The Radio

Despite having been invented in 1893 by Nikolai Tesla who demonstrated a wireless radio, it wasn’t until World War 1 that they really started having a purpose as they were used to contact ships out at sea, which was a great benefit to vessels in the water. World War 1 was when the usefulness of the radio was first shown. However, the military used it almost exclusively during World War 1 and it wasn’t until the roaring 20s that it became widely available and popular among civilians. Across the US and Europe, broadcasting also began to surface through radios and broadcasting stations such as KDKA and BBC emerged. People would also start making home-built radio receivers and companies began advertising. In Britain, radio broadcasting began in 1922 with BBC and the broadcasting quickly spread but failed to usurp newspapers until 1926 when the newspapers went on strike. This was when radios became the leading source of information for the public. In both the US and the UK, it became a source of entertainment in which gathering in front of the radio as a family became a common occurrence as even universitys began offering radio courses.

Here's an image of one of the earliest commercially-available radios.