Mobile Media Gadgets of the Analog Age

As a cultural practice, the “mobile” use of media technologies has developed alongside the growing individualization and mobilization of consumer societies during the second half of the twentieth century and in connection with analog media gadgets, such as the portable radio or the cassette recorder. Being mobile did not refer only to a physical movement but also to the potential use of portables “anytime, anywhere,” that is, without the need of location-bound wires or connections. Portable electronics were used both indoors and outdoors as well as in stationary and mobile modes, and their extensive and widespread use led to new mobility and technological cultures. [Page 979]These were characterized not only by a high autonomy and flexibility but also by an increased inflexibility, since portables often served as “snail shells” in which to house one's personal values, routines, and environment.

The mobile use of radios, televisions, or hi-fi systems was not self-evident, since the dominant appropriation of consumer electronics of the second half of the twentieth century had been a domestic one: Stationary models provided leisure and entertainment in one's private home. The technological prerequisite for portables was miniaturization, facilitated by transistors, integrated circuits, and enhanced battery power and later on, liquid crystal displays (LCD). From the portable radio of the 1950s onward, most portable electronics were at first introduced into the market as “travel companions.” They were supposed to be carried along on leisure and business journeys, and they were supposed to enable their users to uphold essential or appreciated stationary routines while away from stationary equipment. By integrating them more and more into their daily lives, users ultimately shaped these travel companions into “everyday companions.” In this transformation, business men, vacationers, and, above all, teenagers were lead users, and the young, urban generation left a significant imprint on the emerging mobility culture. Yet in the end, nearly all generations used portables. Portable radios, cassette recorders, or Walkmans reached a higher diffusion than the stationary equipment though their technical quality was mostly inferior, and their popularity enforced an individualization, even a personalization, of technology. Meanwhile, during the phases of their appropriation, constitutive norms and structures of everyday social life were renegotiated, namely, the subtle spatiotemporal structures of everyday life, such as the public or private and work or leisure distinction, the temporal ordering of activities and concepts of individuality and collectivity.

Portable, cordless electronics promise to “free” their owners from the many temporal, spatial, and social constraints involved in the stationary use of technology. Along with being marketed for business travels, the portable radio of the 1950s was marketed as well for outdoor summer picnics or sporting events. In the United States, the portable radio was mass produced from the late 1930s, while European and Asian companies followed in the 1950s. At the end of the 1950s and in the 1960s, the portable radio was used to supply entertainment at picnics or to keep in contact with native broadcasting and thus with a familiar language and soundscape while on vacation abroad. But at the same time and along with the trend toward secondary listening, users tuned in with their portables “in between,” or in parallel to everyday situations or obligations, be it driving, gardening, dressing, eating, or working. For a home-based use, most portable radios also integrated the possibility to connect them to the main supply. The portable radio thus represented the primary portable media gadget to be used by the average mass consumer in everyday life. It enhanced the mediatization and technologization of both the private and the public sphere. In particular, teenagers acquired portables as primary sets since prices for portable radios, in particular the pocket-sized sets and eastern Asian imports, were low. In addition, in war and cold war times, portable radios were valued as handy information tools and considered necessary in fallout shelters. In the end, with a growing dispersion of both portable and stationary sets, radio listening was dissociated from its initial domestic and family structures, while it became integrated into the individual's daily routines. The single cabinet-like stationary set was substituted by a multitude of mobile, semimobile (automobile) and fixed receivers, and broadcasting increasingly offered programs that could be listened to in between and alongside further activities. Radio sounds permeated nearly every room in the home, be it the bedroom or the bathroom, as well as the car as “private space” on wheels and manifold public settings, such as public pools, parks, or pedestrian zones.

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