SUBMITTED BY: JC Knowles
In 1901 and 1902, the man some consider “America’s Greatest Radio Pioneer,” Reginald Fessenden, was conducting successful experiments on Roanoke Island, North Carolina.
As a young man Reginald Fessenden secured a job as assistant tester at Thomas Edison’s laboratory in New York. He became chief electrician at Westinghouse and taught at Purdue and the University of Pittsburgh.
Fessenden’s work with the crude wireless telegraphy of Hertz and Marconi prompted the U. S. Weather Service to sponsor an experimental station on Roanoke Island, North Carolina. After less than two years of work, Fessenden broadcast from Manteo to Hatteras a telegraph key signal, musical notes, and eventually voice communication.
In 1906, he made the first radio broadcast of speech and music, launching a new era in communication.
