This inaugural Trans Atlantic signal was simply the morse code for S. The same year: R. A. Fennenden took the next step in the advancement of these ground breaking concepts by using the wireless waves to transmit a voice. Realising the importance of these developments, in 1904: The British Postmaster-General took control of the wireless telegraphy system. In 1912: the United States Department of Commerce took control of licence and wavelengths. That these two governmental bodies went to such lengths to secure a monopoly on these "airwaves" is merely an indication that the power of this medium, and it's then vastly untapped potential, was seen right at the beginning.
Indeed, the authorities initially had concerns over this new technology being used for "frivolities" like the broadcasting of music, which, ironically, has now become the primary mandate world wide of radio broadcasting in general. In Britain, however, during the genesis of radio as a mass medium, the public were eager for any transmissions, with thousands owning radio receivers. From 1923 to 1924 the number of sets licensed jumped from 80, 000 to 1 Million. In 1929 there were over 9 million radio receivers, not including those that people built themselves and didn't licence, so the number would in fact have be much higher. In 1920 the Marconi Company showed the sheer power of the medium by broadcasting a concert by Dame Nellie Melba throughout Europe and North America thus cementing it's place in history as the first major international broadcast. Ironic that it was a concert (ie: music and therefore, a frivolity) that became such an historically important landmark in radio broadcasting. .
However, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when radio drama itself began. Texts on the subject, of which there are very few to begin with, state that nearly as long as there has been radio there has been radio drama. It appears that the first straight drama to be broadcast in the United Kingdom were scenes from Shakespear's Julius Ceasar and Much Ado About Nothing, adapted for the medium.
