The First Radio Sound Effect

Now that is arcane trivia. It is so arcane in fact, that I am not sure. I do know that the first recorded sound effect was of Big Ben striking 10:30, 10:45, and 11:00. It was recorded on a brown wax cylinder by technicians at Edison House in London. It was recorded July 16, 1890. This is also one of the very few recordings currently in the public domain.

In my mind DJs have always been the same sort of people, and probably jumped on that Sound Effect as soon as the wax cooled. But really, most early sound effects were from Foley work. The wide-spread use of recorded sound effects in radio (live or otherwise) was decades away. Say thanks to Vincent Voice Library at Michigan State University. More here.