless Hertzian waves over the turbulent waters of the sea to transcontinental and coastwise ships and over the mountainous peaks and undulating valleys of the country." The microphone was connected by telephone wire to the laboratory of Dr. Lee De Forest. [Kane, p. 442.]

Equipment

Receivers

The few radio receivers able to pick up this first-ever "outside broadcast" are those at the De Forest Radio Laboratory, on board ships in New York Harbor, in large hotels on Times Square and at New York city locations where members of the press were stationed at receiving sets. cite web|url= http://books.google.com/books?id=nDD0DGXTJiYC&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=Birth+radio+broadcasting+Lee+de+Forest+%22Enrico+Caruso%22+&source=web&ots=IrJ1u-kMTq&sig=gSizzurAMZtIRX3Nyal4RljMg2k&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result|title= "On This Date: A Day-by-Day Listing of Holidays, Birthdays, and Historic," by Sandy Whiteley, p. 13 |accessdate= 2008-06-24] Public receivers with earphones had been set up in several well-advertised locations throughout New York City. There were members of the press stationed at various receiving sets throughout the city and the general public was invited to listen to the broadcast.

The experiment was considered mostly unsuccessful. The microphones of the day were of poor quality and couldn't pick up most of the singing done on stage. Only off-stage singers singing directly into a microphone could be heard clearly. The New York Times reported the next day that static and interference "kept the homeless song waves from finding themselves." ["Wireless Melody Jarred," The New York Times, Friday, January 14, 1910, page 2] Lee De Forest's Radio Telephone Company manufactured and sold the first commercial radios in the demonstration room at the Metropolitan Life Building in New York City for this public event. cite web|url= http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/TV_TL_COMP_2.html|title= A D V E N T U R E S in C Y B E R S O U N D|accessdate= 2008-06-24]

Transmitter

The wireless transmitter had 500 watts of power. It is reported that this broadcast was heard 20 km away on a ship at sea. cite web|url= http://165.29.91.7/classes/humanities/amstud/97-98/radio/1901.htm |title= 1901-1910: Radio's Big Beginning|accessdate= 2008-06-24] The broadcast was also heard in Bridgeport, Connecticut. cite web|url= http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/history/edpart4.htm|title= Taking the Crucial Step for Modern Technology|accessdate= 2008-06-24]

Other broadcasts

Early music transmission

* The very first transmission of music by radio is credited to one Dr. Nussbaumer of the University of Graz in 1904, however it was not to the general public. He yodeled an Austrian folk song into an experimental transmitter which was received in the next room at the university where he worked. He does not show in any standard reference works of science.

* Lee De Forest did a program of opera phonograph records from the Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1908. This was just an experimental stunt to other nearby hobbists and not considered a public broadcast. The general public had no access to receivers at the time. cite web|url= http://www.geocities.com/lyon95065/Radio.html|title= Who said Lee de Forest was the "Father of Radio"?|accessdate= 2008-06-24]

* When testing the radiotelephone for the Navy, Lee de Forest played patriotic phonograph music as the ships entered the harbor.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* "Chase's 2000 Calendar of Events", NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group, Inc. 2000, ISBN 0-8092277-6-2
* Kane, Joseph Nathan, "Famous First Facts," Fourth Edition Revised and Expanded, New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1981, ISBN 0-8242066-1-4