Radio Collection

Pirate Radio ship, Radio Caroline, Essex coast
The pirate radio ship, Radio Caroline, anchored off the Essex coast near Walton-on-the-Naze, with a boat alongside. circa 1966

Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers - the Goons 1972
Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers - the Goons, get together for the first time in 12 years for the BBC 50th anniversary

GEORGE ORWELL (1903-1950). Pseudonym of Eric Blair. English novelist and essayist. Orwell broadcasting over the BBC in London, England, in 1943

Marconi radio apparatus
Marconi radio equipment on a ship. The equipment includes headphones and a Morse code key (lower centre). The equipment is labelled (left-right)

Pirate Radio ship, Radio London, Essex coast

BBC 1935
Spread from Radio Pictorial Annual showing the British Broadcasting Centre including the interior with the vaudeville studio, the gramaphone effects studio, concert hall, council chamber

Woman police officer attending an accident where a man appears to have fallen off a ladder. She is speaking into her hand-held radio. Date: circa 1970s

View over the Berlin Wall in 1985, towards the TV Tower at Alexanderplatz in East Berlin, at night, Berlin, Germany, Europe

Danny Kaye / Rko Radio
DANNY KAYE American entertainer of stage, screen and television Date: 1913 -

Archie Andrews, Peter Brough and Vera Lynn
Forces Sweetheart Vera Lynn at the BBC, recording with Peter Brough and famous ventriloquist dummy, Archie Andrews, 1944. Lynn had only just returned from a tour of India

Marconi radio valve. This is a Marconi transmitter valve of the type M.T.6. Marconi patented his radio equipment in 1896, founding a company in 1897 to build the new equipment

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers - still from the Radio Picture Ltd production Shall We Dance?

Alexandra Palace, the home of the B. B. C. The large transmitt
Alexandra Palace as the home of the B.B.C television service in 1936 showing the mast and transmitting aerials for vision and sound

Underside of Arecibo radio telescope
Arecibo radio observatory. View of the underside of the dish antenna of the Arecibo radio telescope, the worlds largest. Built into a volcanic crater in Puerto Rico, Arecibos dish is made of 38

Tape recorder
Ampex reel-to-reel tape recorder and Gates Radio Company modulation monitor, photographed in recording studio mock-up at Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum, Pontiac, Illinois

Police in London
Police officers on the radio in the street in London. Metropolitan Police

Bonzo adds a fifth to the quartet
Bonzo, listening to music on the radio, adds a fifth to the quartet, and starts to howl. Date: 1923

Metropolitan Police walkie talkie radio
A Metropolitan Police walkie talkie radio

W. Heath Robinson
Cartoon, Heath Robinsons Broadcast Drawing. My Wireless Set showing an old radio. Please note: Credit must appear as Courtesy of the Estate of Mrs J.C.Robinson/Pollinger Ltd/ILN/Mary Evan"

ROBERTS R RADIO 1970S
A trendy Roberts R portable radio

The Evening Wireless - Komarjan Bridge, WW1
The Surrey Yeomanry on the Struma Valley Front, Salonika 1917-1918. The Evening Wireless - Komarjan Bridge. By Frank Algernon Stewart (1877-1945). 1917-1918

Lovell Telescope
The brainchild of Sir Bernard Lovell, the Lovell Radio Telescope was for many years the largest in the world and dominates the Cheshire countryside for miles around. Date: 1960s

Marconi with his radio, 19th century
Marconi with his radio, 19th-century artwork. The apparatus consists of a receiver and a transmitter. Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937)

Police Car Chase 1991
Police officers driving a police car during a car chase, on the radio and wearing seatbelts. Metropolitan Police on an emergency call

Marconi and his wireless telegraph apparatus, 1899-1900 (silver gelatin print)
MNY381513 Marconi and his wireless telegraph apparatus, 1899-1900 (silver gelatin print) by Byron Company (fl.1890-1942); 20.3x25.4 cm; Museum of the City of New York

Radio Station Tower at Tuckerton, NJ
Radio Station Tower at Tuckerton, New Jersey - 850 feet high Date: circa 1920s

Model of Russian Molniya-1 satellite
Molniya 1 communications satellite. Model of a Molniya-1 military communications satellite in its orbital configuration. Molniya-1 was the first attempt by the Soviet Union to provide satellite-based

Shukhov broadcasting tower
The Shukhov radio tower, Moscow, photographed at night. Also known as the Shabolovka tower, this broadcasting tower was designed by architect Vladimir Shukhov to serve the Russian capital

VLA (Very Large Array) of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, New Mexico, United States of America, North America

VLA (Very Large Array) of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, New Mexico, United States of America, North America

1957 nuclear test: Fall-out
Fallout: The sinister and prolonged after-effect of nuclear explosions: a drawing illustrating some characteristics of this haunting phenomenon.An illustration by special Illustrated London News

England / Lyme Regis
A glimpse of Lyme Regis High Street, Dorset, England, showing a young man on a bicycle outside Cox & Humphries radio shop and the church in the background

Vacuuming a Wireless
Frequent cleaning of a wireless set (radio) can easily be done with use of the spare parts of a Hoover vacuum cleaner

Hat Wireless 1930S
A man tunes into his hat radio!

Largest Wireless Valve
The worlds largest wireless valve, being made in a factory in Germany

Marconi Transmitter
Marconi transmitting apparatus

Vince Prior, Club Secretary, North Tees Breakers Club, which is disbanding due to lack of support, 9th March 1986

Mrs Giles Borrett, first female BBC radio announcer
Mrs Giles Borrett (her stage name as an actress was Sheila Stewart), first female BBC radio announcer. She had a three-month trial, and received good notices, but her contract was terminated

France. Paris. Notre Dame. Rose window

Queen Elizabeth II caricature
Queen Elizabeth II (b. 1926), pictured in caricature about to give her a speech over the radio. Date: 1986

BBC Disc Jockey. Noel Edmonds. 15th January 1976

Tony Blackburn at twenty two (22) ex Radio One DJ disk jockey. Picture taken as Tony Blackburn completes the first ever BBC Radio One broadcast. Picture taken 1st October 1967

Wireless officer sending a message by Morse Code from on board a ship, 1916
Wireless officer sending a message by morse code from on board a ship, 1916. Wireless telegraphy at sea was made possible by the type of sending

Rin Tin Tin, the German Shepherd dog who featured in film, radio and television productions, circa 1928. This portrait was released as publicity for the film, Land of the Silver Fox

Handley Page Halifax VI RG815 Mercury of the RAF
Handley Page Halifax VI, RG815, Mercury of the RAF Empire Radio School, Debden, prior to its 25, 000-mile tour of Palestine, Iraq, India, Burma, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand in 1946

Elisabeth Welch (1904-2003) African American singer & actress who settled in London in 1933. Popular star of British musical theatre, films, television & radio from the 1930s to the 1990s. Date: 1935

BBC snooker commentator Ted Lowe holding his microphone. 27th January 1986

The pirate radio station Radio London seen here moored 12 miles off the the Essex coast. 28th July 1965

Terry Wogan at BBC Manchester
DJ Terry Wogan at BBC Manchester 1976

A Stuart Hibberd. Chief BBC radio announcer until 1951. Date: circa 1938

WW2 - Surcouf Submarine of the Free French Navy. The largest submarine ever built until surpassed by the first Japanese I-400-class submarine in 1943

TV transmitter, Crystal Palace, London C016 / 6286
TV transmitter, Crystal Palace, London. This TV transmitter began transmissions in 1956. At 219 metres tall it is one of Londons tallest structures. Known as Londons Eiffel tower

Princess Elizabeth first broadcast, 1940
Princess Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth II) making her first radio broadcast on 11 October 1940 to British children evacuated abroad to the United States and Canada. Date: 1940

Guglielmo Marconi, radio inventor
Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), Italian physicist and inventor of the radio. Marconi patented his radio system in Britain, established the Marconis Wireless Telegraph Company in London in 1897

Electric power was cut off to a fifth of Britain as electricity workers carried out the first day of a work to rule industrial action. News by candlelight and battery power

The line up of Radio One disc jockeys: (back row, l-r) John Peel, David Symonds, Dave Cash, Stuart Henry, Johnny Moran, Alan Freeman; (middle row, l-r) Peter Myers, Mike Ravon, Terry Wogan

Radio Christmas Pantomime starring left to right a Member of the Hedley Ward Trio holding poster, the effects man, Ethel Revnell, Max Wall, Gilbert Harding, Noel Purcell, Vera Lynn, Fred Yule

The New Magic: Sending Pictures by Wireless and the Unescapable Telephone, c1935. From Our Wonderful World, Volume II, edited by J.A. Hammerton. [The Amalgamated Press, Ltd. London]

BBC broadcast from the aviary at London Zoo, 20th century. Officials of the British Broadcasting Corporation, preparing to broadcast sounds from the aviary at London Zoo

Sugg Sports and Radio, High Street, Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, 1960. The High Street branch of Sugg Sports in Scunthorpe, showing some electrical goods and adverts to either rent or buy

Radio presenter with giant snail
Radio presenter comes face to face with a giant snail -- a surprise guest on his show. Date: circa 1970s

WW2 - British Majorcoats and Khassadars at Chitral
WW2 - British Soldiers (one on radio - far left) with Khassadars of North Waziristan, at Chitral (then Northern India, now Pakistan), close to the border with Afghanistan. Date: circa 1940

Supernova remnant IC 443, composite image. This is a combination of X-ray (blue), radio (green) and optical (red) data. A supernova remnant (SNR)

Marconi radio apparatus
Marconi radio equipment. This is a Marconi type 31 crystal receiver for ships. Marconi patented his radio equipment in 1896, founding a company in 1897 to build the new equipment

Lee De Forest, US radio pioneer
Lee De Forest (1873-1961), American radio pioneer, holding the triode valve, or Audion tube, that he invented. De Forest studied at Yale, gaining his doctorate with a thesis on radio waves

MUSIC: THE INK SPOTS. Popular American vocal group of the 1930s and 1940 s

Four patients at the Medical Centre, Hendon
Scene at the Metropolitan Police Medical Centre, Hendon, north west London, showing four patients in dressing gowns and pyjamas chatting in a hospital ward

Traffic Accident Group
A Metropolitan Police Traffic Accident Group, consisting of two Triumph motorcycles and one Wolseley 6/110 motor car, fitted with radio transmitter and loudspeaker

Police Officer in Radio
Police officer on walkie talkie in London. Metropolitan Police

Police on Walkie Talkie
Police officers talking on a walkie talkie in the street at Notting Hill Underground Station, London Metropolitan Police

Communications Room on an Atlantic liner
A communications room onboard an Atlantic liner, an example of the kind that would have been on board the Titanic. Built by the shipyard Harland and Wolff for White Star Lines

Demonstration of the wireless telephone, June 1920. In the 1920s, broadcasting was still in its infancy, with radio transmitters and receivers owned only by amateur enthusiasts

Orson Welles / Rko Radio
ORSON WELLES American film actor, producer and director

Fairies Dance in Woods with Faun on Gramophone
Upto-date fairies dance to the music of the radio Date: 1925

Futuristic news broadcast
A futuristic news broadcast, where a couple relax in their sitting room and listen to the days news from a gramophone-like machine

The Ray Ellington Quartet. Ray Ellington (1916-1985) London-born singer, drummer and bandleader best known for his appearances on radio and TV in The Goon Show from 1951 to 1960. Date: 1950s

Mark Goodier, BBC Radio One DJ, pictured at the 1993 DJ line up photocall. Picture taken 27th September 1993

Train driver on an intercom, South Yorkshire, 1964. Artist: Michael Walters
Train driver on an intercom, South Yorkshire, 1964. A loco driver from the Park Gate Iron and Steel Company in Rotherham on an intercom in the cab of his diesel loco

Villagers Gathered Around the Wireless
Villagers in Charlwood, Sussex, gathered around the wireless radio in a local pub. 1940

WW2 - Blitz on London - Fire Force Commander taking charge
WW2 - Blitz on London - Fire Force Commander C P McDuell takes charge at a major fire. Senior Company Officer Jimmy Syrett operates the walkie talkie set and Company Officer Obie Walker

Princess Elizabeth broadcasting to the Empire
Princess Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth II) at a BBC microphone making her 21st birthday broadcast to the Empire during the Royal Tour of South Africa on 21st April 1947. Date: 1947

Very Large Array (VLA) radio antennae
Very Large Array antennae. View of several dish antennae which make up the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope near Socorro, New Mexico, USA

Pulsar, artwork. This stellar object is a rapidly- rotating neutron star. Neutron stars have powerful magnetic fields (shown by the purple lines)

All Professionally Made to Order for Quick Shipping

"Unleashing the Waves of Music and Stories: A Journey through Radio History" Step aboard the Pirate Radio ship, Radio Caroline, as we set sail along the enchanting Essex coast. In 1972, comedic geniuses Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe, and Peter Sellers - famously known as The Goons - took to the airwaves with their hilarious banter. But radio's influence stretches far beyond comedy. Even George Orwell himself, under his pseudonym Eric Blair, graced the BBC in London in 1943 with his thought-provoking broadcasts that captivated listeners across England. Another legendary pirate radio ship emerged on the scene - Radio London. Anchored off the Essex coast, it brought a new wave of music and entertainment to eager ears. Before these rebellious ventures came into existence, it was the BBC that first established its dominance in 1935. With Marconi's revolutionary radio apparatus paving the way for mass communication, British households were introduced to a world of news reports and captivating dramas. Across continents and oceans alike, radio became an international phenomenon. From Danny Kaye entertaining audiences through RKO Radio to Marconi's groundbreaking wireless telegraph apparatus capturing imaginations in 1899-1900 – this medium transcended borders. In Britain's golden era entertainment during World War II, beloved characters like Archie Andrews accompanied by ventriloquist Peter Brough enchanted families while Vera Lynn's angelic voice provided solace amidst chaos. And who could forget Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing their way into our hearts through crackling speakers? Even renowned illustrator W. Heath Robinson found inspiration within this realm of sound waves as he depicted Alexandra Palace – home to BBC transmissions – with its towering transmitters reaching towards infinite possibilities. Radio has been more than just a means of transmitting information; it has woven itself into our cultural fabric. It continues to be a timeless companion that connects us, entertains us, and sparks our imagination.