National Public Radio Day – May 3, 2025

History of National Public Radio Day

It would be impossible to talk about the origin of National Public Radio Day without mentioning the technological invention itself. The radio we know began its evolution in the early 1900s, employed majorly for government and military activities.

The first non-governmental radio broadcasting started in 1916. It was initiated by a station at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, called 9XM — presently known as WHA. However, these broadcasts were not voices or music but rather morse code signals. The incident of the first World War halted all non-governmental radio broadcasts in 1917.

The end of the war heralded the beginning of a new era for radio. With the radio’s ability to transmit both voices and music — technology had advanced. Radio stations were primarily employed for academic reasons by colleges and universities in the 1920s. By the 1940s, the lowest set of numbers in the F.M. spectrum had been picked for educational and non-profit reasons, which served as the impetus for creating Public Radio apart in due course.

In 1967, President Johnson validated the Public Broadcasting Act, which induced the creation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (C.P.B.). The establishment of the C.P.B. helped validate the association between public radio stations leading to the formation of the National Public Radio (N.P.R.). An organization that has progressed since then and today is a prominent media organization that sources and controls informative and educational media content in the U.S. The origins of National Public Radio Day are unknown, but it was first observed in the 1990s — clearly influenced by the UNESCO-recognized World Radio Day in February.