Attacking another bout of insomnia in the wee hours last night, I listened to one of my favourite Internet radio streams (RadioIO - Acoustic Café). I was reminded of some happy teenage times spent listening to Radio Luxembourg on a cheap little transistor radio, the distant signal fading in and out of the ether, hiding huge chunks of a novel and lengthy track called Bridge Over Troubled Water behind the noisy static. The regular interference was aptly named. It was only by diligent, fiddly tuning up at that tricky, crowded end of the A.M. dial, with many patient nights of careful listening, that I finally managed to piece together the missing parts of that particularly fascinating audio puzzle. Well, enough of them to talk about it sensibly at youth club -- and to order the eponymous album at my local radio shop. Alas only a mono version: we had no stereo in our home in 1970. My British aspiring-to-middle-class-values world back then was predominantly black and white. Newsprint, television and photographs in my parents house didnt fully blossom into colour for several more years, by which time Id long since left home in search of brighter hues and a wider sound stage. I snapped my little retro wireless for you this morning. It is a Sinclair Micromatic. Those of you who recognise what was billed at the time as worlds smallest radio (it says exactly so on the assembly instructions -- cover price 1s) may also be among the adventurous ones who built your very own from the kit of tiny parts sold for forty-nine shillings and sixpence through newspaper small ads and mail order by Sinclair Radionics Ltd of Cambridge. Or you may remember throwing your singed, half-assembled results over the garden wall in a fit of frustrated failure. Never try to catch a dropped soldering iron. Im happy that the magic of radio has survived the demise of the analogue broadcasting era and lives on, fully alive, in the digital domain. New Musical Express articles and weekly pop charts have given way to Wikipedia pages and personalised play lists on Spotify. Long live my ears says me. Insomnia? I dont much care, as long as there is a wide and free choice of my favourite music to lull me during my long, wakeful nights.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 11:01:43 +0000
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