As someone who collects both radios and phonographs, I love those old 78s with songs about radio. My favorite is Billy Jones' recording of "Love Her By Radio," which I have on a 1923 Edison DD. I'd love to find a copy on a regular old 78, but I've never even heard of one. Does such a thing even exist?
Then again, I love old songs about all kinds of technology. A longtime favorite is my 1919 Victor recording of Billy Murray singing "Take Your Girlie to the Movies if You Can't Make Love at Home." What a hoot! (Oh, and I'm old enough to have used both CompuServe and Prodigy. And they were very exciting at the time, as hopelessly crude as they seem today.) On 6/4/08, Andrew Baron <andy at popyrus.com> wrote: > > Yes Robert, wonderful evidence of this "incredible time" survives. > Some of my favorites are the Edison recording of "Radio" (one media > form poking fun at another); in a similar vein is the priceless > (figure of speech) Victor record "Twisting the Dials" by the Happiness > Boys, which dates from around the time that Edison declared that radio > would be a passing fad. > > My favorite piece of "hardware" is the Dulce-Tone, which is similar in > purpose to the phono adapter you've discovered, but instead of > replacing the reproducer, it has a little V-shaped needle rest and you > simply place the unit on your turntable or next to it, and lower the > reproducer onto it, steel needle and all. It utilizes your > reproducer's diaphragm instead of having a built in one, and has > exceptionally fine sound quality (depending of course on the > limitations of your reproducer and horn, but still a really fine sound > and much superior to a typical horn type radio loudspeaker). > > All in all, these cross-media peripherals are a fun and interesting > collecting area in their own right and can provide an added dimension > for a collector who has both a vintage phonograph and an early radio. > > Any radio with an audio stage or two (or three), made from the early > '20s through 1928 - 29 should work fine, whether it's a "battery" set > or an AC house-current powered radio (the latter became popular late > '27 - '28). If the radio was made VERY late in the decade, you need > to make sure that the speaker output was designed for the old-style > high-impedance loudspeaker, rather than for a dynamic speaker. > > Best to all, > Andy Baron > > On Jun 4, 2008, at 3:06 PM, Robert Wright wrote: > > 1920 through 1930 must've been an incredible time to be alive for > > sound > > junkies. To witness the birth of electrical recording and to watch > > the > > tehcnological race for better sound between phonographs and radios > > would be > > as exciting and using CompuServe or having posted on Prodigy's > > billboards > > just before the explosion of the internet! > > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > http://phono-l.oldcrank.org >
