The first issue of RADIO NEWS was published in 1919, as RADIO AMATEUR NEWS; in 1920 it dropped the word "AMATEUR" from the title. In 1948 the title changed again, to RADIO AND TELEVISION NEWS, and from May 1959 to December 1971 it was published as ELECTRONICS WORLD. RADIO NEWS was aimed at the enthusiastic amateur. This is sometimes clear from the covers, but sometimes hard to tell; there was always a lot of enthusiastic tech-geekery present in the demographics of both publications. The covers of the earliest issues were two-color drawings, similar to those used at that time on PRACTICAL ELECTRICS. By 1925 they were running full-color covers, and did so until they changed from drawings to black-and-white photographs in 1934. From then on they varied between photographs and color drawings, with an occasional color photograph. From late 1942 onward the covers were always color photographs.

Many of the early covers were by famous technical-illustration specialist Howard V. Brown.

This section sponsored by Rich Kanarek. Thank you, Rich!