Pick a Day

Music History Events: Innovations

August 11, 1956 Richard Goodman and Bull Buchanan, recording as Buchanan and Goodman, enter the charts with "Flying Saucer," the first song to use what's called the "Break In" technique, dropping in bits of other hit songs throughout. The song eventually peaks at #3.

April 10, 1956 Leo Fender patents the successor to his popular "Telecaster" model of electric guitar, this time called the "Stratocaster."

October 12, 1955 Chrysler introduces the world's first in-car sound systems -- vinyl record players, complete with an assortment of classical records, mounted under the dashboard.

September 9, 1955 Seeburg introduces their latest jukebox, which not only holds a record 100 singles but is also capable of playing the same number of EPs.

February 26, 1955 For the first time, sales of the newer, smaller 45rpm records outpace those of the old 78rpm variety.

March 5, 1951 Rock guitar distortion is invented when Willie Kizart plays "Rocket 88" using an amp that was damaged when it fell out of the van transporting him and the other members of Ike Turner's band to their recording session in Memphis.

March 31, 1949 RCA introduces the 45 rpm record, which eventually becomes the format of choice for "singles," becoming more popular than the 78 rpm format by 1958.

February 1, 1949 RCA introduces the 45 RPM record. It's 7 inches wide and plays at a faster speed than the traditional 33-1/3, providing better sound quality. The format takes off, and 45s become known as "singles."

December 23, 1947 Three scientists at Bell Labs in New Jersey demonstrate the transistor, which leads to the invention of small, portable "transistor" radios. The scientists win the 1956 Nobel Prize for their work.

March 1, 1941 The world's first commercial FM radio station, Nashville's W47NV, begins broadcasting.

January 5, 1940 The FCC hears the first demonstration of FM radio.

August 18, 1937 The first FM (frequency modulation) radio station in the US, Boston's WGTR (later WAAF), is granted its construction permit by the FCC.

July 28, 1933 The first singing telegram is sent - to popular crooner Rudy Vallee, on the occasion of his 32nd birthday.

September 17, 1931 RCA Victor unveils its new invention, the 33 1/3 rpm long-playing or "LP" record, at the Savoy Plaza Hotel in New York. However, the company badly overprices the record players themselves, leading the new format to lie dormant for years until Columbia revives it in 1948.

October 18, 1922 The British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC, the first national broadcasting corporation, is founded on this day in London.

August 20, 1920 In Detroit, what will become WWJ (950 AM) becomes the first radio station in America to start broadcasting.

October 17, 1919 The Radio Corporation of America, soon to be simply known as RCA, is founded by General Electric as a publicly held monopoly, much the same way "the phone company" was originally envisioned.

October 21, 1908 The first two-sided vinyl record (!) was offered for sale by the Columbia label in an ad running in this week's Saturday Evening Post.

September 26, 1908 The first stereo advertisement, for an Edison Phonograph, appears in the Saturday Evening Post.

November 22, 1907 The world's first radio company, the Marconi Wireless Company of America, is incorporated in New Jersey.

August 22, 1906 The Victor Talking Machine Company introduces the first "internal horn" record player, the first practical unit for home use. It sells for $200 (about $4000 adjusted for inflation).

October 10, 1902 Kalamazoo, Michigan, mandolin maker Orville Gibson founds the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co, Ltd. In 1936 it would create the first commercially successful electric guitar.

December 12, 1901 Guglielmo Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic wireless radio signal.

November 8, 1887 Emile Berliner is granted the first patent for the gramophone. In the 1890s, he starts manufacturing gramophone players and discs, but in the early 1900s the Victor Talking Machine company becomes the market leader.

May 2, 1885 Wilhelm Schimmel starts his piano company.

February 19, 1878 Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.

December 6, 1877 With his new invention, the phonograph, Thomas Edison records "Mary Had A Little Lamb," what was believed for over a century to be the first known recording of the human voice. In February 2008, an earlier recording of "Au Clair De La Lune" came to light.

July 31, 1846 France's army gives legitimacy to Belgian Adolphe Sax's latest invention, the saxophone, by including it in their marching band.

January 22, 2021 In their hometown of Oklahoma City, Flaming Lips pull off the first COVID-protected space bubble concert, with audience members enclosed in plastic bubbles like the kind frontman Wayne Coyne often uses to walk over the crowd.

June 22, 2020 Twenty One Pilots release a never-ending video for their song "Level of Concern" that continuously updates using footage uploaded by fans. It does end, but not until December 16 - 178 days later.