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BBC World Service 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

Listen on demand:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/meta/tx/nb/discovery_au_nb.asx