Radio Journeys

This Christmas Eve, 2006, is the 100th Anniversary of broadcasting... the 100th anniversary of the very first transmission of voice and music. This week, in a special, unusual presentation, we commemorate the man who invented radio as we know it today, Reginald Fessenden. In an exclusive interview, we talk with Dr. John Belrose, one of the foremost experts on Fessenden, and we hear Belrose's technical simulations of Fessenden's first voice transmissions. We ask the question, "Who was really the 'Father of Radio,' Marconi, as is commonly assumed, or Fessenden, who was for many years forgotten, but is now being reassessed?"Then, we continue peeking into the very origins of radio, listening to the oldest known recording of a radio transmission... a bit of spark-gap radio from 1910.It's a once-in-a lifetime Christmas this year... a chance for radio enthusiasts to reflect on the origins, and we do it here, exclusively on Radio Journeys.