EARLY EXPECTATIONS OF RADIO AND TELEVISION

     Your comments give me an opportunity to reconsider what I've written in a previous post. For the post on the internet I was trying to comment on one of the problems with the internet. There are others. But I made it seem like all the internet was negative which isn't so. . The internet has allowed us to achieve much by having a much better communication system.

     Then I got thinking about radio and television. I think they both started with hopes for better communication and keeping people together. Radio took a long time to get to the point where homes could have a radio . The first radios in homes where large affairs with poor quality reception. So people had to crowd around the machine and they also invited neighbors. The first radios were battery powered. Electric radios came later and transistor radios about 1954. So families and neighbors gathered around the radio. When the transistor arrived radio became an individual happening. In the beginning there were very few radio stations. Now there are thousands. 

     In 1953, I got my Grandpa's beautiful large wooden cabinet radio. I could listen to radio stations from very far away. There were many different languages and I heard different music. My experience with Grandpa's radio came to an end when I couldn't buy the battery that was required.

     As a kid I made a small radio with parts obtained around the house. We used a magnet, cold of wire, flashlight battery and earphones and wow! We had to buy the crystal. Every kid could have a radio. This gizmo was called a crystal radio.

    Television developed much the same as radio. We had one television station. All the family gathered around the TV. Neighbors got together to watch TV. We didn't have our own TV so we went to the neighbors to watch a very poor reception which was described as snowy. Does anybody have a snowy picture today? Soon homes had more than one television set. Kids had their own TV and watched their own shows. Now we have hundreds of channels to choose from and smart guys who charge us lots of money to see them. 

    So as communication devices develop and change, the listeners and viewers have to change and have a new experience. Or do the listeners and viewers have to change because of the guys with the money? We certainly hear and see far more ads so the money guys can get far more money. 

I FOUND THE SINGER AND MORE.

    In my last post I left by wondering about  a third singer to go along with Perry Como and Johnny Ray. I found him and  more.

    I remembered a radio show called the Breakfast Club. It seemed to me the singer I was looking for was on the Breakfast Club. I found the Breakfast Club and right away I found the singer I was looking for...Johnny Desmond. Desmond had an active career in music, movies , television and show business. I was happy to find Johnny Desmond.

    After the Breakfast Club there was a 5 minute segment called Morning Devotions. I remember the theme music was from the cello and very calm and soothing. I've always like the cello. Now I don't remember any thing about the Morning Devotions. Hey, why don't I look it up?

    Now what I accidentally bumped into was more interesting. I remember listening to the Breakfast Club most mornings when I was a kid at home. It came on at 7: 15 AM for a half an hour. It had music and comedy and I'm not sure what else. I tried to listen to one or two of them and found the sound and quality very poor. I think the Breakfast Club started in 1933 with emcee Don McNiel. It ran into the early 60's.

    So does anybody else remember Johnny Desmond? Does anybody else remember the Breakfast Club.? It was also called the Swift's Breakfast Club when Swifts began sponsoring it.

    Oh , there was a comedian...Sam something, who I really liked. I have to go back and find this guy and see why I really liked him.