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Who Invented Radio ? Reginald Fessenden,
that's who! VERY IMPORTANT INTERNET and LIVE BROADCAST "DISCOVERY" - on Fessenden CLICK HERE AND LISTEN NOW First heard on BBC WORLD SERVICE Wednesday DECEMBER 21, 2006 ------------------------------------- "Let Distant Lands Converse" Programme To Mark
Fessenden's Broadcasting Centenary First Broadcast on BBC RADIO 3 - Saturday December 23, 2006
IF YOU MISSED THE PROGRAMME OR WANT TO LISTEN AGAIN CLICK HERE
BBC may support this link for up to 7 days i.e. till Friday, December 29, 2006 Just before Christmas 2006, Sean Street marked the centenary of one of radio's greatest events, the very first radio programme - by R.A. Fessenden from Brant Rock, Massachusetts, USA on Christmas Eve, 1906. Let Distant Lands Converse attempts to recreate Fessenden's broadcast, which included a violin rendition of "O Holy Night" and a record playing Handel's "Largo". The title is taken from the inscription on Canadian Reginald Fessenden's grave - "By his genius distant lands converse and men sail unafraid upon the deep". Radio 3 paid tribute to an unsung hero and marks the centenary of a historical event. On Christmas Eve 1906, Reginald Aubrey Fessenden transmitted THE FIRST PLANNED RADIO PROGRAMME. Sean Street investigates the story of the broadcast from Brant Rock, Massachusetts, of a speech, a gramaphone record and a live violin solo. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you find yourself at your computer around 1:00 p.m. Boston time (five hours behind GMT i.e. 18:00 GMT) on Christmas Eve afternoon and/or New Year's Eve afternoon and you have a moment or two to spare, you're most welcome to tune into our broadcasts by clicking on "Listen Live!" on the homepage of the WATD-FM website at http://959watd.com The village of Brant Rock, from which we'll be broadcasting, is on the coast in the old Colonial town of Marshfield, located on Massachusetts' south shore between Boston and Plymouth. The town's favorite son is Daniel Webster, who served as Secretary Of State in Lincoln's cabinet. Coincidentally, one of Professor Fessenden's ancestors was Lincoln's Secretary Of The Treasury. BY SCOTT WHEELER - SPECIAL TO "THE ENTERPRISE" MARSHFIELD -- One hundred years ago this Sunday night, as the South Shore lay still beneath a starry sky and a blanket of snow, a stout, Canadian inventor at an experimental station on the shore near Brant Rock put down his everpresent cigar, turned a few dials, took his place in front of a primitive microphone and calmly began the first radio broadcast in history -- the broadcast that changed the world. For ten or fifteen minutes this brilliant gentleman, known to his colleagues as "The Professor", spoke into the mike in cultured tones, played an Edison recording of an aria by Handel, sang and played "O Holy Night" on his violin and read Christmas passages from the Bible. While he performed, a transmitter fed the signal into a colossal steel tower looming 440 feet over Brant Rock Village.
While the station's powerful generator roared and the tower's guy wires strained against the winter wind, the revolutionary antenna atop the tower broadcast the inventor's voice and his music 4,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean into the ears of astounded Marconi telegraphers on shipboard, none of whom had ever before heard anything through their headphones except the shrill dots and dashes of Morse code. By the end of the Professor's performance, ships up and down the Atlantic seaboard were abuzz with excited talk about the high-tech miracle the radio men had just witnessed and the phenomenal possibilities it opened. In one swift stroke on that crisp December night, Reginald Aubrey Fessenden became the world's first voice and music broadcaster, first radio disc jockey and first live radio music performer, but in truth he had accomplished far, far more, he had invented radio broadcasting itself. On Sunday afternoon, December 24, 2006, a dedicated group of Fessenden enthusiasts, including radio professionals and amateur-radio enthusiasts from around the country, will gather at the Blackman's Point trailer park in Brant Rock, the former site of Fessenden's wireless station, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his historic Christmas Eve broadcast. Local radio station WATD-FM (95.9) will broadcast live from the site from noon to 3:00 p.m. and radio "hams" will exchange greetings with their fellows in America and Europe, using a new, 40-foot-tall replica of Fessenden's long-gone broadcast tower.
At 18:00 GMT, WATD will stage a live re-enactment of Fessenden's historic 15-minute voice-and-music broadcast, written and performed by Rockland resident Scott Wheeler, a former staff writer for "The Enterprise". On Sunday afternoon, December 31, 2006, at 18:00 GMT, WATD will present "First King of the Microphone," Scott Wheeler's one-hour documentary on Fessenden's phenomenal life and work. The program will include interviews with a number of radio professionals and educators from the USA and Canada, including former Boston radio celebrity Arnie "Woo Woo" Ginsburg, who lived on Fessenden's street in Newton as a child. Ginsburg credits Fessenden as the chief inspiration for his decision to pursue a career in broadcasting. |
