Design Stories: Exploring Everyday Things

Here Comes the Tabletop Radio!



In the early 1930s, manufacturers saw an opportunity to fill the gap between expensive floor models and insufficient crystal sets which led to the innovation of the tabletop radio (MacLennan, Windover, and Borck 2024d). The tabletop radio better suited the needs of Canadians and was more accessible for the average Canadian, causing a major influx in radio sales.

The affordability of the tabletop radio was propelled by the introduction of new non-flammable synthetic plastics such as bakelite. These plastics replaced the artisan with the assembly line as it enabled radios to be mass produced quicker and cheaper alternative to expending time and skill creating intricately crafted radio cabinets (Sheridan 2021). Synthetic plastics also enabled the implementation of a wider array of colours and exploration of designs. The tabletop radio sat comfortably on the tabletops and countertops and its versatility in colour and style enabled it to be placed in a range of listening spaces (Windover and MacLennan 2017, 74).

Tabletop radios marked the integration of electrical devices into consumer products which lead to the overlap of art and manufacturing. As a result, there was greater emphasis on the affordance of the device's materiality and how its physical form and spatial presence interacted with its environment and users (Sheridan 2021).
 

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