The Radio took 38 years to reach an audience of 50 million.

 

The Radio took 38 years to reach an audience of 50 million.

You would think the invention of the radio would be a big deal, but it took 38 years for the radio to reach an audience of 50 million.

Meanwhile, the iPod only took 3 years to reach the same milestone!

Back in 1874, Alexander Graham Bell delivered the first phone to the public (though the phone was truly first invented by Italian innovator Antonio Meucci in 1849). In 1877 the first telephone line was constructed, the first switchboard created and the first telephone exchange was in operation. It took 3 years for the phone to be in the homes of nearly 50,000 people.

75 years later the phone was in homes of 50 million people, on a global level. In comparison, it took the radio just 38 years to have 50 million owners and the television (something that was deemed as too expensive to really take off as a popular consumer product) as little as 13 years