1922 in radio

Events

• 8 February - President of the United States, Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio in the White House.
• 14 February - The world's first regular wireless broadcasts for entertainment, made by Peter Eckersley, begin transmission on radio station 2MT from a hut at the Marconi Company laboratories at Writtle near Chelmsford in England. Initially they are for half an hour on Tuesday evenings.
• 19 February - Ed Wynn becomes the first big vaudeville star to join radio. The first broadcast is Wynn's The Perfect Fool and the station is WJZ, New York. This is also the first time in the world that a radio show is broadcast before a studio audience.
• 27 February - The first National Radio Conference, led by Herbert Hoover, is held in Washington, D.C.
• 10 March - In the United States, Variety magazine prints as its front-page headline "Radio Sweeping Country - 1,000,000 Sets in Use".
• 11 May - Station 2LO becomes the second radio station to broadcast regularly in the United Kingdom, operating from Marconi House in London, initially for one hour a day. The first radio sports commentary in Britain is made on the station when Arthur Burrows describes a boxing match between Ted "Kid" Lewis and Georges Carpentier at Olympia. No further sports broadcasts are made in the country until 1927 due to pressure from newspapers.
• 28 May - The Detroit News Orchestra, the world's first radio orchestra, begins broadcasting from radio station WWJ in Detroit, Michigan.
• 14 June - Warren G. Harding becomes the first United States president heard live on radio, when he dedicates the Francis Scott Key Memorial over the Baltimore radio station WEAR.
• 21 July - A limited commercial license is issued for operating radio station WIAE, in Vinton, Iowa, to station manager Marie Zimmerman, making WIAE the first radio station owned and operated by a woman.
• 22 August - The first national wireless exhibition is held at the Champ de Mars in Paris.
• 7 September - On the occasion of the centennial celebrations of Brazilian independence, President Epitácio Pessoa of Brazil makes the country's first radio broadcast.
• 7 October - Speaking on radio station 2LO, the Prince of Wales becomes the first member of the British royal family to make a public broadcast.
• 6 November - The privately owned French radio station Radiola begins regular transmissions.
• 14 November - London station 2LO transfers to the British Broadcasting Company and transmits its first two news bulletins, each read twice.
• 15 November - The British Broadcasting Company opens its stations in Birmingham and Manchester.
• 4 December - A broadcasting "music ensemble" is formed in Pittsburgh by that city's KDKA; it will be known as the KDKA Orchestra.

  Debuts

• 9 January - KQV is licensed and on the air in Pittsburgh, the city becomes the first with both a commercial station and two commercial radio stations.
• 20 February - WGY is launched by General Electric at Schenectady, New York, USA, after having established several experimental stations there since 1912.
• 2 March - WEAF is launched by the American Telephone & Telegraph company in New York City, New York.
• 25 March - KGW is launched by The Oregonian newspaper in Portland, Oregon, as that city's first commercial radio station
• 31 March - WWL begins broadcasting as a 10-watt station. The first program on the air was a piano recital.
• 10 April - WBT in Charlotte, North Carolina, goes commercial from its former experimental authorization as 4XD as North Carolina's first commercial radio station.
• 13 April - WGU, Chicago, Illinois, has its formal opening. The station became WMAQ October 3, 1922.
• 27 April - WOE is launched by the Buckeye Radio Service Co. in Akron, Ohio.
• 6 May - KZN began its first broadcast in Salt Lake City, Utah with a message by Heber J. Grant, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• 11 May - KGU in Honolulu, Hawaii, goes on the air as Hawaii's first radio station.
• 15 May - WDAE in St. Petersburg, Tampa goes on air
• 5 June - WEAN goes on the air in Providence, Rhode Island.
• 8 June - WFBR begins broadcasting in Baltimore, Maryland.
• 11 July - WHAM, Rochester, New York, begins broadcasting.
• 6 September - WJAR begins broadcasting in Providence.
• 3 December - WKAQ goes on the air as Puerto Rico's first radio station.
• Undated: WAAB begins broadcasting.

  Births

• 6 February - Denis Norden, English comedy scriptwriter and broadcast personality
• 23 April - Jack May, English actor
• 29 May - Mae Brussell, American radio personality and conspiracy theorist
• 10 June - Bill Kerr, South African-born Australian actor
• 17 July - Sid Collins, American motor-racing broadcaster
• 5 October - Janie Joplin, American radio announcer and voice-over artist