What we now call the consumer technology industry was born November 30, 1920, when the first consumer electronics product, the two-piece RA-DA, the first commercially produced radio designed for the mass market, rolled off the Westinghouse assembly line in East Pittsburgh. After a two-year period of hectic technological, business and legislative/regulatory developments following the end of World War I, the Westinghouse RA-DA and the entire radio industry emerged, becoming the dominant consumer technology product for three decades. On the centennial of our industry, let’s take a look at the events of 1919-1920 that cleared the way for the future.
Read the rest of this arresting historical post at CTA’s home page here.
This blog is the middle part of a trilogy of stories concerning the birth of radio during the years immediately after World War I. The first was “The Day Radio Died,” which you can read here. The third is “How President Wilson Shaped the Airways,” which you can read here.
