Listening to the radio in old-time Phoenix


I enjoy new technology, and I especially enjoy showing other people new technology. There's just something wonderful seeing something through someone else's eyes, whether it's using a voice command on Google, or posting an emoji on Facebook. It may be something that everyone has known, like, forever, but that's really never true - it's always new to someone. So today I'm thinking of listening to the radio in old-time Phoenix.

This is really a stretch of my imagination, because radio has been around, like, forever. My parents listened to the radio, my grandparents listened to the radio, my great-grandparents listened to the radio. That's a long time! So I'd like you to listen to a radio, for the very first time, in old-time Phoenix. Come on!

Yes, I understand that you're suspicious. You've really only gotten used to using electricity, and I can't seem to convince you that it's actually there. Yes, it's invisible, but you can see it doing things, right? OK, let's take a look at a radio, it's this box I have right over here. Yes, it's plugged into electricity, but you don't have to touch it, I'll do it. Yes, of course you can take a nip from your flask of whiskey, you're shaking like a leaf. Nothing to be afraid of, believe me!

This knob here turns it on. Give a little time, it needs to warm up. Yes, it's supposed to make that noise. This dial here allows me to select a radio station. Hang on, I have to get it right on the number 55. This knob over here controls how loud or soft the sound is, it's called volume.

There! Isn't that nice! Dance music. Must be Glenn Miller. What? Yes, it's coming from that tower over on 12th Street and Camelback. Radio waves. Yes, they're invisible. Dangerous? I don't think so. Of course they're going through through us, especially you, 'cause you're taller than me.

Sure! Our family has had one for years and years. You should get one! What? Oh, I see, well, when you get electricity, then!
Help support history adventuring, and see a lot of cool old photos of Phoenix on Patreon

 Click here to become a Patron!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is ...
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the...
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me...
Read more