History of broadcasting History of broadcasting The first broadcasting of a radio transmission consisted of Morse code (or wireless telegraphy) was made from a temporary station set up by Guglielmo Marconi in 1895. This followed on from pioneering work in the field by Alessandro Volta, André-Marie Ampère, Georg Ohm, James Clerk Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz. The broadcasting of music and talk via radio started experimentally around 1905-1906, and commercially around 1920 to 1923. VHF (very high frequency) stations started 30 to 35 years later. In the early days, radio stations broadcast on the long wave, medium wave and short wave bands, and later
Guglielmo Marconi day during which the entire transatlantic path was in daylight. It is now known (although Marconi did not know then) that this was the worst possible choice. At this medium wavelength, long-distance transmission in the daytime is not possible because of heavy absorption of the skywave in the ionosphere. It was not a blind test; Marconi knew in advance to listen for a repetitive signal of three clicks, signifying the Morse code letter "S". The clicks were reported to have been heard faintly and sporadically. There was no independent confirmation of the reported reception, and the transmissions were difficult to