1919 in radio

Events

• 19 March - The first spoken word radio transmission from east to west across the Atlantic is made. The Marconi Company acquire the radio station facility at Ballybunion, a small seaside town in County Kerry in the southwest of Ireland, soon after the end of the First World War. From here, Marconi engineers W.T. Ditcham and H.J. Round, succeed in transmitting voice across the Atlantic from east to west for the first time. They use the call-sign Yankee X-ray Quebec and the first words were 'Hello Canada'. The transmission is received at Chelmsford and Louisburg, Nova Scotia, Canada.
• 17 October - The assets of Marconi Company's American operations are acquired by General Electric and are incorporated as the Radio Corporation of America. Former American Marconi executive David Sarnoff is also brought over to the new company; he would become an influential figure at RCA and with the development of NBC and RKO.
• 28 October - On the first anniversary of the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia, the first radio programme of words and music is broadcast from the telegraph station at the Petřín lookout tower in Prague.
• c. October - Lee De Forest resumes broadcasting from the Bronx after a hiatus due to World War I. The station is given the designation 2XG. Records concerts are aired 5 times a week. The world's first known programme director is Richard Klein.

Debuts

• 17 October - Dr. Frank Conrad begins broadcasting from experimental 8XK, located at his home at 7750 Penn Avenue in Wilkensburg, Pennsylvania, USA, which a year later will inspire establishment of KDKA.
• 6 November - Hans Idzerda's PCGG in The Hague, Netherlands begins regular programming.
• 19 November - Experimental station 8ZAE is launched in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
• 1 December - Experimental station XWA is launched in Montreal, Quebec, Canada by the Marconi Company.
• c. December? - Following the conclusion of World War I, experimental station 1XE is re-launched in Medford Hillside, Massachusetts, U.S.A. by Harold J. Power and the American Radio and Research Corporation.

Births

• 17 January - Dallas Townsend, American broadcast journalist
• 21 January - Jinx Falkenburg, American radio and television talk show host
• 25 January - Edwin Newman, radio journalist
• 11 March - Hans Keller, Austrian-born musicologist
• 5 April - Charles Parker, English documentary producer
• 14 June - June Spencer, English radio actress
• 16 September - Lawrence Dobkin, American radio and television director, actor and screenwriter
• 11 December - Cliff Michelmore, English broadcast presenter
• Laure Leprieur, French radio quiz-setter