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Irish Radio began broadcasting from a studio and office at 36 Little Denmark Street, now the site of the ILAC Centre in Dublin in January 1926. The transmitter was a 1.5 KW Marconi Q type, broadcasting on 390 meters from a hut in McKee Barracks beside the Phoenix Park. Irish Radio 1926-2011.
For the first time in Ireland, live radio will be captioned to allow access for the 17% of the Irish population with a hearing impairment. On Wednesday 11th May, 8-9am on RTE Radio 1 will be captioned and can be viewed on www.seewritenow.ie
This event is of particular interest to the 17% of the Irish population with a hidden hearing disability. The captions can also be viewed by those using English as their second language or for those working in a noisy environment, gym, factory etc
via @topgold
The Dread Broadcasting Corporation was set up towards the end of 1979,
shortly after Margaret Thatcher came to power. While the population at large
seemed to embrace the new capitalist mood, I recall that things remained
pretty bleak for the average black Joe or Josephine. Their sense of
exclusion was reinforced by the lack of black music on the radio: we were
expected to make do with the prescribed “specialist” titbits (amounting to
between two and five hours a week), even in the most densely populated
ethnic areas.
via http://www.wfn.org/story.html
The first extended broadcast of the human voice was transmitted through the air on December 24, 1906 from Brant Rock, Massachusetts. A Canadian engineer, Reginald Fessenden, had worked for Thomas Edison in his New Jersey Laboratory, and later became a professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
Fessenden was convinced that the “wireless telegraph”, which then carried only the sputtering dots and dashes of Morse code, could carry the human voice. The most common use for wireless at that time was communication with merchant ships at sea, directing them to ports where the cargo would bring the best price. The shipboard wireless operators were called “Sparks.”
An account by Fessenden’s wife, Helen, reports his historic transmission, as the Sparks on ships across the Atlantic heard what they had dreamed about — and thought impossible.
“…a human voice coming from their instruments — someone speaking… Then a women’s voice rose in song. It was uncanny! Many of them called their officers to come and listen; soon the wireless rooms were crowded. Next someone was heard reading a poem. Then there was a violin solo; then a man made a speech.”
The broadcast historian Eric Barnouw in, A Tower In Babel: A History of Broadcasting in the United States, reports that Fessenden himself played Gounod’s O, Holy Night on the violin. He also read from the Christmas story from the biblical book of Luke and played a phonograph recording of Handel’s Largo…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq1Iv3DkwVs
link to SDR station http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/