This vintage microphone was used at WNBC, the National Broadcasting Company's New York City station, during the 1920s.

In 1920, KDKA of Pittsburgh became the nation's first radio station. The potential of radio to impact politics was felt almost immediately later that year when KDKA informed its listeners that Warren Harding defeated James Cox in that year's presidential race. Soon KDKA had many imitators, and what started as a fad took the nation by storm.

Politics fueled the first-ever commercial radio broadcast in the United States. In November, 1920, KDKA radio in Pittsburgh went "on the air" to deliver the news of Warren G. Harding's victory over James Cox in that year's Presidential election.

In 1926, the National Broadcasting Company became the first radio network. This was a major change from the print medium. Newspapers were local by nature. They covered national and international events, but were supported by local subscribers who demanded greater coverage of their home regions. Network programming could broadcast the exact same story to the entire nation in an instant. Radio and television would take major steps toward eroding regional differences and building a homogeneous national culture. By 1930, over half of the households in America had a radio.

The success of Franklin D. Roosevelt's radio addresses -- known as "Fireside Chats" -- set the stage for the media-driven presidencies of the 20th century.

Franklin Roosevelt was the first president to take advantage of this new medium. When he entered the White House in 1933, America was in the darkest days of the Great Depression. Through a series of "Fireside Chats," on radio, FDR informed Americans of his plans to stimulate the economy. More importantly, his soothing voice assured listeners that despite the current crisis, the United States had the resources and the character to survive.

Even Roosevelt's critics used the radio. The anti-Semitic Father Coughlin used his popular daily radio program to attack New Deal initiatives and promote a neo-fascist agenda. During World War II, the poet Ezra Pound screeched fascist and anti-Semitic slogans over the airwaves to American forces in Italy.

Father Charles Coughlin's fiery radio broadcasts reached an estimated 40,000,000 listeners and attempted to sway popular opinion away from Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal policies.

When WWII erupted in 1939, radio became an important means of staying current with the unfolding conflict. The famous radio broadcaster, Edward R. Murrow, relayed news of the war from London as German air raids pummeled the city. Murrow's firsthand "This Is London" accounts — some broadcast during the Battle of Britain with the sounds of air raid sirens or bomb explosions in the background — undoubtedly influenced American citizens to consider taking action against Nazi Germany.

While the advent of television in the 1950s displaced the radio as the nations most popular electronic medium, radio still remained important in politics. The United States used radio as a Cold War weapon by broadcasting anti-communist propaganda across the Soviet Bloc and Third World with its Radio Free Europe and Voice of America programming. The medium was also used on the Cold War domestic front. Senator McCarthy's communist witch-hunt hearings were broadcast on radio as well as television.

Radio continued its involvement in American politics in the 1990s with the rise of conservative talk shows featuring hosts like G. Gordon Liddy, Oliver North, and Rush Limbaugh (pictured).

As Americans commuted farther and farther to their places of work, the radio was an easy way to stay politically informed while on the road. All-news radio stations remained an extremely popular means of learning about national events throughout the rest of the century.

The 1990s saw a renaissance in political radio programming, as a series of successful conservative talk-radio programs hosted by Rush Limbaugh, G. Gordon Liddy, and Oliver North informed debate in affairs of state. While television became the media center of the American home, radio proved its mettle by continuing to thrive against its flashier competitor.

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