Memorabilia
What is Radio Memorabilia?
It is a large area of collecting. I will leave out items that are covered in the Radio Clubs section, like badges, membership certificates etc and concentrate on the other items that surface from time to time.
I guess they can be divided into at least two categories:
1. Advertising memorabilia which covers giveaways or products that were made available to the listeners.
2. Radio Station or Radio People memorabilia. Items owned by the stations or individuals which have made their way into circulation.
Some items can cross both categories. An item given away by the station that is autographed when distributed or autographed later by a radio personality.
Here is a rough list of items in my collection to give you an idea of what I mean.
Autograph books signed by Radio Actors
Banjo signed by Jack Davey
Birthday cards sent by Radio Stations to children
Board Games
Books on radio signed by the authors
Books on individual people or shows
Books on Radio owned by Radio Actors and signed by their Radio Actor friends
Candle Holders (early Carols)
Cardboard Ventriloquist Dummies (Charlie McCarthy, Howie Wing)
Charms
Chimes
Christmas Decorations
Clocks
Coasters
Coffee Cups
Comics (Bob Dyer, Charlie McCarthy, Smoky Dawson, Larry Kent, The Shadow and dozens more)
Correspondence to and from Radio Stations
Correspondence to and from Radio Personalities
Cuttings books
Decanter
Drink Glasses
Jigsaw Puzzle
Key Rings
Letter Openers
Lights
Match Boxes
Microphones
Music Sheets
Paper Money
Paper Weights
Photos of Radio Actors in costume signed or unsigned
Plaques
Playing Cards
Postcards of Radio Personalities signed or unsigned
Postcards of cast of particular shows
Postcards of Radio Stations or Equipment
Posters
Recordings - Shows (Transcription Discs, Reels, Tapes, CDs, Cartridges)
Recordings (Ads, Themes, Sound Effects, Station ID)
Rulers
Scripts
Signs
Statues
Thermometers
Tickets
One collector also has advertising signs off the sides of Trams. Now that is cool.
Now you can see the scope of what survives and how that gives us an insight into the relationships between those at the microphone and their audience.
The largest section of that list is paper and cardboard. Yet they have survived. Survived for almost 100 years in some cases. It is simply amazing, the items that have avoided being tossed or burnt or flooded for between 60 and 90 years. I know the other collectors have the same attitude as me. We are caretakers and these items are Australian history.
The next fragile would be the recordings themselves. To get this far, they have already narrowly escaped destruction. Transcription discs were the means of transporting the sound from the Production house to the radio station. They are, in the early days, acetate on aluminium and later vinyl. The acetate cracks and separates from the base and the sound goes with it. The Transcription discs were licensed to be played once, sometimes twice, then passed to the next station or returned to the Production House or destroyed. what survives to day, survives because somebody couldn't stand to see the shows destroyed and took them home instead. In Australia, close to 90% of Australian radio production was live and not recorded, or was destroyed. We value what has survived.
In the case of Series/Serials, probably only 6 copies were made to do the rounds of the radio stations in the various states, sometimes more, sometimes less. There aren't a lot of duplicates surviving. There aren't a lot of complete serial runs or complete series either.
So here is a taste of some items from my collection. I hope I can convince some other collectors to send pictures of examples from their collections.
It is a large area of collecting. I will leave out items that are covered in the Radio Clubs section, like badges, membership certificates etc and concentrate on the other items that surface from time to time.
I guess they can be divided into at least two categories:
1. Advertising memorabilia which covers giveaways or products that were made available to the listeners.
2. Radio Station or Radio People memorabilia. Items owned by the stations or individuals which have made their way into circulation.
Some items can cross both categories. An item given away by the station that is autographed when distributed or autographed later by a radio personality.
Here is a rough list of items in my collection to give you an idea of what I mean.
Autograph books signed by Radio Actors
Banjo signed by Jack Davey
Birthday cards sent by Radio Stations to children
Board Games
Books on radio signed by the authors
Books on individual people or shows
Books on Radio owned by Radio Actors and signed by their Radio Actor friends
Candle Holders (early Carols)
Cardboard Ventriloquist Dummies (Charlie McCarthy, Howie Wing)
Charms
Chimes
Christmas Decorations
Clocks
Coasters
Coffee Cups
Comics (Bob Dyer, Charlie McCarthy, Smoky Dawson, Larry Kent, The Shadow and dozens more)
Correspondence to and from Radio Stations
Correspondence to and from Radio Personalities
Cuttings books
Decanter
Drink Glasses
Jigsaw Puzzle
Key Rings
Letter Openers
Lights
Match Boxes
Microphones
Music Sheets
Paper Money
Paper Weights
Photos of Radio Actors in costume signed or unsigned
Plaques
Playing Cards
Postcards of Radio Personalities signed or unsigned
Postcards of cast of particular shows
Postcards of Radio Stations or Equipment
Posters
Recordings - Shows (Transcription Discs, Reels, Tapes, CDs, Cartridges)
Recordings (Ads, Themes, Sound Effects, Station ID)
Rulers
Scripts
Signs
Statues
Thermometers
Tickets
One collector also has advertising signs off the sides of Trams. Now that is cool.
Now you can see the scope of what survives and how that gives us an insight into the relationships between those at the microphone and their audience.
The largest section of that list is paper and cardboard. Yet they have survived. Survived for almost 100 years in some cases. It is simply amazing, the items that have avoided being tossed or burnt or flooded for between 60 and 90 years. I know the other collectors have the same attitude as me. We are caretakers and these items are Australian history.
The next fragile would be the recordings themselves. To get this far, they have already narrowly escaped destruction. Transcription discs were the means of transporting the sound from the Production house to the radio station. They are, in the early days, acetate on aluminium and later vinyl. The acetate cracks and separates from the base and the sound goes with it. The Transcription discs were licensed to be played once, sometimes twice, then passed to the next station or returned to the Production House or destroyed. what survives to day, survives because somebody couldn't stand to see the shows destroyed and took them home instead. In Australia, close to 90% of Australian radio production was live and not recorded, or was destroyed. We value what has survived.
In the case of Series/Serials, probably only 6 copies were made to do the rounds of the radio stations in the various states, sometimes more, sometimes less. There aren't a lot of duplicates surviving. There aren't a lot of complete serial runs or complete series either.
So here is a taste of some items from my collection. I hope I can convince some other collectors to send pictures of examples from their collections.
