Kevin Happy Taco Tuesday, everyone! It’s not just Taco Tuesday, today’s another observance in honor of what’s become a lifesaving technology: National Radio Day 2024.
National Radio Day got its start in the 1990s, but there’s no final authority who specifically says it started on ABC or XYZ date, according to the official website. Regardless of whether or not that final authority spells it out, National Radio Day is important, both on a local and global scale.
Radio technology evolved throughout the 19th century, but it was experimental up until the 1910s and the 1920s, when the technology made radio accessible to the general public. I go into this a bit more in depth over in my post about AM radio, if you’re interested. No pressure, though!
In that time between experimental broadcasts and AM radio, there was the telegraph, and spark-gap technology. Fun fact: the Titanic had this on board, and when the Titanic sank, it went from luxury to a standard on ships at the time thanks to the Radio Act of 1912. It’s a sad statement about society when it takes a tragedy like the Titanic sinking to make even basic safety available to passengers onboard a ship.
That being said, several years after the Titanic sank, radio broadcasting became a thing, and it was AM radio. But, up until the early 1920s, this radio station, then known as 9XM, broadcasted in Morse Code, much the same as the Marconigrams did. It wasn’t until the late 1910s that this same radio station successfully transmitted both spoken word and music.
Spark-gap technology became obsolete, and radio, both AM and eventually FM after World War II, took off to become commonplace for news and entertainment beyond the newsreels and films in theaters prior to the advent of TV.
Even though radio has proven itself a lifeline, there’s the possibility for someone to come along and misuse it for their own super sus personal gains. Case in point? Third Reich-era Germany. The regime treated the citizens of Germany and Reich-occupied countries to a steady diet of propaganda to advance its’ heinous worldviews.
It’s the same way every other fringe/extremist group out there abuses and misuses technology today, and it’s shameful that some ppl out there do this.
However, it’s important to remember that even though there are fringe lunatics out there who abuse it, they’re outliers and not the norm. Many radio stations are now 100 years old, like the station formerly known as 9XM, and I hope they’re here to stay forever. Other stations are new to the scene, but either way, it makes the radio a valuable tool and a source of entertainment all the same.
On a more personal note, the radio was something I listened to as a kid, mainly in my room, but sometimes also on the front porch. We didn’t have cable, only network TV, so beyond the network TV channels, books, drawing, and playing outside, the radio it was.
Over the years, I drifted to different stations beyond the top 40 country station, but would always come back to the classic country stations at the end of the day.
Now? My favorite thing in the summer is listening to baseball games on one of the AM stations, and also the classic country station. It’s fun to listen to the classic country station while riding my bike home from the pool in the early evening hours. I also love listening to it on the bus rides on the bus to my summer job, whichever location it takes me.
It’s hard to describe, but there’s something about listening to the classic country station on the bus going down the freeway as the sun comes up next to us that’s so much fun. I feel like it takes me back in time to the 1980s or something, when these songs were the hottest thing since fire.
To celebrate National Radio Day 2024, I’m planning on listening to the baseball game when I get home from my day job. Otherwise, it’ll be the classic country station on the way home, since the AM stations run a ton of interference on the bus.
Over to you, readers. What are your favorite stations to listen to? How do you plan to celebrate National Radio Day 2024? Got any fun facts about the history of radio, or the mechanics of it to share? I’d love to hear all about it, so drop it like it’s hawt, and let’s talk!
