Who Invented the First Radio?

By Staff WriterLast Updated April 06, 2020

Guglielmo Marconi is credited with inventing the first radio. Marconi achieved this feat with no formal education. Still a young man when he initially previewed his invention, his parents moved the entire family from Italy to England for a greater potential for success.

Radio transmissions depend upon electromagnetic waves. James Clerk Maxwell and his associate Heinrich Hertz actually developed the theory of electromagnetic waves, but they did not develop any functional application based on their theory.

Marconi established the Marconi Company, which ultimately hired a man named David Sarnoff. Sarnoff is credited with building the NBC radio networks, the first major commercial utilization of radio in history.