The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-19

Senator Dunn Falls For the Radio Craze. A Mans House is His Bedlam,
 He Writer Rep. Drummer S5
DEAR Drummer -

N HY DEAR Dummer:-- 4 5faS v. fH@ M I have gone and done it. After re- ssting for over two years I have joined the Grand Army of Pop-Eared Radio Bugs. I couldn't help it. A fellow came to the house the other night and set up little mahogany box with four or five electric lights bulbs in it. He put in on table in my sun porch. I thought it was a fireless cooker and that he was going to bake shad or sumpin, but he took little piece of copper wire, stretched it from the box to the corner of my garage and the first thing 1 knew both of my ears were full of speeches, tenor solos, organ. recitals. band concerts, prize fight returns and bedtime stories from Chi cago and points west.
 Inside half-hour the sun porch was filled with air shipments of aerial entertain ment from the Western states and in another hour so much stuff from Montreal, Detroit Cleveland, Washington, etc., poured in that it overflowed into the living and dining rooms. Mine is only six-room house and it seemed for a time it couldn't hold all the junk that came in over the wire. The whole house got damned with songs, stories, jokes and band concerts in no time and couldn't walk from one room into another without tripping over a speech. on radish culture from Providence, R. l., barking my shins against quartette selection from Pittsburg, Pa, or getting struck smack across the ears by a saxaphone outrage thrown clear from Galveston. Texas. That's a long way to hurl a saxaphone number but it was in good con- dition when it landed.
 had never paid much attention to the radio before as I just looked on it as some thing just kept goofy young men off the streets nights and gave married couples in the suburbs something to do besides fight from supper time to midnight. Consequently stepping into my house and hearing lot Of gay dogs in Chicago, Detroit, Newark. Sche- nectady. etc.. chinning away as if they was in their own home rather knocked me dizzy. And they was 50 friendly about it! A fellow with a deep bass voice that gave me pain all over was saying "Now, dear friends, know you like the next number have pre- pared for you. am very glad to have you all with me again this evening. Stand Dy while Miss Norah Haddock. the Glue Works Contralto renders, All for Love"
 He seemed pretty familiar to me for a fellow I had never met but he continued to be very chatty with us all and I realized later that perfect strangers in Oshkosh and Soupbone Center make themselves perfectly at home with you over the radio and don't think none the less of you.
 We'll, anyhow. it baffled me how all these voices and instruments could come hurling across the United States and drop right at my feet just by means of about ten cents worth of copper wire. I was inclined to think there was a trick to it but the agent explained that when a man stood up in the Town Hall in Salt Lake City and threw a talk on pants-pressing through the air it flew across country, landed against that dime worth of wire and leaped righ: into my ears in good order no matter whether he aimed it at me or not. The same talk could hit tens of thousands of other wires en route and act the same way, he said. How any voice could bump smack into so many wires and still get through in good repair was mystery to me, but he explained it all scien- tifically and it is now as clear as duck soup to me. l.s<
 By the end of the evening I had bought the radio set and paid the first nine dollars down. ] hadn't had it twelve hours before I was neglecting my supper to try to get Havana, Honolulu and Hong Kong
 We'll meanwhile, as the old saying goes, a mans house is his bedlam, and l will write you more of my radio experiences later.
 Regard to all,
 Senator O. Howe Dumm..