The year 1912 in radio involved some significant events.
Events
* 15 April –
Sinking of the RMS ''Titanic'':
CQD
CQD (transmitted in Morse code as ) is one of the first distress signals adopted for radio use. On 7 January 1904 the Marconi International Marine Communication Company issued "Circular 57", which specified that, for the company's ins ...
and
SOS radio
distress signal
A distress signal, also known as a distress call, is an internationally recognized means for obtaining help. Distress signals are communicated by transmitting radio signals, displaying a visually observable item or illumination, or making a soun ...
s are sent.
* 5 July –
International Radiotelegraph Convention signed in London.
* 13 August – The
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
passes the
Radio Act of 1912
The Radio Act of 1912, formally known as "An Act to Regulate Radio Communication" (), is a United States federal law which was the first legislation to require licenses for radio stations. It was enacted before the introduction of broadcasting to ...
, "An Act to regulate radio communication", requiring that all radio stations be licensed.
* 9YV, an experimental station operated by
Kansas State University
Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...
in
Manhattan, Kansas
Manhattan is a city and county seat of Riley County, Kansas, United States, although the city extends into Pottawatomie County. It is located in northeastern Kansas at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue River. As of the 2020 cen ...
, becomes the first radio station in the United States to offer a regularly-scheduled daily broadcast (in
morse code
Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...
) of the
weather forecast
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia and formally since the 19th centu ...
.
Births
*16 February –
Del Sharbutt, American radio and television announcer (died
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
)
*8 April –
Mary Dee
Mary Dudley (born Mary Elizabeth Goode; April 8, 1912March 17, 1964), known as Mary Dee, was an American disc jockey who is widely considered the first African-American woman disc jockey in the United States. She grew up in Homestead, Pennsy ...
, born Mary Goode, African American DJ (died
1964
Events January
* January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
* January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...
)
*24 June –
Brian Johnston
Brian Alexander Johnston (24 June 1912 – 5 January 1994), nicknamed Johnners, was a British cricket commentator, author, and television presenter. He was most prominently associated with the BBC during a career which lasted from 1946 until h ...
, English cricket commentator and radio presenter (died
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
)
*1 July –
Wallace Greenslade
Wallace Frederick Powers Greenslade (1 July 1912 – 21 April 1961), also known as Bill Greenslade, was a BBC radio announcer and News presenter, newsreader. He is best remembered for being the announcer—and frequently the Double act, straight ...
, English radio announcer (died
1961
Events January
* January 3
** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015).
** Aero Flight 311 ...
)
*5 October –
Tony Marvin
Tony Marvin (October 5, 1912 – October 10, 1998) was an American radio and television announcer.Cox, Jim. (2013). ''Radio Journalism in America: Telling the News in the Golden Age and Beyond''. Mcfarland & Company, Inc. . P. 201. He became a sta ...
, American radio and television announcer (died
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...
)
*26 November –
Eric Sevareid
Arnold Eric Sevareid (November 26, 1912 – July 9, 1992) was an American author and CBS news journalist from 1939 to 1977. He was one of a group of elite war correspondents who were hired by CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow and nicknamed " Murrow's&n ...
, American radio news reporter (died
1992
File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...
)
*
Rita Zucca
Rita Luisa Zucca (, 1912–1998) was an American-born Italian radio announcer who broadcast Axis propaganda to Allied troops in Italy and North Africa. She became known as one of the "Axis Sallys", along with Mildred Gillars, who broadcast out of ...
, Italian American Axis propaganda broadcaster (died 1998)
References
Radio by year
{{radio-stub