In November 1938 my parents decided that they wanted a radio, then known
by everyone as a 'wireless'. The bill,
dated November 15th 1938, was dated four months after they moved in and as it
includes installing an aerial, I can only conclude that my parents were without a
radio for these four months. Portable radios were years into the future.
Incidentally the receipt called the radio a 'receiver'.
The receipt is in the old
£-s-d currency. There are
conversions to today's currency on the internet, but money has devalued so
much that only the pounds are really significant today. The number of shillings
indicate the fraction of a pound, where there were 20 shillings to a pound.
My parents went to a local Edgware supplier who charged them £9.10.0 for the
radio itself, 7/6 for the work of installing it and aerial, and 5/-
for the various bits and pieces.
Like most pre-war radios, this was a good quality piece of
furniture in a large polished wood case and although we only ever used the
two channels of the home service and the light programme, its dial showed
that it was capable of receiving from much further afield. It
was of course based on valves which frequently blew, so perhaps it is not
surprising that it cost more then in the 1930s than a cheap radio today.
Once war hostilities were thoroughly underway, only one cheaper
standard
model radio was manufactured which could not get the European stations.
This website Join me in the 1900s is also known as
Join me in the 1900's and is © Pat Cryer.
The 1940s and 1950s are also written as the 1940's and 1950's
