Episode 20 – Broadcast History and Concrète Musique
Todays Big Note happens in the last week of the 3MDR shockingly good radiothon, so I thought we would explore some Radio Broadcasting history. Here’s a snippet!
– On January 13, 1910, the wireless transmission of a live Metropolitan Opera House performance of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci across New York City was the first public radio broadcast. It was an experiment and publicity stunt conducted by inventor Lee de Forest to show that wireless telephony could send sounds not just Morse code. De Forest invented the Audion (pictured), the first effective device for electrical amplification, which became the standard radio tube. It was a triode, incorporating a grid that would modulate the maximum available current between a filament and a plate, amplifying telegraph and radio signals. He was allowed to set up his radio transmitter backstage at the Met and strung his antenna up on a long fishing pole on the roof. Public receivers were set up in several well-advertised locations in New York City, including the De Forest Radio Laboratory, ships in New York Harbor, and hotels in Times Square, that allowed the public to listen in through earphones. Though the quality of the microphones made it hard to clearly hear the performance on stage, it was reported that it was heard 20 km away on a ship at sea, and as far away as Bridgeport, CT approx 77 km away as the crow flies.…along with some more exploration of Musique Concrète in the last half of the program.
12:49 pm: Englishman In New York by Sting from …Nothing like The Sun
12:49 pm: Radio Blaster by Tom Lark from Brave Star
12:49 pm: Frequency On A Million by Kattimoni
12:49 pm: Radio by Charlotte Adelle
12:49 pm: Radio Silence by Thomas Dolby from The Golden Age of Wireless
12:49 pm: Radio On by Sophisticated Dingo
12:49 pm: Midnite Radio by Partimama
12:49 pm: Rebel Frequency by Nattali Rize
12:49 pm: Playin’ On The Radio by CheekyBoy
12:49 pm: You Can Walk, I’ll Game Boy by Stu Watts
12:49 pm: Dr. Who Theme [Original] by BBC Radiophonic Workshop
12:49 pm: This Is Fred Judd Here by F. C. Judd from Electronics Without Tears
12:49 pm: Suspended Motion by F. C. Judd from Electronics Without Tears
12:49 pm: Pump Up The Jam by Technotronics from Pump Up The Jam: The Album
12:49 pm: Zoot Allures by Frank Zappa from Zoot Allures
12:49 pm: Cat People by David Bowie from Cat People O.S.T.
12:49 pm: Searching by Pieter Nooten & Michal Brook from Sleeps With Fishes