Life, 1926-03-04 · page 40 of 40
Life — March 4, 1926 — page 40: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **product advertisement**, not political satire. It promotes the Atwater Kent Model 20 Compact radio, a five-tubed receiver designed for home use. The "joke" is rhetorical: the ad asks "Radio, yes—but what *kind*?" to establish that consumers have specific needs (reliability, tone quality, appearance, convenience). The answer: Atwater Kent's compact model, which fits "no bigger than a row of a dozen books, no taller than your fountain pen." The advertisement emphasizes the radio's dual appeal—it delivers full technical performance while occupying minimal space in the home, addressing both practical and aesthetic concerns of "inevitable good taste." The page includes a schedule for "The Atwater Kent Radio Hour," a sponsored Sunday evening broadcast featuring opera and concert performers, distributed across multiple stations (WEAR, WCAR, WCCO, WLI, etc.). This reflects 1920s radio culture when receiving sets were furniture pieces and sponsored programming was emerging as a business model.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
iT ete LIrFR ° NTWATER Reve in the home is accept- ed, The question more and more homekeepers are asking is: “What kind of radio?” Yourself, for instance. Do you not require reliability and simplicity? Softness and true- ness of tone? Freedom from un- wanted noises? And, of course, ability to get the programs you prefer, over a wide range, and to exclude the others? And do you not equally insist on agreeable appearance? On convenience? On beauty and unobtrusiveness as well as utility and efficiency? On friendly radio? On radio which you buy for the pleasure it will give you, not for the space it will fill? So many persons have an- swered “Yes” that we have built for them—for homes of inevitable good taste—a receiv- ing set which is full- powered, Compact, $59. The Radio Speater Mosel H, $22 XAL The Receiving Set ilestrated ts the Medel 20 aXe Radio, yes—but what sind? five-tubed, robust, complete, but is only 19% inches long, 6% inches high, $3; inches deep! It has all the parts—full size —of our larger models. They are rearranged in a mahogany cabinet only half as big— no bigger than a row of a dozen books, no taller than your fountain pen. This receiving set is the At- water Kent Model 20 Compact. EVERY SUNDAY EVENING The Atwater Kent Radio Hour brings you the stars of opera and concert, in Radio’ gram. Her it at 9 me, 8.15 Central Time, through: wear New York wet. «| Phitedelphia weer Been wean WCAR. | Washingten won WSAN . . Cimimmare we WCCO Minm.eSt.Pael WIA. + WRAK. os Cleveland xspe ees StL WLI... Chkage we tof Atwater Keet Radio ATWATER KENT MFG. COMPANY 4753 Wistamickon Ave + Paicavecenia, Pa, comicbooks.com