This looks, at first, like a rather chunky radio but when you push on a lever at the back a little turntable lowers down and you can see that it is also a record player. The radiogram is covered with a cream crocodile skin effect material, probably a synthetic material called Rexine, which was fashionable in the 1950s. With its stow-away turntable and carrying handle this was clearly intended to be portable within the home. All the details of the design of this radiogram are elegant; the beige felt covered turntable is placed on a tear shaped plastic platform and the arm of the record player is not just a straight lever but it has a gentle arc shape. Curved shapes like boomerangs, kidneys and tears were very popular in the 1950s design. The colours are all subtle muted shades between lemon and grey. 

Guglielmo Marconi invented wireless transmission late in the 19th Century. He discovered that sounds could be transmitted between places without the need for wires by using electromagnetic radio waves. By the 1920s his basic principles of sound transmission were improved by the invention of valves which made radio waves easier to transmit and gave a clearer sound. Initially, valve radios were very expensive but by the 1950s the price had fallen.

The radio above is valve powered and has long wave, medium wave and short wave bands. Today, your radio at home may still have long wave and medium wave bands. Short wave bands give access to programmes transmitted from places further away. Most of the popular BBC medium and long wave stations that we are familiar with today were broadcasting by the late 1940s. The Light Programme (Radio 4) started broadcasting on 29th July 1945, on 1500 metres, in the long wave band.

This radiogram was produced by HMV (His Master’s Voice) in the mid 1950s and has the model number 1507 which perhaps alludes to the 1500 metre wave band. The record player has three speeds – 78, 33 and 45rpm.