Scrollwave

Random thought.

Scrolling through media on the web is the modern equivalent of tuning across the bands on shortwave. Shortwave broadcasting was killed by the web, much more firmly and directly than other media. With a good receiver and good propagation conditions, you could find every kind of entertainment or news in every language, plus hams (bloggers), plus clandestine spy stations (dark web) plus utility and police broadcasts (PulsePoint).

Many of the best receivers in the ’30s had thumbwheel tuning, echoed now by the mousewheel.

This is Polistra’s 1938 Philco, a replica of the receiver I used most often. I also used it often in this blog. When I looked for a scene that I could recycle for this quickie animation, I found that I used the Philco 300 times out of 3000 animations over 18 years.