Seeing, Selling, and Situating Radio in Canada, 1922-1956 (Canadian Modern) - Softcover

As radio entered homes and became an increasingly important component of society, it affected not only the soundscape of everyday life but had architectural consequences. By looking at the material culture of radio in 1930s Canada, this publication offers a new way to think about a medium closely associated with twentieth-century modernity. Expensive consoles and cheaper tabletop models joined furniture in the living room, affecting interior design while providing access to the wider world with the turn of a dial. The new electronic medium remapped space, simultaneously situating listeners within regions and linking them to far-flung locations.

Anne MacLennan is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at York University, Toronto. She is the author of “Resistance to Regulation: Early Canadian Broadcaster and Listeners,” in Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada (2010), and “Women, Radio and the Depression: A “Captive” Audience from Household Hints to Story Time and Serials” in Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal.Michael Windover is Assistant Professor of Art History, teaching in the History and Theory of Architecture Program in the School for Studies in Art and Culture at Carleton University, Ottawa. He is the author of Art Deco: A Mode of Mobility (2012)