NHD Field Trip Transcript 2. National Capital Radio and Television Museum: Broadcasting History Cathy Gorn: Everybody on the bus. We're going on an NHD Field Trip. You're listening to NHD Field Trip, a podcast from National History Day. I'm Cathy Gorn. Take a break from your school work or your NHD project research and join me now as we engage with some really interesting people and places. Sherise Malachi: Sometimes I come he and I'll bring my son if I need to run in when the museum is closed and I say to myself, "How ... Who created and had the genius enough to provide the information out of this box?" Cathy Gorn: There's a really cool museum in Prince George's County, just outside the beltway of Washington, D.C. Compared to the Smithsonian's august buildings that line the national mall about 20 miles west of here, this museum in Maryland is quite unassuming. In fact, save for the signs on either end of its curving driveway, you wouldn't know what treasures were found within this rather modest, white-trimmed red farmhouse. Well, the signs say that this is the National Capital Radio and Television Museum and this place boasts a collection of technology that reshaped the way people communicate. Paying a visit to my friends here seemed an appropriate way to highlight another example of this year's NHD theme, Communication in History: The Key to Understanding. Not to mention the fact that I serve on the museum's board of trustees. Sherise Malachi: The National Capital Radio and Television Museum is that place, is that safe space where children, adults, everyone of all ages not just in Prince George's County but throughout the entire state of Maryland and the greater Washington, D.C. region, can come to learn the history and the importance of radio and television in our society. Cathy Gorn: That's Sherise Malachi, the executive director of the museum. I had the pleasure of meeting with her and the museum's curator, Brian Belanger, to talk about the mission, collection and the ongoing work of this very special place. I hope this episode of NHD Field Trip helps to explain the power of this place and the window to history, or more accurately, the screens and speakers to history, within. Brian Belanger: We're just trying to help people understand the evolution of radio and TV mainly in American homes. How did we get to where we are today with all of the things that have happened in between? Cathy Gorn: Oh, is that all? Well, what Brian just said in under 10 seconds provides an overview for a collection of devices that represents and tells the story of a revolution in communications technology. On this episode of NHD Field Trip, we're going to jump back in time to explore how radio and television launched what we understand today as mass communication. We'll examine how the collection of radios and TVs that are featured here at the National Capital Radio and Television Museum ... how they represent a powerful synthesis of science, technology, entertainment, news, and for better or worse, advertising and propaganda. Along the way, we'll enjoy a few sounds from the golden age of radio. Finally, and most importantly, we'll consider how the radios and TVs of the early to mid-20th century actually laid the groundwork for subsequent technologies and the evermore powerful means by which people communicate today, and the impact that broadcast communication has had on the course of human events. So stay tuned. Okay, before we jump right into the history of mass communication, let me tell you a little bit more about the National Capital Radio and Television Museum. The museum is located inside a historic two-story farmhouse in Bowie, Maryland. That's about a half hour outside of D.C. and as you may have guessed from its name, it's filled with countless classic and vintage radios and televisions. This place is a temple of technology. Brian Belanger: It's what some people would call visual candy. We have a lot of beautiful radios that are in art deco style cabinets that ... In fact, some of the radios we have on display here, similar ones were actually at the Baltimore Museum of Art a few years ago. They had an exhibit about industrial design of the 1930s and some of these radios were considered art objects. Cathy Gorn: I'd never really thought of old radios and TVs as art, but what Brian says there is exactly right. The museum has all sorts of stuff for gadget geeks and art aficionados alike. Wires, vacuum tubes, neon signs, microphones, board games, pop culture paraphernalia, and, of course, radios and TVs. All of these unique and, in many cases, rare objects are important to the museum's mission of collecting and preserving the evolution of radio and television in America. Brian Belanger: In this room that we're sitting in right now, we actually have two television sets circa 1930. We have a lot of rare things. We have an example of the first transistor radio offered to the public. We have an example of the first radio with a wireless remote control. We have an example of a device called a Crosley Reado from 1939, which is kind of like a fax machine that printed out a newspaper in your living room, delivered to your home by a radio broadcast. So, a lot of really rare things like that that people go away and say, "Oh my goodness, I had no idea there was ever such a thing." Cathy Gorn: A radio that prints out your daily newspaper? Now, how cool is that? Just how did a museum like this get started? Well, as Brian explained to me, there are a lot of radio and television enthusiasts in the DC area. Brian Belanger: There's a very active group here in Washington/Baltimore area called the Mid-Atlantic Antique Radio Club, which was formed about 30 years ago; people who enjoy the history of radio and who collect old radio equipment. A group of us decided that we would like to share our interest with the general public and try to preserve the history of this technology, so we came up with the idea of creating a museum that we could share with the public. We operated for the first few years without a home. We did temporary exhibits at public libraries around the area. We had some exhibit space at the George Washington University downtown. For a while, we were at a shopping mall where they had a vacant store that they let us use. And then in 1999, we moved into the building we're in now here in Bowie, Maryland; a historic home that's owned by the city of Bowie. We negotiated an agreement with the city and we've been here for more than 20 years now. Cathy Gorn: For more than two decades, the National Capital Radio and Television Museum has been teaching people about the history of communication. Brian Belanger: What we strive to do ... when we take people around here ... is as we're looking at the individual devices, we try to explain why they were new and different and how people used them when they first came out and how things evolved, so that by the time you finish the tour, you can imagine that evolution that started with the first devices and led up to what we have today and the things that made that possible. Cathy Gorn: The folks at the National Capital Radio and Television Museum help their visitors understand the evolution of radio and television technology. And as Brian points out, it's important to understand not just how these devices work but also how they were received in their day and how communication technology had an impact on the course of human events. When we do an NHD project, we know it's important not only to research our topic but also our topic's historical context so that we can understand the, "So what?" And as we'll hear next, I learned the, "So what?" Behind the invention and innovation of radio and television technologies; how these mediums of mass communication still have an impact on our lives today. Now don't go away, we'll be right back. So, how do you turn an early 20th century farmhouse into a museum? Well, the rooms and spaces have been divided into seven galleries that illustrate the history of broadcast communication. Now, before we jump back in time I want you to hear a question that executive director Sherise Malachi posed during our conversation. Sherise Malachi: It's funny because it's a question I ask myself every day. It's a topic that you see, especially amongst radio executives. Is anyone still listening to radio? Cathy Gorn: Of course! I still listen to the radio. Doesn't everyone? Okay, well I guess that's a good question, given this age of the internet, smartphones, streaming devices and the like. So, let's just take a step back now, pause, and imagine a time without any of that stuff. A time when communication with large groups of people was limited to letters, books, newspapers, magazines, and theaters for live performances and public forums. A time when the airwaves we all take for granted today were silent. It is this point in history when the National Capital Radio and Television Museum begins its story.