Member-only story
Part One
Something was captivating about the transistor radio, the scent emitted by the transistors, the cathode tubes burning, you — watching the dial move across the gauge as you turned the crown, listening to the silence, the static and the voices.
The tactile interaction, the feedback, your fingers talked and accessed the music and talk shows. The electricity felt dynamic, watching the lighted tubes in the wooden or plastic housings.
In the dark I used to listen to the voices and music over the airways. Hearing foreign broadcasters speak in their native tongue, French, Spanish, Russian. They captivated, transported you to far away places. You imagined someone sat in a small cold dark room, broadcasting to the world.
The heat from the boxes warmed your heart and captured your imagination. These were voices from far away lands. As the needle move so you scrolled across the world. Am, Fm, Long and short waves, so the signal propagated across the world.
Part Two
Turn the dial, listen to the silence, static, crackle, grabble, warble, wailing, hiss, broken speeches, screeches, voices and melodic sounds, strange tongues and foreign languages, the senses primed, tune in, tune out, curiosity awaken, contemplating a world out there, strange foreign lands, inhabited by…
