Ian's collection as at June 2022 
Over 20 years ago, I started to collect radio badges. It was really only a stop gap part of my collecting. I was missing visual elements of radio. You get use to documenting a series where no known existing episodes survive. If you are lucky enough to find a Radio Transcription Disc for a series, then the label supplies the visual. But I was a child of books and television.
Wireless Weekly May 1937. Because of my life-long love of books, my brain has no problem concentrating on a Radio Series/serial and supplying its own pictures as I listen.
Researching also supplies pictures in the form of newspaper/radio ads of the day and cast photos. Badges started as yet another visual component that grabbed my interest. Then my love of research dragged me in.
Researching also supplies pictures in the form of newspaper/radio ads of the day and cast photos. Badges started as yet another visual component that grabbed my interest. Then my love of research dragged me in.
When I started researching Radio Listener Clubs, I naively thought there were perhaps a couple of hundred clubs. I soon found that wasn't the case. Almost all A.M. stations had at least one Women's Club and one Children's club. Some stations had over 20 different Listener Clubs in their lifetime. These were communities linked to the radio station. Some were "sponsored" in the case of Children, whereas the Women's Clubs were mainly about Charitable deeds and or sporting and other activities. After reading about the activities of particularly the Women's Clubs, but also many of the Children's Clubs, I thought that this aspect of Radio needed to be brought back to our conscious awareness. That was were the idea of a book came from. There are books on badges that include radio badges and there are books on many of the A.M. Radio stations. But there is nothing that tells the stories of the massive amount work carried out by members of Radio Listener Clubs both in Peace time and War.
So far there are over 700 clubs identified. Over 500 badges in my personal collection, though that doesn't tell the whole story. Clubs that ran for decades had to reorder and the stations or sponsors shopped around for contra deals or cheaper prices. So often you can have different manufacturers and that means different I.D.s on the reverse and even differences on the front. Colour, Shape, fonts, fastener types like Brooch, Buttonhole or Stickpin. I refer to these as variations and that means my actual number of badges including variations is between 1,000 - 1500.
Then there are over 100 badge images I have from other generous collectors, of badges I don't have, that I can use on my website or in the book. Then there is probably at least another 100 out there I have either seen or know from research, that do exist. Searching for those keeps me busy.
Considering that I started this project thinking there were a couple of hundred clubs and I wasn't going to worry about anything after the 1950s, it has taken on a life of its own.
Then there are Station Identification badges which will get their own section. I am still not including FM stations as it just gets too hard and is a long way from the intention of telling the stories. Maybe in another edition. The images in the collage I have used to introduce this subject, are simply my working images, not the final quality.
If you think you have a Radio Listener Club Badge that I don't have, please tell me. I am happy to buy it or if you want to keep it, I would appreciate a nice close up photo of the Front and rear of the badge. You will be given credit in the book. Something like "from the collection of .....".
Then there are membership certificates or membership cards and other Club items. I have covered some of those in previous Blogs. I love it when paper survives. Some clubs didn't have badges but they did have membership cards or membership certificates. I search for those as well. They often contain important detail like the name of the club organiser as well as indicating if there was a yearly subscription for membership and renewal would be required.
The searches continue.....
Ian Grieve
So far there are over 700 clubs identified. Over 500 badges in my personal collection, though that doesn't tell the whole story. Clubs that ran for decades had to reorder and the stations or sponsors shopped around for contra deals or cheaper prices. So often you can have different manufacturers and that means different I.D.s on the reverse and even differences on the front. Colour, Shape, fonts, fastener types like Brooch, Buttonhole or Stickpin. I refer to these as variations and that means my actual number of badges including variations is between 1,000 - 1500.
Then there are over 100 badge images I have from other generous collectors, of badges I don't have, that I can use on my website or in the book. Then there is probably at least another 100 out there I have either seen or know from research, that do exist. Searching for those keeps me busy.
Considering that I started this project thinking there were a couple of hundred clubs and I wasn't going to worry about anything after the 1950s, it has taken on a life of its own.
Then there are Station Identification badges which will get their own section. I am still not including FM stations as it just gets too hard and is a long way from the intention of telling the stories. Maybe in another edition. The images in the collage I have used to introduce this subject, are simply my working images, not the final quality.
If you think you have a Radio Listener Club Badge that I don't have, please tell me. I am happy to buy it or if you want to keep it, I would appreciate a nice close up photo of the Front and rear of the badge. You will be given credit in the book. Something like "from the collection of .....".
Then there are membership certificates or membership cards and other Club items. I have covered some of those in previous Blogs. I love it when paper survives. Some clubs didn't have badges but they did have membership cards or membership certificates. I search for those as well. They often contain important detail like the name of the club organiser as well as indicating if there was a yearly subscription for membership and renewal would be required.
The searches continue.....
Ian Grieve
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