Radios
 

My mother was Irene Bolton, daughter of Florence (Knight) Bolton who died when my mother was five years old (circa 1926); she was raised by her grandmother, Eliza Adelaide Knight who ran the tripe shop in Clayton from 1900 - 1949. This has been discussed elsewhere in here a few years ago.

My mother worked on munitions during the war while my father was away fighting the Nazis at Dunkirk and in North Africa.

She died this past October at age 94 in Allentown, PA, and I have been fantasizing about the great music she must have heard on the BBC while she was growing up. Ivor Novello, Cole Porter, Gershwin, Kern et al. She had a marvelous soprano's voice, and I remember-well her sing Gershwin's "The Man I Love".

I am curious about the birth of radio and broadcasting. Judging from present trends, we crave new technology, and I am wondering if it was the same for radio. Were the first sets expensive? How long did it take before most households had one? I was born in 1947, and we didn't have a television set until I was eight years old in 1955. I do recall sitting around the radio with a fire in the fireplace listening to the BBC.

The BBC started broadcasting in 1920 , and my understanding is that it caught the public's attention at that point, and radio grew rapidly in the 1920s.

Did the BBC broadcast music most of the time? Was it a twenty-four hour service?

Cheers, Season's Greetings: Merry Christmas to all!

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I don't think the service was 24 hours.......and if I remember rightly(if not I am sure that I will be corrected)there were different sections to listen to.
The Light program was music, dramas general entertainment.
The programs that I rememeber listening to were Dick Barton, The Goons, Round the Horn, Women's Hour was at 2pm each weekday...there was Workers Playtime too. This was broadcast from the canteens of large factories. There was a childrens music program on each Saturday Morning...was it Uncle Sandy.

I remember my Grandad listening to more serious programs.....the News, sporting events....you dare not speak during the commentary for the cricket.

Like you I was born in 1947 and Radio was a large part of our evening entertainment.
I remember sitting round the fire listening to the wireless.
Ours was A Relayvison radio, with four stations......3 and 4 were the heavy stuff...classical music etc. (We got a small 9 inch Bush TV to watch the Coronation on.)
My Grandma had a radio that you tuned in to different stations......it fascinated me.
Where was Hilversum? I used to see it on the dial and wonder where it was.

I am not sure my post will help you much, but it surely loosened some brainstones for me

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Dont think it was 24 Hrs, we also had a relayvision wireless, but must confess i only used to listen to Radio Luxembourg for the top 20 on a Sundays.

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You couldn't get that on the relay set Cashy.....you must have had a transistor radio.
When I was a teenager i listenened to Luxembourg and of course Radio Caroline.....but this would be in the early sixties.

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I can remember "Listen with Mother" if I remember rightly it was on just before Women's hour.

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Would that be Bob Wilkinsons where you took the battery to be charged.
I used to go there for lamp oil and coal bricks.....oh yes and donkey stones if the rag man hadn't got any.

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Yes Mitzy....I remember Listen with Mother.....and also Tales from Toytown(I think that is what it was called)......it had Larry the Lamb in it.

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Are you sitting comfortably, then I'll begin.

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The Billy Cotton Band Show.....beyond our Ken, Meet the Huggetts(was that the one with Ron and Eth....June Whitfield played Eth'ooh Ron' to which he would reply 'ooh Eth')
The Clitheroe Kid. Franklin Engelman and 'Down Your Way'.
It is all coming back to me....through the mists of time(oh yes, Ma helped a bit too)
She remembered Mrs Dale's Diary....and the Archers.

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Can't forget workers playtime. It always seemed to be playing when I was sat in the Barber's chair at the bottom of Pendle Street

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here you go Margaret

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilversum

As a result, many old AM radio sets in Europe had a Hilversum dial position marked on their tuning scales (along with Athlone, Kalundborg and others).

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When did owning a radio cease to be a luxury? Or was it ever a luxury? When did practically all households in England have a radio? May be tough to answer. After a while, I imagine a radio was a "necessity".

I suppose we need comments from those who were around in the 1920s and onward.

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I can't really answer your question other than to say that when I was growing up i didn't know anyone.....friend, family or neighbours who did not have a wireless.
Many people had a Relay set. These were one and threepence a week (although I remember it going up to one and sixpence) and had four stations on them.....light program, home service and third program(which was highbrow stuff) and I think the last program was the world service.

I remember going to the Relay shop on a Saturday morning with the money and the payment card.....I also used to take Mrs Calverts money too(I got threepence for doing this errand for her).
This thread has taken me back to a gentler time.....thank you for that.

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Well this thread has certainly brought back a lot of memories for me, and for everyone else by the sound of it. Me, too, Cashie, re the Top 20 on Radio Luxembourg Sunday night.

There were some brilliant plays on the radio, especially on Saturday nights. My dad always used to come home from the local just before the end of the play and we'd have to try to keep him quiet until it finished as he liked to sing when he'd had a couple of beers. He always brought two bottles of OBJ for my mum and fish and chips for us.

A talent show called (I think) 'Stairway to the Stars'. Tommy Handley's ITMA. The girl who said 'she's my best friend and I hate her' and 'I'll scream and scream 'til I'm sick' - was she on ITMA as well. Her name was Violet or something like that.

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Violet Elizabeth Bott in Just William. She was portrayed by Bonnie Langford in a TV adaptation.

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I have my radio alarm set for 8 AM and wake up to radio four extra on DAB radio.
All the old programs are on. Round the Horne was on today.. Goons another day.

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Hilversum is in Holland.

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Thank you....yes, I actually found that out quite a while ago...it was just one of the things I wondered when I was a girl looking at the dial of the wireless.

I once got my legs slapped really hard by my Grandad...my crime was to be caught fiddling with the knobs of the radio.......needless to say I didn't do it again.

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That's right, Michael, is was Just William. The mother would scream out WILLIAM.

There were some great characters on the radio shows. Same catchphrases every week but never failed to make us laugh. Real comedians who didn't need to rely on swear words to be amusing.

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I loved Al Read. He never told a joke as such but was hilarious. I listen to the Top Twenty every Sunday night from 11pm till midnight on Radio Luxenbourg.. I would have a piece of paper and a pen ready to write them all down. We could get Radio Luxenbourg on the 'big' radio not a transistor. Don't think they had been invented when I was listening to it. I remember shows like ' Double you money.' and 'Take you pick' being on there too. Both those came on tv years later. A favourite of my parents was Wilfred Pickles in 'Have a go.' with his wife Mabel and when someone won money he would say 'Give em the money Barney.' I believe Violet Carson who later was Enid Sharples in Corrie was the pianist for the show for many years.

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Ron and Eth, Margaret were in 'Take it from here.' not Meet the Huggets. Dick Bentley was Ron and June Whitfield was Eth.

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I can remember Bob Wilkinsons shop on Nuttall Street. He was the "Ironmonger" and had a huge product range in his shop.
To get to the original question of "Radios" I remember being at my Grandfathers at number 1 Belfield road very often, and having to listen (without comments) to the "Archers"! This programme was the love of both my Grandfather and my Aunty Edna.

Cheers

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Yes of course it was...when I typed 'Meet the Huggetts' it didn't seem quite right......but I couldn't think of Take it from here.
It was Jack Warner and Kathleen Harrison in that wasn't it?
I used to enjoy all those types of program...I suppose they were what Coronation Street is now

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You are dead right Retlaw....you could get everything you needed on Nuttall St.
I used to run to the co-op reciting the number all the way there... By the time I got there I had forgotten what I had gone for :)

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The first 'radio' that I actually owned was a crystal set. It must have been the late 40's, my father must have got me the bits and I built it in an old cigar box.
You poked a spring loaded pointer around on the crystal until you found a signal. You never knew who you'd get and you could rarely find them again and the signal was awful.
But it was magic!

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Retlaw, money was short, kids didn't have their own radios, when my aunt finally gave me a portable radio I couldn't afford the batteries, it ate them.
You could listen to the crystal set in bed with earphones and the aerial wire hanging all round the room on the picture rail, no batteries.
As for obsolete, you can still buy the kits although they cost a hell of a lot more than a miniature pocket radio. Just a scientific novelty now.

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Exactly right Retlaw.
The shop you mentioned getting the "Black Twist", we would go there for some "Sarsaparilla" think the spelling is correct?
Then there was "Cowgills Butcher" and further down the road another butchers shop, where I delivered meat for him.
Somebody just mentioned the Coop and remembering the coop number, this brought back my memories of shopping there on my own and sometimes when I was very young with my Mother and believe it or not her number was 109823, which I have just remembered.

Cheers

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My brother made a crystal radio when he was nine or ten...that would be 57 or 58......he was always very mechanically mined and took things to bit to see how they worked......and sometimes he didn't get them quite right when he put them back together again.
He eventually went to work for Fenners, then Goodyear in research and development....so it was obviously something he was born to.

I can still remember our co-op number too...it was 10168.

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Only £10.99 for a kit of everything on ebay. Here's a link to one Crystal Radio Kit / Foxhole receiver. Build an AM cats whisker set. No Batteries | eBay

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OMG you lot make me feel so young :)