Radios

In the 1940's, radios were large; the vacuum tubes in them needed a lot of space and needed to be warmed up before a signal could be picked up. Tuning the radio to a station required moving a knob back and forth to find the exact spot where the sound was best, and that spot would vary as the show progressed. The radio might have to be re-tuned every few minutes to hear the show all the way through. Strange noises, whines and static, much like what we now associate with outer space movies, would often emanate from the radio. 

In the late 50's I got a transistor radio. It still required tuning, but it was much more reliable and ran on batteries.

 

Type of radio from my childhood        Transistor radio

About 2 feet tall                                7-8 inches tall

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