Blog Post #5

 The radio is a very interesting technology. It was invented by Guglielmo Marconi but many people helped him along the way. While he is credited with the invention, most of the later improvements upon it were not his own.

Originally it could only transmit Morse code. Speech transmission was not added until later on. Marconi did not have the technical prowess to add speech transmission. However, Reginald Fessenden did. He was the man who brought speech to the radio. He was also the first person to transmit his voice via radio. This earned him the title of the father of radio.

Radio became prevalent very quickly. Universities started offering radio-based classes. Some churches were even doing radio sermons. The rise of radio happened almost overnight. Radios were projected to appear in every home in America.

Before the radio, the government did not have any sort of platform to speak to everyone all at once. The radio provided them this platform. They could make important announcements such as election winners, law changes, and Supreme Court case outcomes.

The radio was also used very prominently in WWII to communicate between troops and let people know if their loved ones died in the war. It was also used in this war as a way for generals to communicate with one another over long distances. The trouble came when enemies tried to intercept radio transmissions. This happened on all sides of the war so everyone involved started speaking in advanced codes.

    The positive of this technology is that it was the fastest way of communication at the time. It also enabled communication from a distance that was never before possible. Listeners could be in different states or, later on, even different countries. 

    The negative of the radio is that, in the war, enemies would use the radio to listen in on private wartime conversations with tactical plans embedded. This did not happen from any one party, it was going on all across the board. 

In conclusion, the radio is a phenomenal invention that changed the course of communication as we know it. Without the radio, we likely never would have invented modern technologies such as the smartphone and my mother would not be able to listen to iHeart Radio on her way to work in the morning.