18962 June, Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi applies for first British "wireless" patent
1906
24 December, first radio programme (music and speech) broadcast by Professor Reginald Fessenden from the US coast and received by ships. The first radios were crystal sets, operated by adjusting metal wires known as cat's whiskers
1920
15 June, Marconi broadcasts a concert by opera singer Dame Nellie Melba
1922
18 October, BBC (British Broadcasting Company) founded
14 November, first BBC broadcast made - the six o'clock news read by Arthur Burrows
1923
26 April, first daily weather forecast by the BBC
1926
24 January, launch of The Weeks's Good Cause, the BBC's longest running programme
1933
28 August, first BBC woman announcer, Shiela Borrett
1939-45
During world War II the BBC provides information and stirring speeches from Winston Churchill and other wartime leaders
1951
1 January, launch od The Archers, longest running BBC radio serial
1964
Pirate radio stations broadcast from ships to UK, encouraging the BBC to launch a pop music station (Radio 1, 30 September 1967)
1970
24 Febraury, National Public Radio launched in the USA
1993
First Internet radio broadcasts
1995
First experimental DAB (digital audio broadcasting) in UK. DAB gives listeners better quality reception, easy tuning and text
2002
BBC launches fice new DAB channels
2004
Sales of DAB digital radios top 1 million
2005
BBC radio begins to make programmes available as podcasts that can be downloaded to computers, MP3 and DAB players