Published: 16 March, 2009, 10:34
Edited: 16 March, 2009, 10:34
Russians are marking the 150th birthday anniversary of Aleksandr Popov – the man who they believe invented the radio. In spite of the digital age, a traditional radio is still just as important for some.
Americans are convinced it was Nikola Tesla who invented radio. Italians claim it was Marconi, but for Russians it was Aleksandr Popov who gave radio to the people.
In 1894 he developed a radio receiver and was the first to use an antenna in his wireless telegraph.
Ever since the antenna has been developing and growing to bring news to a wider and wider audience.
Carl Watts has been on the radio for 50 years now, as well as his wife and brother. He jokes sometimes that the three could have been in the Guinness Book of World Records if someone added up their years of work.
Watts is among those who remember how radio gained in popularity – first in the Soviet Union and then in Russia.
Carl says that back in the USSR it was incredibly hard to apply for a job in radio. Standards were very high.
 Aleksandr Popov |
Radio DJ Sasha Solntsev got his job easily. One interview and an audition were enough to get his voice put on Moscow's FM waves. He claims today's radio is too old fashioned and should be closer to the people.
“We should add some life to our radio broadcasts. If you want to sneeze, go for it! People like those kind of things, they start to trust you,” Sasha Solntsev said.
For some though radio is just a hobby. They're both listeners and broadcasters. They are ‘hams’ – amateur radio enthusiasts.
“I was very surprised to find out that there are not just engineers or students who are radio amateurs, but also some of the world's top figures. I communicated with the king of Jordan – Hussein I. I addressed him as ‘Your Majesty’ but we talked about his kids and the films he watched recently,” says radio engineer Sergey Hotynsky.
The celebrities Sasha came across were lower in rank – mostly singers and their producers, but he wouldn't mind, he says, reaching out to the likes of Amy Winehouse over ultra-short waves.
For radio DJs like Sasha it is really of little concern whether Nikola Tesla or Marconi carried out the first experiments with wireless telegraphy.
For them it’s Russian inventor Aleksandr Popov who they most admire for inventing the radio transmitter which up until now has been the cheapest and the easiest way for someone to hear and to be heard.