The power of radio
Topic: 1940's
The power of radio is the point - please read: .....The siege of Leningrad began in 1941 and lasted nine hundred days. During all this time, there were no trains and no trams and no light. 900,000 people died. The survivors ate book bindings and glue, and other things to harsh for me to mention here. Once Zoya and her neighbors kept themselves alive for two weeks in the winter of 1942 by making a stew out of four crows. There was a ship frozen in the Neva River. All through the siege, this ship kept going with a radio broadcast, run from the ship's generator. It called itself Radio Leningrad. It tried to bring people news about the war and news about where food was to be found and when the siege would end. These broadcasts were the things that people most looked forward to every single day. A voice that talks to you, even if you can't see it, like we can't see each other now, can give you hope, even if there really and truly is no hope at all. And do you know what those broadcasters used to transmit between programmes? They found a metronome and put it by the mike and just let it tick, on and on. And when you switched on your radio and heard that metronome, you knew that the ship was still there in the river and that the city was alive.
Posted by BSB, editor
at 1:26 PM EST
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Updated: Saturday, 13 November 2004 1:27 PM EST
Updated: Saturday, 13 November 2004 1:27 PM EST