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| A scale model of the Crystal palace Aerial and the HMV dog "Nipper" |
I have always loved the medium of radio. As an awkward teenager I whiled away the hours exploring the frequency dial... Giggling away to radio comedies on BBC4, tuning into French stations on long wave (I recall French accordion music accompanied by a high hissing interference), stumbling across pirate stations sneakily pumping out heavy drum and base, and my personal favourite discovery; Virgin Radio's ten minute loops of test broadcasts prior to turning onto FM... the excitement I felt having found a station yet to be born and the anticipation knowing that soon, this frequency would be filled with live radio broadcasts, created a feeling I find hard to put into words. (Although, I admit, it's exceedingly nerdy!)
I did all I could to immerse myself in the medium, from making my own home radio programmes on a dual deck cassette player, to volunteering at my local hospital station... I still find it incredible that I have managed to achieve my goal and hold down a career on the airwaves. Yes the hours are long and unglamorous, yes it doesn't compare with a city banker's salary and yes, I complain, frequently, about this. But at the same time I realise how lucky I am... how many people as an adult can say they are doing what they dreamed of doing at 14?
Something that worries me though is the looming DAB switch over. Radio is being pared down and the more I look the more it seems that people take the medium for granted. To me, nothing else holds the immediacy and intimacy of radio. Television is hardly portable, and extremely hard to multi task along to (unless you're ironing!) Where-as radio is a movable feast of information!
But enough of my swan song... onto something positive. There's a Chap in South East London who's preserving the past, salvaging pieces of media history so that the I-generation will be able to see how far things have come and can appreciate just how wonderful past technology is... His name is Gerald Wells and he runs The British Wireless and Television Museum.
Stood in the shadow of the Crystal palace aerial, the museum contains approximately 1300 wireless receivers, copious display cabinets of components and wireless associated artifacts, a "mock up" of a period shop, a valve laboratory and fully functional wireless construction workshops.
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| Gerry behind the counter of the mock up shop |
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| Just a few radios |
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| And just a few more! |
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| A PYE Blackbox record player, with Japanese laquerwork casing... swoon! |
Even the museum premises has a long, rich history encompassing radio. Alfred Rickard-Taylor (an early wireless enthusiast) lived there from 1908 to 1914 and broadcast early radio transmissions from the property. Then, in 1914 Mr. Frank Wells (Gerald's father) purchased the house and Gerald was born there in 1929. From an early age he expressed an interest and fascination for anything electrical, resulting in a love for the wireless. By the time he was 7, Gerald had taken ownership of the bottom of the garden to undertake his experiments with sound and electricity, to the extent his Mother commented...
"If you don't buck your ideas up and conform, you will still be mucking about at the bottom of the garden in fifty years time!"
All I can say is thank heavens Gerald paid no attention. This museum is a living tribute to not only the innovation of radio, but to one man's life long passion.
If you're planning a trip to South East London you really should swing by. Visits are appointment only, so check the museum website for booking information. I also highly recommend purchasing Gerald's book "Obsession"... a narrative of his fascinating life and "wireless adventures". I bought a copy yesterday and I'm half way through already!
G x
6 comments:
Commend that man for preserving such things!!! :)
It sounds like a wonderful place and what a fabulously dedicated chap! I hope that there will be someone to keep it going well in to the future!
Hey Gemma, have been reading your blog over the last few months and always enjoy your posts :)
As it happens, I'm a self confessed radio dork too and have spent far too many nights tuned into the shortwave bands listening intently to languages I can't even recognise - but nonetheless feeling a strange sort of thrill thinking about the radiowaves bouncing off the ionosphere from Mongolia, North Korea, or wherever it may be, to me in Ireland.
My absolute favourite radio oddities are Numbers Stations - recorded voices reading out numbers or letters in various languages, possibly to spies in the field. It's strange and sort of exciting to think that at the very moment you're listening to a Russian voice
reading numbers - somewhere in the world, a spy is noting them down intently, anticipating their orders.
Unfortunately alongside the decline of Shortwave broadcasters, the Numbers Stations are disappearing all too quickly and soon there will be none left.
I love the fact that the old Vacuum tube radio my father grew up with (and that I'm slowly repairing!) can still, 60 years later, receive radio signals - but with the move towards DAB and Digital Radio Mondiale, that time is rapidly nearing an end - and somehow I doubt modern DAB radios will still be able to receive and decode radio signals 60 years hence - never mind fixed and repaired by an interested hobbyist.
Such is progress...
Keep up the great blog, I always look forward to your posts.
Best wishes,
Dave
Hey Landgirl and Wendy! Thanks for reading and for your comments:D
And Hello Dave! Hail fellow radio dork! Thank you so much for your kind comments... it's so lovely to know that I'm writing stuff people like :D Those numbers stations sound amazing, I never knew they exsisted... would certainly be excited to find one of those!
G x
Hi Gemma,
If you go to:
http://www.archive.org/details/ird059
you'll find a huge collection of Numbers Stations recordings.
But I must warn you of the odd looks you will get if caught listening :)
There are two British stations in the collection, which alas are no more. They were wonderful because of the BBC English enunciation and unashamedly British startup tunes - "Cherry Ripe" and "The Lincolnshire "Poacher"!
Anyway, you've reminded me to finish work on this old Cossor radio, so I'd best get back to it!
Keep up the great work,
Dave
It sounds like a wonderful place!
I remember the old radio that my grandmother had on her windowsill in the kitchen, it had a huge dial that moved the needle across a list of names that used to me to seem so exotic....Luxemburg; Moscow; Warsaw; Paris. I remember being allowed to turn the dial and listen in to these hissing, distant stations that spoke of a whole world outside my little village.
Today, I still prefer radio to tv, there is something still faintly bold about lying in bed in the early hours of the morning with the radio playing the BBC World Service...long may it continue.
Vive la radio!
Polly
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