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.[1]
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.[3]
28 May – The Detroit News Orchestra, the world's first radio orchestra (a symphonic ensemble organized specifically to play on radio), begins broadcasting from radio station WWJ in Detroit, Michigan.[4]
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.[5]
22 August – The first national wireless exhibition is held at the Champ de Mars in Paris.[6]
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.[8]
6 November – The privately owned French radio station Radiola begins regular transmissions.[6]
14 November – London station 2LO transfers to the British Broadcasting Company and transmits its first two news bulletins, each read twice ("once quickly and once slowly" – to determine listener reaction).[9]
15 November – The British Broadcasting Company opens its stations in Birmingham (5IT) and Manchester (2ZY).[citation needed]
4 December – A broadcasting "music ensemble" is formed in Pittsburgh by that city's KDKA; it will be known as the KDKA Orchestra.[citation needed]
Debuts
9 January – KQV is licensed and on the air in Pittsburgh, the city becomes the first with both a commercial station (KDKA in 1920) and two commercial radio stations.
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 (19 December 1920 sign-on) as North Carolina's first commercial radio station.
13 April - WGU, Chicago, Illinois, has its formal opening. The station became WMAQ October 3, 1922.[10]
27 April – WOE is launched by the Buckeye Radio Service Co. in Akron, Ohio.[11]