1929

• Galvin Manufacturing unveils "Motorola," the first car radio, invented by William Lear.
• RCA purchases Victor Talking Machine Company and becomes RCA Victor.

1928

• The U.S. federal government issues the first experimental TV station permits; General Electric, NBC and BBC begin TV broadcasts within the next year.
• AT&T Corp. sends motion pictures from Chicago to New York, the first successful trial of video delivery through telephone lines.
• Kenjiro Takayanagi demonstrates the cathode ray system in Japan.

1927

• The Federal Radio Commission, the forerunner of the FCC, is established.
• Philo Farnsworth applies for a patent on his electronic television.
• The first coast-to-coast radio hookup is made.
• Bell Telephone Laboratories demonstrates wireless TV between Whippany, N.J. and New York City.
• The first picture phone conversation is held.
• Boris Rtcheouloff applies for a videotape-recording patent.
• John Logie Baird creates the first videodisc.

1926

• Zenith introduces AC radio receivers designed to plug into electrical outlets.

1925

• John Logie Baird produces a TV picture of human faces.
• Vladimir Zworkin files for a color TV patent.

1924

• The Radio Manufacturers Association, the predecessor of the Electronic Industries Association, is founded.
• Radiola, the first commercial home radio, is introduced.
• Loudspeakers replace earphones.
• Western Electric Co. patents its electrical sound recording.
• Zenith Electronics Corp. produces the first portable radio.
• AT&T experiments with a radio car telephone.

1923

• The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is formed.
• The first transatlantic radio broadcast is made.
• The complete TV system including kinescope, or picture tube, is demonstrated by Dr. Vladimir K. Zworkin, who then applies for a patent for an iconoscope or the TV camera tube.
• The first radio boombox is introduced.

1922

• John Carson describes the concept of FM radio.
• Farm boy Philo T. Farnsworth envisions an electronic TV system; the resulting sketch later proves Farnsworth’s patent claim.

1920

• Commercial radio broadcasting begins (KDKA, Pittsburgh); the first radio receivers go on sale.