Life, 1926-03-04 · page 13 of 40
Life — March 4, 1926 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* satirizes radio enthusiasts of the early-to-mid 20th century. "The DX Fan" mocks amateur radio operators obsessed with tuning distant stations—the poem describes a man frantically adjusting his receiver seeking London, Madrid, and Paris, only to catch static and "state's wails and moans." The joke: despite his "admirable patience," he achieves nothing, then retreats to bed muttering about trying Scotland next. The accompanying illustration shows him frustrating his family with this hobby. "The Perfect Radio Program" box sarcastically presents Station MEOW offering "a vocal offering by a quartette...not 'Old MacDonald's Farm'"—mocking both pretentious programming and the cats he'd hear instead. These pieces gently ridicule the obsessive radio-tinkering culture that emerged as broadcasting technology spread.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The DX Fan EFORE his radio he sat B And fiddled with the stat And pushed 1 pulled at this 1 that. With admirable patience he Sought stations far across the sea, London, Madrid, and + y Paree In vain! He caught + Of violins or saxophones; Only the static’s wails and moans Was he downhearted? Nay, not s« “I'll try for Scotland ere 1 go, He murmured to his radio, Once more he clamped about his bean The harness of his ear-phones keen And fished. fished...for Aber- deen. A static scream, to wake dead. Burst suddenly about his “Bagpipes!” he cried, George § MY WIFE'S LEARNING TO COOK BY RADIO; LAST NIGHT WE HAD STATIC WITH ONIDNS!” Idyl HE visitor entered a large, well 7 lighted room filled with seats. In It Had to Come these men were sleeping, reading news. . . Papers or conversing in small gr LAINLY tl in a corner three were playing cards 1 his har At one end of the room a_ poor! was sad. He chee mu reminiscently years. Caref sed gentleman was engaged : dressed gentleman was engage i's ch en clowty a rcike: ; talking, apparently to himself, for no (et ad, aver th the s worn robe, re one was paying any attention to him, °F cummonplace ‘happening and s,spot ther “What is this place?” queried the visitor. “A club?” replied his guide of the endless years i, with a choked st e by—over the never-ending toil of | And now the end had earch is over. I've "you have before you a c¢ The long-traveled trail ha: dmits that he — the end. It had to come into tears HE hand that used to rock the »wly, lovingly, he lifted the thing C. M. Stuart cradle is now writing birth control from the fle 3 tenderly he held it be propaganda fore his eyes, and with tear-s In Retaliation LL tell my dad not to let you have any mor hootlegger’s boy, your dad out of jail This is Station MEOW. Next we will have a vocal offering by a quartette. It will not be “Old Mac- Donald's Farm.” torted the polit swolle JT would take two thousand tons of At that rate we has Florida real-es twenty-eight cent comicbooks.com