ABSTRACT
Ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communications were transformed by the wireless. As mariners entered the twentieth century, they no longer had to face the anxiety of being incommunicado while at sea. The wireless telegraph made it possible for them to remain in touch with the world. As ships traveled the high seas they were able to transmit and relay news and information over the great expanses of water to other journeying vessels and foreign ports. During the war years, nonmilitary use of the new communications device was prohibited by federal law. The earliest radio news voices were recruited from various fields but most frequently from the press. By 1933, an agreement was struck with the print media that provided for a resumption in wire service to radio. Broadcast news really did not come into its own until World War II. In the 1950s, television stations were less concerned with the journalistic credentials of on-camera reporters than they were with their appearance.
