Broadcasting is the
distribution of
audio and/or
video content to a dispersed
audience via any electronic
mass communications medium, but typically one using the
electromagnetic spectrum (
radio waves), in a model. Broadcasting began with
AM radio broadcasting which came into popular use starting with the invention of the
crystal detector in 1906. Before this, all forms of electronic communication,
radio,
telephone, and
telegraph, were "one-to-one", with the message intended for a single recipient. The term "broadcasting", borrowed from the agricultural method of sowing seeds in a field by casting them broadly about, was coined by either
KDKA manager
Frank Conrad or RCA historian George Clark around 1920 to distinguish this new activity of "one-to-many" communication; a single radio station transmitting to multiple listeners.