Radio

The first radio commercial lasted 10 minutes.

The ad cost $50 when it ran in 1922 on New York City’s WEAF. The Queensborough Corporation aired the spot to promote Hawthorne Court, a new apartment complex in Queens. The real estate company urged people to move out of congested urban areas and into the lush new housing complex located near the city limits. But if you ask us, the long commercial was a bargain: Fifty bucks in 1922 adds up to a mere $614 today.

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Listen to free episodes of classic shows like Amos and Andy, Gunsmoke, and Buck Rogers at Radiolovers. 

Get to know Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, widely credited as the inventor of modern radio, and listen to a recording of the birth of “talk” radio.

See first-hand the radios that revolutionized the home during the 1920s at the American Museum of Radio and Electricity.