World Radio Day

To many, it's become passé. You likely have one -- somewhere. Maybe on your phone or in your car.

Yet you might roll your eyes at it, and that's a shame.

It's February 13th, and it is World Radio Day.

Oh I know. Radio. Just audio. No pretty pictures.

The technology that emerged from the second half of the 19th Century, and to which we truly don't have an answer as to who invented it* was the dominant technology of the first half of the 20th Century.

*The accepted answer is Guglielmo Marconi, but Reginald Fessenden, Lee De Forest and others can claim a certain level of ownership.

By the 1920's, radio was exploding in the United States, and the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) was founded in England in 1922.

For the record, sports broadcasting became a reality by 1921, with the first baseball game hitting the air on KDKA (Read my post "Thank You, Mr. Arlin" for more).

While TV would bubble through the 30's and begin nosing out radio after World War II, and movies gaining sound in the 20's, radio continued to soldier on.

Virtually everything prior to 1950 was found out via radio. All of World War II, FDR's presidency (and death), and countless radio shows (like "The Shadow") were heard on the radio.

"War of the Worlds" was on the radio.

Even now, it still can work in concert with TV (and the internet) to give us the information that we need.

Think about it: on the night of Superstorm Sandy, myriad Greenwich residents found themselves without power. Thus they fired up their battery-operated radios, set their AM dial to 1490, and listened to me, as well as Jim Campbell and Tony Savino.

The radio is what I reach for in the same spot.

Obviously, I can't watch a video in the car either while I drive.

The game has changed even more than ever, with satellite and the internet thrown into the mix.

The truth is the term "radio" has become as generic as all bandages being "Band Aids®." Pandora, Spotify, Apple, Tidal, and other streaming services will often use the term "radio," when in fact there's nothing "radio about them.

But we're still listening. News, music, sports, talk, weather, and traffic, are just part of the stew being served up every day on stations both terrestrial and otherwise.

My satellite radio service shut down last week after my subscription expired. While it's not exactly a "first world problem," it still opened up other doors for me. I'm climbing into the podcasting world a bit more, with the addition of the "Ron Burgundy Podcast" and "David Tennant Does a Podcast With..." among the things that are interesting me.

Soon, the sound of baseball will be heard from my radio, and you can be quite sure that if I decide to "mute" a game on YES, that John and Suzyn will be a possible backup plan.

I love TV. I love video. But there's still magic in audio.

The foundation of who I am as a broadcaster is in radio.

I'm still very "ga ga" for it (and listen to WGCH).

Happy World Radio Day.