Long before the Internet connected us via fibre optics, or coax cable, and long before dial -up, cell towers, and satellites, there was what was called the “wireless wired network” of the 1930s, based on radio. Yes, with the expansion of popular “wireless” radio broadcasting in the 1920s (It was like the Internet of the 1990s), and then the stock market crash of 1929, rural communities faced an isolation problem, namely, radios were expensive to purchase at a time when there was little spare cash, they required expensive batteries to run if you lived in non electrified rural regions of the country, and even an inexpensive crystal radio set, which required no electricity at all, but a large antenna, had limited range. All of these factors forced rural residents to develop a solution, and that solution was truly ingenious. I discovered this information in an essay by Susan Opt called, “The Development of Rural Wired Radio Systems in Upstate South Carolina”. I shall sum it up as briefly as possible.
In isolated non electrified rural communities in the early 1930s, the general store/post office was a focal point. Often it was the last place on the country road that had electricity. So, the owner of that general store purchased a radio set and extended the audio to individual farmsteads by way of galvanized or copper wire, which was grounded at the farmers property and connected to an inexpensive speaker, that the owner of the general store had purchased at bulk discount prices. The individual farmer would pay a small monthly fee to be able to hear the station that the general store was picking up on the the radio. Thus, the farmer did not have to purchase that expensive radio set and its batteries, but the family could listen to programs under the kerosene lamp at home. That subscription fee after the cost of the speaker was 10 cents per month which covered the additional electricity cost to the general store’s owner. So, picture wires crossing the countryside, on trees and fence posts like the spokes on the wheel of a bicycle. Glass cola bottle tops were used as insulators. Now brace yourself…. there were up to 300 farmsteads connected to it!. Moreover, there were several general stores operating a similar system, so that on a Saturday evening farmers could listen to the “Grand Ol’ Opera”, and on a Sunday could hear the travelling preacher deliver a sermon when the farmer’s remote church was not on the preaching point list for that week. That preacher actually ended up at the general store to preach, as the store itself, or the store owner’s home became a studio. Now that local studio also functioned to give the weather reports, the grain and stockyard prices, and local funeral notices to the listeners.
Perhaps the most important quality of this piece of rural ingenuity was that for people who could not even afford that subscription fee would meet socially, especially on a Saturday night, at a connected neighbour’s home and play cards, and listen or dance to the music coming in over the radio speaker. Let me be clear once again. It was only an inexpensive speaker, nothing else. Think of something like an intercom or public address system.
By the end of World War Two, electricity was eventually expanding into more rural areas, and along with it came the urge to purchase one’s own radio set, due to the prosperity after the war. The “wireless wired networks” eventually ceased to operate, and that Saturday get-together started to become a memory.
I shall leave you with some food for thought, as you ponder our present use of our Internet technology, apps and cellphones, for Susan Opt states in her conclusion: “Perhaps the adoption of the electric radio reimposed that isolation, as listeners sought to tune into the world and out of their communities”.
Are we doing the same today? If so, can rural ingenuity again develop a solution? Maybe rural churches are part of the answer.
Rev. Martin Dawson (retired) in Cornwall PEI