Talk:List of oldest radio stations

Is this list limited to broadcasting stations?
Is the definition of "radio station" used in this article limited to "broadcasting" stations, which broadcast to the public, or does it include stations which transmitted private messages? Is it limited to AM transmission or does it also include Morse code stations? By the early 1900s there were numerous powerful radiotelegraphy stations all over the world which transmitted radiotelegraphy traffic (telegrams) across oceans. I think this article should be limited to audio (AM) broadcasting stations and this should be stated in the introduction. -- Chetvorno TALK 21:57, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

What constitutes a broadcasting station?
Should there be an explicit criterion for a station to be included on this list? Lists like this have always been controversial, because it is difficult to define what constitutes a broadcast station. In the freewheeling atmosphere of early 20th century AM wireless it is difficult to draw a line between radio transmissions intended for "the public" and those intended for a few of the operator's friends. Before 1920 people thought of radio as a one-to-one communication technology, exemplified by the amateur radio QSO contact. No one anticipated "broadcasting" voice or music into many people's homes; this new activity sprang up spontaneously. Often radio listeners tuned into the early transmitters experimenting with AM transmission and wrote to the station, and the stations began catering to their unexpected audience with news and music.

One criterion used in some sources to distinguish the first broadcasting stations is whether they had a regular schedule of broadcasts. In this view, unannounced irregular transmissions of music or news did not qualify as "broadcasting"; the station became a broadcasting station when it published a schedule in the local newspaper. -- Chetvorno TALK 22:50, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

Multiple issues
There are a lot of serious problems with this list:


 * Lacks well defined inclusion criteria.
 * It doesn't even define what qualifies as an "early radio station" - does that include broadcast, commercial two-way, amateur, government?
 * Grouping together unrelated FM and Shortwave.
 * Grouping together experimental and AM broadcast.
 * No section for spark gap transmitter or continuous wave which would comprise the majority of the earliest stations.
 * Highly notable stations like Grimeton Radio Station, Wardenclyffe Tower, The Wireless Station, or Massie Wireless Station missing, but later stations included.
 * Lack of references.
 * Includes individuals under the section "stations" and lists personal names under "call-sign"
 * Marconi and Roberto Landell de Moura are listed as using AM pre-1900.
 * A few List entry too long

I'm going to try to fix some of this, though this might require a lot of removal. --mikeu talk 20:06, 30 November 2019 (UTC)