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Selected Bibliography - RADIO
Books - General History | Books - Biography | Journals/Magazines/Papers | On-Line Bibliographies

The FCC wishes to thank Chris Sterling, George Washington University, for his contributions to this bibliography.


Books - General History
  • Archer, Gleason. History of Radio to 1926 (NY: The American Historical Company, 1938).

  • ________. Big Business and Radio (NY: The American Historical Company, 1939).

  • Aitken, Hugh. Syntony and Spark: The Origins of Radio (NY: Wiley, 1976).

  • ________. The Continuous Wave: Technology and American Radio, 1900-1932 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985).

  • Baker, W.J. A History Of The Marconi Company (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1970).

  • Beauchamp, Ken. History of Telegraphy (London: The Institution of Electrical Engineers, 2001).

  • Blake, G. G. History of Radio Telegraphy and Telephony. London: Chapman & Hall, 1928 (reprinted by Arno Press, 1974).

  • Bowers, Raymond, Alfred M. Lee, and Cary Hershey. Communications for a Mobile Society: An Assessment of New Technology. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1978.

  • Broadsky, Ira. Wireless: The Revolution in Personal Telecommunications. Norwood, MA: Artech, 1995.

  • Bringing Information to People: Celebrating the Wireless Decade. Washington: Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, 1993.

  • Bussey, Gordon. Wireless: The Crucial Decade 1924 - 34 (London: Peter Peregrinus Ltd, 1990).

  • _____________. Marconi's Atlantic Leap (Coventry, U.K.: Marconi Communications, 2000).

  • Calhoun, George. Digital Cellular Radio. Norwood, MA: Artech, 1988, especially chapters 1-3.

  • Coe, Lewis. Wireless Radio: A Brief History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1996.

  • Dalton, W.M. The Story of Radio, Part 2, Everyone an Amateur (Bristol: Adam Hilger, 1975).

  • ___________. The Story of Radio, Part 3, The World Starts to Listen (Bristol: Adam Hilger, 1975).

  • Dearholt, Donald W. and McSpadden, William R. Electromagnetic Wave Propagation (NY: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1973).

  • Douglas, Alan. Radio Manufacturers of the 1920s, Volumes 1-3. Vestal, NY: Vestal Press, 1988-89.

  • Douglas, Susan J. Inventing American Broadcasting, 1899-1922. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987.

  • Dunlap, Jr. Orrin E. The Story of Radio (NY: The Dial Press, Inc., 1935).

  • Eastwood, Sir Eric (Ed). Wireless Telegraphy. New York: John Wiley “Royal Institution’s Library of Science,” 1974.

  • Fahie, J. J. A History of Wireless Telegraphy 1838-1899. Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1899, 1901 (reprinted by Arno Press, 1971).

  • Fleming, John Ambrose. The Principles of Electric Wave Elegraphy and Telephony. London: Longmans Green, 1910 (2nd ed).

  • Garrard, Garry A. Cellular Communications: World-wide Market Development (Norwood, MA: Artech House, Inc., 1998).

  • Garratt, G.R.M. The Early History of Radio from Faraday to Marconi (London: Institution of Electrical Engineers, 1994).

  • Hong, Sungook. Wireless: From Marconi's Black-Box to the Audion (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001).

  • Howeth, L.S. History of Communications-Electronics in the United States Navy (Washington, DC: U.S.G.P.O., 1963).

  • Inglis, Andrew F. Behind the Tube: A History of Broadcasting Technology and Business (Boston: Focal, 1990).

  • International Conference on 100 Years of Radio. London: Institution of Electrical Engineers, 1995.

  • Kerr, Richard. Wireless Telegraphy. London: Seely; New York: Scribner’s, 1898.

  • Kraeuter, David W. Radio and Television Pioneers: A Patent Bibliography. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1992.

  • ________. British Radio and Television Pioneers: A Patent Bibliography. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1993.

  • Leinwoll, Stanley. From Spark to Satellite: A History of Radio Communication (NY: Scribner's. 1979.).

  • MacLaurin, W. Rupert. Invention and Innovation in the Radio Industry (Cambridge, MA: Macmillan, 1949).

  • Mayes, Thorn L. Wireless Communication in the United States: The Early Development of American Radio Operating Companies. East Greenwich, RI: New England Wireless and Steam Museum, 1989.

  • McMillian, Jr., J. Rhett. The Primer of Public Safety Telecommunication Systems (Daytona Beach, FL: APCO International, Inc., 2000).

  • McNicol, Donald. Radio’s Conquest of Space: The Experimental Rise in Radio Communication. New York: Murray Hill Books, 1946 (reprinted by Arno Press, 1974).

  • Meurling, John, and Richard Jeans. The Mobile Phone Book: The Invention of the Mobile Telephone Industry. London: Communications Week International, 1994.

  • Morse, A. H. Radio: Beam and Broadcast: Its Story and Patents. London: Ernest Benn, 1925.

  • Nahin, Paul J. The Science of Radio, Second Edition (NY: Press of the American Institute of Physics, 1995).

  • _______________. The Science of Radio with MATLAB and Electronics Workbench Demonstrations (London: Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 2001).

  • O’Hara, J. G. and W. Pricha. Hertz and the Maxwellians: A Study and Documentation of the Discovery of Electromagnetic Wave Radiation, 1873-1894. London: Peter Peregrinus in association with The Science Museum, 1987.

  • Orr, William I. Radio Handbook, Twenty-Third Edition (Boston, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1997).

  • Phillips, V. J. Early Radio Wave Detectors. London: Peter Peregrinus in association with The Science Museum, 1980.

  • Pierce, George W. Principles of Wireless Telegraph (NY: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1910).

  • Rappaport, Theodore S. Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice, Second Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR, 2002).

  • Schiffer, Michael B. The Portable Radio in American Life (Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press, 1991).

  • Schubert, Paul. The Electric Word: The Rise of Radio. New York: Macmillan, 1928 (reprinted by Arno Press, 1971).

  • Shiers, George (Ed). The Development of Wireless to 1920. New York: Arno Press “Historical Studies in Telecommunications,” 1977.

  • Slotten, Hugh. Radio and Television Regulation: Broadcast Technology in the United States, 1920-1960 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000).

  • Souden, David. Voices over the Horizon: Tales from Cable and Wireless (London: Granta Editions, 1999).

  • Southworth, George. Forty Years of Radio Research: A Reportorial Account (NY: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, Inc., 1962).

  • Sterling, Christopher and George Shiers (Eds). History of Telecommunications Technology: An Annotated Bibliography (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2000).

  • Stokes, John W. 70 Years of Radio Tubes and Valves: A Guide for Electronic Engineers, Historians, and Collectors. Vestal, NY: Vestal Press, 1982.

  • Tarrant, D. R. Marconi's Miracle: The Wireless Bridging of the Atlantic (St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada: Flanker Press, 2001).

  • Tyne, Gerald F. J. Saga of the Vacuum Tube. Indianapolis: Howard W. Sams, 1977.

  • U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. Wireless Technologies and the National Information Infrastructure. Washington: GPO, 1995.

  • Wedlake, G. E. C. SOS: The Story of Radio Communication. New York: Crane, Russak, 1973.

  • Year-Book of Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony. London: The Wireless Press/Marconi, 1913-1925 (annual).


Books - Biography
  • Bray, John. Innovation and the Communications Revolution from the Victorian Pioneers to Broadband Internet. London: Institution of Electrical Engineers, 2002.

  • Brittain, James E. Alexanderson: Pioneer in American Electrical Engineering. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press “Studies in the History of Technology,” 1992.

  • Buchwald, Jed Z. The Creation of Scientific Effects—Heinrich Hertz and Electric Waves. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.

  • De Forest, Lee. Father of Radio. Chicago: Wilcox and Follett, 1950.

  • Dunlap, Orrin E. Jr. Radio’s 100 Men of Science. New York: Harper, 1944.

  • Fessenden, Helen. Fessenden–Builder of Tomorrows. New York: Coward-McCann, 1940 (reprinted by Arno Press, 1971).

  • Hawks, Ellison. Pioneers of Wireless. London: Methuen, 1927.

  • Jolly, W. P. Marconi. New York: Stein & Day, 1972.

  • __________. Sir Oliver Lodge: Physical Researcher and Scientist. Cranbury, NJ: Associate University Presses, 1975.

  • Lessing, Lawrence. Man of High Fidelity: Edwin Howard Armstrong, a Biography (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, Co., 1956).

  • Lewis, Tom. Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.

  • Lodge, Oliver J. London: The Electrician, 1894, 1899, 1900 (reprinted by Arno Press, 1974), 1908.

  • MacGregor-Morris, John T. The Inventor of the Valve: A Biography of Sir Ambrose Fleming. London: Television Society, 1954.

  • Raby, Ormond. Radio's First Voice: The Story of Reginald Fessenden (Toronto: MacMillan of Canada, 1970).

  • Rowlands, Peter and J. Patrick Wilson (Eds). Oliver Lodge and the Invention of Radio. Liverpool: PD Publications, 1994.

  • Seifer, Marc J. Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla. Secaucus, NJ: Birch Lane, 1996.


Journals/Magazines/Papers
  • P. A. Bello, "Characterization of Randomly Time-Variant Linear Channels,'' IEEE Transactions on Communications CS-11, 360-393, 1963.

  • Cellular Radio 84: Facts for the New Frontier. Television Digest, Inc., 1984.

  • “A Century of Wireless,” European Broadcasting Union Review, 263:2-96 (Spring 1995).

  • Chipman, Robert A. “DeForest and the Triode Detector,” Scientific American, 212:92-100 (March 1965).

  • “Fiftieth Anniversary Issue, 1912-1962,” Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, 50:529-1448 (May 1962).

  • "The Legacies of Edwin Howard Armstrong." Proceedings of the Radio Club of America 64, 1990.

  • Morrisey, John W., ed. “The Legacies of Edwin Howard Armstrong,” Proceedings of the Radio Club of America, 63:3:1-321 (November 1990).

  • Noble, Daniel E. “The History of Land-Mobile Radio Communications,” Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, 50:1405-1414 (May 1962).

  • R. Price, "Further Notes and Anecdotes on Spread-Spectrum Origins," IEEE Trans. Commun., COM 31, 85-97, Jan. 1983.

  • R. A. Scholtz, "The Origins of Spread Spectrum Communications," IEEE Trans. Commun., COM 30, 822-854, May 1982 (Part I).

  • ___________, "Notes on Spread Spectrum History," IEEE Trans. Commun., COM 31, 82-84, Jan. 1983.

  • Seitz, Frederick. “The Cosmic Inventor: Reginal Aubrey Fessenden (1866-1932),” , 89:6:1-77 (1999).

  • Sivowitch, Elliot N. “A Technological Survey of Broadcasting’s Pre-History,” Journal of Broadcasting, 15:1-20 (Winter 1970-71).

  • Yuzo Takahashi. "A Network of Tinkerers: The Advent of the Radio and Television Industry in Japan." Technology and Culture 41, no. 3, 460-84, July 2000.

  • G. L. Turin, "Communication through Noisy Random-Multipath Channels,'' 1956 IRE Convention Record 4, 154-166, 1956.


On-Line Bibliographies


last reviewed/updated on 11/21/05 


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