I have rather snootily talked to my grandchildren about how I grew up in a world without screens, but I completely failed to imagine a world without radio. Oh dear.
In Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), the about-to-be-cuckolded Lord C becomes obsessed with 'listening in'.... symbolic of his detachment from the natural, active, human world. D H Lawrence hated the passivity of radio.
Of course, the fear expressed in the cartoon of the diners with their headsets never actually transpired. Often radio listening was a shared experience. Similarly with TV that gives 'watercooler' moments. And while I fully accept that there are many serious concerns with social media, it's not called social for nothing. Many of those single people attached to their phones are actually interacting with other people.
The impact of radio was enormous. My first job was working with my dad who restored and sold valve radios from an antique centre in Bath. I used to get lots of people reminiscing about when they first listened and how it affected their lives. One of the things that I've always liked especially about 1930s radios was the design. It's interesting that there were architects like Wells Coates, responsible for the round Ecko bakelite set, Furniture designers like Gordon Russell who worked with Murphy on a number of radio designs. Nikolaus Pevsner wrote about radio design in architectural review in 1940, you can find that online.
Thanks for alerting me to this exhibition, Rory. Radio was my first career and this sounds brilliant. Fascinated by the parallels with today’s concerns about social media etc.
People sitting around the dinner table with headphones on listening to the ‘wireless’ is the very similar to sitting in Starbucks to day with a coffee, except it’s now smartphones.
If I could choose only one medium of news and entertainment, it would be the radio, preferably my great grandfather's, as that was all we had. Granted, probably just a wave of nostalgia talking here.
Thanks the exhibition sounds unmissable. I’ll do my best to get to it. I do enjoy the way your excellent writing is infused with enthusiasm and judicious caution.
I think television caused many of the same worries as the introduction of the radio. Ours isn’t the first generation to think our children are so mesmerised by a device that they aren’t taking in real life!
I have rather snootily talked to my grandchildren about how I grew up in a world without screens, but I completely failed to imagine a world without radio. Oh dear.
If I were to live on a unnhabited island I could do without television, the internet and a smartphone but never without radio.
In Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), the about-to-be-cuckolded Lord C becomes obsessed with 'listening in'.... symbolic of his detachment from the natural, active, human world. D H Lawrence hated the passivity of radio.
You’d enjoy this book (if you’ve not already read it). It describes the impact of the telegraph in victorian society
https://amzn.eu/d/bVQ2us8
Of course, the fear expressed in the cartoon of the diners with their headsets never actually transpired. Often radio listening was a shared experience. Similarly with TV that gives 'watercooler' moments. And while I fully accept that there are many serious concerns with social media, it's not called social for nothing. Many of those single people attached to their phones are actually interacting with other people.
The impact of radio was enormous. My first job was working with my dad who restored and sold valve radios from an antique centre in Bath. I used to get lots of people reminiscing about when they first listened and how it affected their lives. One of the things that I've always liked especially about 1930s radios was the design. It's interesting that there were architects like Wells Coates, responsible for the round Ecko bakelite set, Furniture designers like Gordon Russell who worked with Murphy on a number of radio designs. Nikolaus Pevsner wrote about radio design in architectural review in 1940, you can find that online.
Thanks for alerting me to this exhibition, Rory. Radio was my first career and this sounds brilliant. Fascinated by the parallels with today’s concerns about social media etc.
People sitting around the dinner table with headphones on listening to the ‘wireless’ is the very similar to sitting in Starbucks to day with a coffee, except it’s now smartphones.
If I could choose only one medium of news and entertainment, it would be the radio, preferably my great grandfather's, as that was all we had. Granted, probably just a wave of nostalgia talking here.
Thanks the exhibition sounds unmissable. I’ll do my best to get to it. I do enjoy the way your excellent writing is infused with enthusiasm and judicious caution.
I think television caused many of the same worries as the introduction of the radio. Ours isn’t the first generation to think our children are so mesmerised by a device that they aren’t taking in real life!