In the early years of the twentieth century, the invention of the radio changed our view of the world forever by creating new methods of delivering entertainment and information. By the end of the 1920s, radio was well established as an entertainment and news medium serving audiences around the world. Technology changed quickly, with crystal sets rapidly displaced by vacuum tube based equipment, and the entertainment lineup evolved just as fast. Innovation in technology and program content rapidly created a huge radio audience.

Remember those voices of the past? Jack Benny, Phil Harris, Eddie Cantor... Those favorite childhood radio serials? Captain Midnight, The Lone Ranger, Tom Mix... Can you recall the first sportscast you ever heard? The first radio commercial?

As Jack Benny said, radio was do-it-yourself-television. Instead of staring at a 20-inch glass window, you were part of the program with radio. When Jack Armstrong, "the All-American Boy," was climbing a mountain in South America, you were there with him. When the Lone Ranger and Tonto were chasing the bad men, you were right there with them, not staring at a picture. During the horror shows, such as Lights Out, you were next to a person who was being torn apart by wild dogs or having his fingers broken one by one! When the sportscaster, excitement in his voice, described the action of a double play, your imagination conjured up the flash of spikes, the smell of dust and the "thwack" of the ball in the baseman's mitt.

• Naming a radio station
• Production
• Politics
• Guide to the exhibit
• Radio History

The heyday of radio lasted until the advent of television, the availability of small transistor radios, and the rise of FM broadcasting irrevocably altered the environment, economics and the cultural base of the radio audience.

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