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• 1 media/6225185.jpg media/1947-10-12-CBC-New-Look-In-Fashion.mp3 2025-03-25T20:38:19-04:00 "Who's Listening to Me?" 52 plain 2025-03-28T08:19:05-04:00 The 1920’s to 1950s was often referred to as the Golden Age of Radio and the Baby Champ helped make radio ownership more common in homes, especially as portable models gained popularity. When the Baby Champ Radio was released it was marketed to consumers in Canada and America, through specific marketing and lifestyle approaches including those looking for practical functionality, connection, and a modern look. 
  

  Target Audience

  Targeting primarily middle and working-class households, including families, workers, and home-owners, it offered a more affordable alternative that ranged from $25-35 compared to luxury floor models (Green Hills Great Finds, n.d), given that the average hourly wages for working-class individuals in the 1940s averaged from $0.52 to $1.29 (Canada 2008). The radio's functionality, connection, and accessibility made it a modern option to practical users, but also attractive to socially conscious buyers who valued portability and style. Additionally, it appealed to urban and rural audiences by granting access to international news they might have had little exposure to otherwise.
  
  
  As radios became household staples in homes, workplaces, and social settings, the Baby Champ Radio reinforced the mid-20th-century shift toward mass-produced technology, bridging geographical and social divides. But ultimately, though popular for its art deco design and exciting range of colours, there is little data on how or where exactly the radio was sold to these consumers at the time as there are only a handful of ads for this radio. 
  

  The Role of Gender in Radio

  There is speculation on whether or not this radio was gendered, as it may have appealed differently to men and women, largely due to social roles and expectations at the time. However, its core design—being functional and portable—would have made it broadly appealing to both genders. For men, it likely appealed to them through practicality, offering access to new technology, news and sports, especially in the post-WWII era. For women, the Baby Champ Radio was marketed as part of the home environment and was designed with aesthetic appeal in mind where women leaned towards the decor of the home. The playful “baby” branding may have been intended to soften its appeal for the domestic sphere in comparison to larger more industrial looking radios. In essence, the Baby Champ Radio Model 5110 was perhaps designed to appeal to a broad, cross-sectional audience as the Baby Champ wasn’t explicitly labelled a certain way and generally marketed as a household object, its design, size, and marketing likely made it more appealing to women and families. (Rutherdale 2020). This is also because of the lack of online presence this radio had, this idea is only suggested based on the context of the time.
  
  
  
  
  Click below to listen to a 1947 CBC news recording! Then, explore the next page to learn about the cultural significance of the Baby Champ radio and its role in the home.