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MPR News Staff

Hearing America: A Century of Music on the Radio

Vintage radios sit on a shelf.
Vintage radios sit on a shelf.
Photo from Pexels

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Ray Suarez hosts APM Reports documentary: “Hearing America: A Century of Music on the Radio.”

On Christmas Eve in 1906, shipboard technicians listening for Morse code heard music. It's believed to be the first successful radio transmission of music and voice. Music has been the dominant sound on the radio ever since, and an engine for cultural and political change in America.

Since the first broadcast, music on the radio in the United States has been a cultural battleground. It's been a place where people who wanted to shape the nation’s society skirmished over what America should sound like, and should be like.