1920 in radio

1920 in radio details the internationally significant events in radio broadcasting for the year 1920.

Events

In January the first informal and spasmodic broadcasts in Great Britain are made by the Marconi Company from Chelmsford. These broadcasts include both speech and music.^[1]
Radio 2XG, which opened the previous year, is forced to close down after Lee De Forest moves the station from the Bronx (where it was licensed) to Manhattan (where it was not).^[1]
23 February to 6 March – The Marconi Company broadcasts from Chelmsford a series of 30-minute shows repeated twice daily. These include live music performances.^[1]
15 June – Dame Nellie Melba is the first professional artiste to broadcast in Britain.^[1]
20 August – Station 8MK in Detroit (now WWJ) is the first in the world to broadcast regularly scheduled news bulletins and religious shows. The news in compiled from reports supplied by the Detroit News.^[1]
27 August – Sociedad Radio Argentina airs a live performance of Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal from the Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires. Only about twenty homes in the city have a receiver with which to tune into the broadcast.
November – The broadcasts from Chelmsford cease after it is claimed they interfere with aircraft and ship communications.^[1] (See also 1922)

2 November – KDKA in Pittsburgh begins broadcasting as the first commercial radio station in the United States.
19 December – WBT in Charlotte begins broadcasting as experimental station 4XD.

14 January - George Herman, American journalist (d. 2005)^[2]
21 January - Peggy Lee, American singer, songwriter, composer and actress (d. 2002)^[2]
15 October - Robert Rockwell, American actor (d. 2003)^[2]

1 2 3 4 5 6 The Shell Book of Firsts, 1983. pp. 145–8
1 2 3 Cox, Jim (2008). This Day in Network Radio: A Daily Calendar of Births, Debuts, Cancellations and Other Events in Broadcasting History. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3848-8.