On the occasion of the World Radio Day, celebrated on February 13, the Khmelnytsky Local History Museum has put on display as part of its “Exhibit of the Month” project the first radio set designed specifically for rural residents, prostir.museum/ua reports. Although radio was invented in the late 19th century, mass broadcasting dates back to the 1920s, when it began to spread around the world with a fantastic speed. Thus, Podillia’s first radio receiving stations opened in 1922 and were located in Kamianka, Vinnytsia, and Mohyliv-Podilskyi. The Shepetivka station started operations a year later, while the Proskuriv station joined it in 1924 (the first loudspeaker with a long square-shaped mouthpiece was mounted on a pole at the entrance to the city garden). During broadcasts, a crowd formed around the loudspeaker, and people of all ages never ceased to marvel at this “miracle of technology.”
Radiofication of cities and villages started in earnest in the 1930s. The so-called wired radio network appeared. In 1956, the Nov radio set (pictured), designed specifically for rural residents, was put into production. Its main feature was its interoperability with any batteries or accumulators, which was especially appropriate in many villages and hamlets that were still lacking a power connection. A Nov radio weighed 2.7 kilograms (without battery) and received long and medium-wave broadcasts, while its batteries stayed charged for 1,000 hours.