The Radio Centenary

Source: www.speakup.com.br

Language level: Pre-intermediate 

Standard: American accent

The Radio Centenary

On January 13th 1910 the De Forest Radio Laboratory transmitted the first public radio broadcast of a live performance from New York’s Metropolitan Opera House. Enrico Caruso and Ricardo Martin performed arias from Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. On the 100^th anniversary of this event, radio stations around the world continue to broadcast to millions of listeners. Experts predict the death of radio again and again; but radio not, only survives today, it prospers!

THE GREAT SURVIVOR

How has radio survived the introduction of television, then cable and satellite services, and, more recently, mp3 players, the Internet and Podcasts? US radio station owner Steve Keeney explains: “Radio re-invents itself. Today radio is more local and targets its audiences. For example, talk radio stations are also very popular because they let listeners express their views.”

THE PIRATE STATIONS

In the 1960s radio had an important role in the birth of pop culture. Teenagers around the world listened to the latest pop music on transistor radios, which they hid under their pillows from disapproving parents. This was the age of pirate radio and rebellion against laws that regulated transmissions. Today radio transmitters are so small that pirate FM stations broadcast illegally all over the world. London has over 20 illegal stations, including Shine 87.9 and Genesis.

LOCAL

Public radio stations NPR and the BBC, in the US and UK have also evolved: for example, the BBC has local stations in every region and city in Britain. The BBC remains very successful, with over 30 million people listening to its seven national stations every week. Tradition and innovation are very important at the BBC: while Radio 4’ The Archers in the world’s longest-running soap opera, it has over a million listeners each week using the BBC’s internet-based iPlayer. Listener Wendy Lee from Devon suggests: “Radio survives because it’s free. You simply turn it on and listen.”

Marconi and the Birth of Radio (no audio)

Guglielmo Marconi was fascinated by the work of German physicist Heinrich Hertz on electromagnetic waves. During a summer holliday in the mountains near Biella, Italy in 1894, he had the inspired the idea of suing Hertzian waves to communicate in the following months, he worked radio set. The first version transmitted a weak signal form the window of his laboratory to the end of the garden. His first real victory came beyond a hill at the bottom of his garden. The Italian government didn’t recognize the importance of Marconi’s invention, so he went to England to the Wireless Telegraph Trading Signal Company and introduced wireless telegraphy to the world. 


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