Celebrate the golden age of radio at a quirky Alameda festival
Who said radio is dead? In one Bay Area city — the charmingly locked-in-time Alameda — the more-than-a-century-old medium is given a celebratory bash that gets bigger and more elaborate with each passing year.
The 2025 Radio Day by the Bay Festival, taking place July 19 at the headquarters of the California Historical Radio Society, fetes radio broadcasting’s golden age and its hopefully bright future. What will be “on the air?” Well, there’s a live jazz orchestra to keep the crowds swinging and live radio plays to deliver suspense and thrills. An auction offers the chance to own vintage gems like a 1950s “Lone Ranger” AM radio and a wood-paneled Zenith shortwave from 1939.
The radio society is giving tours of its museum with all its Inspector Gadget-type widgets and gizmos — be sure to check out the “Ham Station,” which does not feature smoked meat. And there’s a surplus-electronics sale, a boombox-building contest and food trucks, all set to the melodious commentary of local radio hosts Hoyt Smith and Sylvia Chacon.
Steve Cushman, former president and current director of the California Historical Radio Society, uses a flashlight while hunting for juke box parts with Stephen Franaszak, at the Bay Area Radio Museum, Wednesday, March 6, 2024 in Alameda, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
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