{"id":365,"date":"2014-03-14T02:58:57","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T02:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stampingamericanmemory.org\/?page_id=365"},"modified":"2014-03-14T02:58:57","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T02:58:57","slug":"radio-listeners-as-collectors","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stampingamericanmemory.org\/2014version\/building-philatelic-communities\/who-collected-stamps\/radio-listeners-as-collectors\/","title":{"rendered":"Collectors on the Radio"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the emergence of commercial broadcasting in the U.S. in the 1920s, listeners not only tuned in to hear musicians and comedy acts, but also listened to stamp collecting programs. E.B. Powers from Stanley Gibbons\u2019s New York office hosted a program that broadcast on WJY and WJZ in New York, WOR in Newark, and WNAC in Boston. Newspapers listed daily programming from their home city and from other regions that reveal shows running from fifteen minutes to one half hour. Mekeel\u2019s tracked philatelic radio programming and listed nine regular shows in 1932 broadcast from stations in Illinois, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. By 1936, more than 60 stations broadcasted philatelic shows. Those who listened regularly were exposed to stamp collecting practices and \u201cthe drama of the postage stamp.\u201d ((I have not been able to locate any transcripts or recordings of these stamp programs. Powers\u2019s programs were broadcast in different stations and markets. It is possible that the programs began because radio stations needed to fill air time and daytime programming lacked competition in the early days of broadcasting. \u201cToday\u2019s Radio Program,\u201d New York Times<\/em>, January 15, 1924, 21; \u201cToday\u2019s Radio Program,\u201d New York Times<\/em>, February 5, 1924, 17; \u201cToday\u2019s Radio Programs,\u201d Chicago Daily Tribune<\/em>, January 3, 1924, 6; \u201cRadio Programs,\u201d Washington Post<\/em>, March 25, 1924, 16; \u201cBroadcasts Booked for Latter Half of the Week,\u201d New York Times<\/em>, August 12, 1928, sec. XX, 16.; \u201cChicago Radio Talks,\u201d Mekeel\u2019s Weekly Stamp News<\/em> 46, no. 39 (September 26, 1932): 476; \u201cRadio Philately,\u201d Mekeel\u2019s Weekly Stamp News<\/em> 46, no. 41 (October 10, 1932): 504.; and Frank L Wilson, The Philatelic Almanac: The Stamp Collector\u2019s Handbook <\/em>(New York: H.L. Lindquist, 1936), 110\u201311. For a few sources on the history of commercial radio, see Alice Goldfarb Marquis, \u201cWritten on the Wind: The Impact of Radio During the 1930s,\u201d Journal of Contemporary History<\/em> 19, no. 3 (July 1984): 385\u2013415; Susan Smulyan, Selling Radio: The Commercialization of American Broadcasting, 1920-1934<\/em> (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994); Susan J. Douglas, Inventing American Broadcasting, 1899-1922<\/em>, Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987)..))<\/p>\n

As radio emerged as a medium to advertise as well as to provide entertainment and news, it is not surprising that professional stamp dealers like Powers hosted the program and served as the philatelic expert. His presence on American radio not only spread the word about philately, but may have also encouraged the commercial side of collecting and investing. It is unclear whether Gibbons officially sponsored these programs, but it is easy to see how Powers could promote his company as the place to shop or consult for philatelic advice. <\/p>\n

Radio not only broadcasted stamp collecting programming, but it also connected collectors and helped them obtain new specimens. When listening to KDKA in Pittsburgh, one collector learned that the station received a letter from the United States Shipping Board vessel Cathlamet<\/em>, detailing that the ship picked up the station\u2019s signal on the radio while sailing off the Gold Coast of Africa. While the station was thrilled that their wireless waves carried that far, the collector contacted the station and asked for the envelope bearing the letter read on air. To his delight, the director saved the envelope and the collector went to the station to pick up the envelope affixed with a stamp from the Gold Coast. According to this individual, \u201cstamp collecting and radio were working in harmony at last!\u201d First published in the New York Times<\/em>, this story was reprinted for philatelic audiences in the Philatelic West<\/em>. ((\u201cStamp Collector Finds Radio Useful in Locating Specimens,\u201d New York Times<\/em>, January 23, 1927, sec. X; and \u201cStamp Collector Finds Radio Useful in Locating Specimens,\u201d Philatelic West<\/em> 85, no. 3 (May 1927): n.p.)) <\/p>\n

Other collectors combined an interest in short-waved radio with philately. Part of the thrill for George Mathewson and other amateur radio enthusiasts was communicating with hobbyists in other countries. To create a written record of such communication, each operator sent a letter or postcard from their hometown and country that the other would sign and postmark. For Mathewson, the act of receiving many foreign-stamped letters turned him into a stamp collector. Once he established contacts in other nations, he then actively requested stamps from those with whom he communicated. Additionally, as radio listeners tuned into as many stations across the country as possible, they then mailed out postcards to those stations who returned the cards with a unique (non-postage) stamp verifying contact. Radio hobbyists collected those cards and pasted them, with unique station stamps, into albums produced for this purpose, creating a type of \u201cradio philately.\u201d ((Kristen Haring, Ham Radio\u2019s Technical Culture<\/em> (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007); \u201cStamp Collector Finds Radio Useful in Locating Specimens,\u201d New York Times<\/em>, January 23, 1927, sec. X, 16; \u201cStamp Collector Finds Radio Useful in Locating Specimens,\u201d Philatelic West<\/em> 85, no. 3 (May 1927): np; \u201cAmateurs Becoming Radio Philatelists,\u201d Christian Science Monitor<\/em>, November 4, 1924, 6; George M. Mathewson, \u201cRadio Philately,\u201d Mekeel\u2019s Weekly Stamp News<\/em> 43, no. 41 (October 14, 1929): 616.)) Stamp collecting meshed well with radio enthusiasts\u2019 interest in seeing how far their signals traveled and in connecting with others with similar interests. <\/p>\n

As philatelic information spread in different media, stamp collecting attracted new practitioners and appealed to the interests of different people. Magazines, newspapers, and radio programs brought some activities that had been exclusive to philatelic clubs and publications out into a public realm. For collectors who did not belong to a club, this exposure increased their philatelic knowledge or allowed them to connect with the philatelic community through the media. This media presence also exposed non-collectors to the hobby and taught them that many people saw something special in stamps and spent time collecting them. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the emergence of commercial broadcasting in the U.S. in the 1920s, listeners not only tuned in to hear musicians and comedy acts, but also listened to stamp collecting programs. E.B. Powers from Stanley Gibbons\u2019s New York office hosted a program that broadcast on WJY and WJZ in New York, WOR in Newark, and WNAC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":34,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-365","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stampingamericanmemory.org\/2014version\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stampingamericanmemory.org\/2014version\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stampingamericanmemory.org\/2014version\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stampingamericanmemory.org\/2014version\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stampingamericanmemory.org\/2014version\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stampingamericanmemory.org\/2014version\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/365\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stampingamericanmemory.org\/2014version\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stampingamericanmemory.org\/2014version\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}