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Seventy-five years ago, the media landscape was not nearly so vast, not nearly so individualized. An electronic device was not on your person, it was likely in your living room and the listening experience was shared. No headphones. No earbuds.

Courtesy of the Index (Film 2516, LVA microfilm collection), the Virginia Newspaper Project delivers a much less cluttered media landscape, then ruled by the newspaper and the radio, the latter still discovering its potential.

To appreciate the division of a typical radio day in 1940, click on the table for a closer look:

At the prices listed below, you would have been the exception if you enjoyed a radio in a room of your own:

A blow up of your exclusive features. Number six will put your mind at ease:You’ll notice radios being sold at a furniture store. Here, an especially high end listening device, with the combination of Victrola (record player) and radio:

True portability arrived only with the advent of the transistor in the mid-1950s.

Please take note in the Sears ad below (remember, this is 1939) and the calling card of the coming leviathan stamped to its side.

Henry Morse

Project Assistant Cataloger

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