30 Vintage Photos Capture People With Radios During the Golden Age of Radio

The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the early 1920s and lasted through the 1950s, when television gradually superseded radio as the medium of choice for scripted programming, variety and dramatic shows.

Radio was the first broadcast medium, and during this period people regularly tuned in to their favorite radio programs, and families gathered to listen to the home radio in the evening. A variety of new entertainment formats and genres were created for the new medium, many of which later migrated to television: radio plays, mystery serials, soap operas, quiz shows, talent shows, daytime and evening variety hours, situation comedies, play-by-play sports, children's shows, cooking shows, and more.

In the 1950s, television surpassed radio as the most popular broadcast medium, and commercial radio programming shifted to narrower formats of news, talk, sports and music. Religious broadcasters, listener-supported public radio and college stations provide their own distinctive formats.

Here below is a set of vintage photos that shows people with their radios from between the 1920s and 1950s.

Two women posing with radio, circa 1920s

Two women and a child with their radio, circa 1920

Boy adjusting a knob on a radio set, 1925

Family at radio, 1927

The new radio, 1928

An adolescent girl languorously listening to the radio in a middle-class home, circa 1935

Woman at radio, circa 1935

The driver of the Opel relaxing in the car's cozy cabin. A portable tube radio, an alarm clock, cushions, and blankets suggest that the couple actually spent the nights in their car during their journey, circa 1938

A stylish lady with a beehive hairdo tuning a tabletop tube radio in a middle-class home. The radio set is adorned with a lace doily, china figurines, and a portrait photograph of a young man, circa 1940s

Woman adjusting a knob on a radio set, circa 1940s

Young woman posing with radio, circa 1940s

An American war worker tuning in for war news on his radio, Rochester, New York, March 1943

Girl, coat and radio, 1951

Mother and her child posing with radio, 1951

Beautiful lady being hip with a portable radio, Brooklyn, New York City, 1954

Woman with radio, 1954

Woman with her children posing with radio, 1956

A brunette lady posing in an armchair in a middle-class living room. Note the doll in a clear plastic box – possibly Bild Lilli – sitting on the tube radio, circa 1950s

A young brunette lady in an evening dress posing in a middle-class home. A tube radio set adorned with vases and flower pots can be seen on the sideboard, circa 1950s

A young lady in a white blouse posing by the radio in a middle-class home. The tube radio Beethoven II by Stern-Radio Rochlitz is of East German manufacture, circa 1950s

A young lady listening to the radio in a middle-class home, circa 1950s

An adolescent girl languorously listening to the radio in a middle-class home. The tube radio is sitting on a cabinet full of kitschy trinkets, circa 1950s

Children with radio, Brooklyn, New York, circa 1950s

Couple in a camp with their radio, circa 1950s

Fashionable blonde lady sitting in an armchair in living room at night. She is proudly posing with two middle-class status symbols of time – an illuminated record player and a tube radio set, circa 1950s

German woman posing with her radio, circa 1950s

Man smoking by his portable radio, circa 1950s

Stylish woman on the beach with her portable radio, circa 1950s

Woman and her granddaughter at radio, circa 1950s

Woman with her portable radio, circa 1950s