2024-10-17 11:07:00
In the 1950s it was a prestigious piece of furniture in living rooms, today it is only handbag-sized and is always ready to hand: the radio has gone through many changes in its 100-year history. The Innsbruck Armory explores this in its exhibition “Invisible Waves” and illuminates its cultural-historical, media-political and technical significance. In Tyrol, too, there was a lot of testing and research going on during the early days.
One of the absolute radio pioneers, Otto Nußbaumer, was born in Wilten – today a district of Innsbruck. However, the physicist went to Graz. There, 20 years before the founding of the Radio-Verkehrs-AG (RAVAG), he achieved the first wireless transmission at the Technical University in 1904 over a distance of 30 meters, said Armoury Manager and Curator Claudia Sporer-Heis on Thursday at a press tour. The experimental transmitter, which is actually owned by the Vienna Technical Museum, can now be admired on loan in Innsbruck.
From the 1920s onwards, a “large amateur group” developed in Schwaz – “where there must have been a good reception” – said the curator. The “radio hobbyists” also went to great heights: “A large antenna was stretched between the bell towers of the parish church,” photographs on display bear witness to this. In general, the technical side of radio development was probably driven by a fair amount of competitive zeal, said co-curator Meinhard Neuner. “There was a hype about receiving and transmitting as far as possible around the world.” The sound quality was probably of secondary importance; it was much more important to be able to receive stations from Paris, London or Moscow. Back then, amateurs also referred to what they did as “radio sport,” he explained.
During National Socialism, however, radio took on a new, highly political meaning: the focus was on the spread of propaganda controlled from Berlin. An exhibited “People’s Receiver”, decorated with small imperial eagles next to the knobs, can be seen in the armory. The “little people’s receiver” was offered at an affordable price at the time, Sporer-Heis said about the Nazi methods and therefore spoke of an “imposed mass medium”. Radio was also made in the basement of the Gauhaus – today’s Innsbruck country house.
But even after the end of the Second World War, radio remained political. Although France, then the occupying power in Tyrol, dealt “peacefully” with the station, the news was still “controlled,” according to the museum director. And even later, after the founding of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF), politics was not far away. The first “ORF Studio Tirol” was finally located in the New Landhaus, not far from the state governor’s office.
Finally, the show also wants to shed light on the importance of radio today: a construction site radio or various car radios testify to the still high relevance of radio. Visitors can also try their hand at making radio. A radio play can be created in a specially constructed recording studio. Children can also make a pocket radio together with amateur radio operators during the extensive supporting program. Workshops on program design are also on the program with those responsible for Tyrol’s first “pirate station”, Radio Freirad.
(SERVICE – “Invisible Waves. 100 Years of Broadcasting”, Arsenal Innsbruck,zeughausgasse 1, October 18, 2024 to August 31, 2025, Tue-Sun 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. www.tiroler-landesmuseen.at )
1729163885
#Armory #traces #invisible #waves #radio #anniversary
