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The Later Dark Ages -- Radio is Born |
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| 1920 |
First commercial radio station -- KDKA, Pittsburgh Singer Vaugn De Leath originates "crooning," a method of singing that is adapted to match the limited range of early radio equipment. Until now, high soprano notes have often broken delicate transmitter tubes. The Theramin is invented. |
| 1921 | Second commercial radio station gets call letters. Record sales begin to decline. |
| 1922 |
First radio commercial. ASCAP demands royalties from radio stations. National Association of Broadcasters is formed to protect interests of radio industry. By the end of 1922, more than 200 stations were broadcasting. |
| 1923 | Bessie Smith's "Down Hearted Blues" (Columbia) sells 750,000 copies. |
| 1924 | Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown born in Vinton, Louisiana |
| 1925 | B.B. King born September 16, 1925 in Indianola, Mississippi. |
| 1926 |
US v. Zenith: Government defeat leads to period of "wave piracy". Bing Crosby records his first record, "I've Got the Girl". The first radio jingle: Wheaties. |
| 1927 |
Ralph Peer holds recording sessions on State Street in Bristol TN for the Victor company using the new electrical recording equipment made by Western Electric. The Bristol sessions have been recognized as "Big Bang of Country Music" that helped to launch the careers of the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, the first commercially successful modern country music artists. Radio Act of 1927 creates the Federal Radio Commission to address chaos and litigation involving radio. Automatic Music Instrument Co. of Grand Rapids (AMI) introduced the all-electric coin-operated phonograph, the "juke box," to replace coin-operated pianos, but few were built before 1934. |
| 1928 | Georg Neumann starts his microphone company in Berlin and begins production of the CMV3 "Neumann Bottle" condenser microphone. |
| 1929 |
Hero -- At the age of 14, Les Paul invents the electric guitar when he takes the stylus (needle) from his record player and jams it into the wood beneath the strings of an acoustic guitar. The sound from his guitar comes out of the phonograph and gives birth to the amplification required for rock and roll. Later that same day, Les was the first guitarist asked to "turn that damn thing down." First all-color talking picture. Magnavox develops the hum-bucking coil that reduced loudspeaker hum. Fats Domino born May 10, 1929 in New Orleans. Real name: Antoine Domino |
| 1930 |
Albert L. Thuras filed patent for the bass-reflex principle, and worked at Bell Labs on other designs significant in loudspeaker history. Country music becomes identified as the primary medium through which advertisers can reach rural audiences. |
| 1931 |
First elevator music as Empire State Building opens. EMI opens the largest sound recording studio in the world at Abbey Road in London. Alan Blumlein patents the "binaural" (stereo) recording method in England. First magnetic tape recorders built by Pfleumer and AEG. |
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