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Radio Waves Exhibit at Art
RADIO WAVES
Miami Beach and the Golden Age of Radio
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Visit the museum at the Art Deco Welcome Center for its latest exhibition.
By Patricia Cárdenas
As we enter the winter season and celebrate Miami Beach’s arts and culture scene, we’re teleporting back to the earliest days of the city. Before there was an Art Deco District, there was the untamed island of what was soon to be Miami Beach. It has been over 100 years since the earliest radio towers and stations set foot in Miami. And the city as we know it today couldn’t have blossomed without the Golden Age of Radio. MDPL’s latest exhibition Radio Waves:
Miami Beach and the Golden Age of Radio,
at the Art Deco Museum— dives into a time when Miami Beach was growing and expanding by the minute thanks in part to the new technology, which was quickly taking over the U.S. and abroad. In 1915, Miami Beach was a brand new city carved out of a jungle. Years prior, the Marconi Brothers had erected radio towers on the island as the first broadcast medium took over communications. These new changes signaled the start of the machine age, as never before had cities been able to connect and reach each other in such a way. Radio played a key role in promoting Miami Beach as an attractive winter destination. The city’s pioneers, like Carl Fisher, John Collins, and the Lummus Brothers were all passionate about bringing new life to the city through tourism and new developments, including radio. This emphasis on innovation, culture and transport made Miami Beach the World’s Winter Playland.
1144 OCEAN DR | MIAMI BEACH, FL 33139 | 1-844-319-3854 | HOTELVICTORSOUTHBEACH.COM
940 OCEAN DR | MIAMI BEACH, FL 33139 | 1-844-319-3854 | BREAKWATERSOUTHBEACH.COM
And just like radios became a staple for cars and homes, they became a staple in Miami Beach’s hotels. In fact, one of the city’s former hotels is the site of its first-ever commercial radio station. The Fleetwood Hotel (1924, Frank V. Newell) opened in January 1925, also debuting the brand new WMBF (Wonderful Miami Beach Florida). At 15 stories, it was the tallest building in the state at the time, and you could spot its antenna from its tallest roof. Later, in 1926, the Nautilus Hotel (1924, Leonard Schultze and S. Fullerton Weaver), built by Carl G. Fisher, also began broadcasting from its own station, WIOD (Wonderful Isle of Dreams). Radio enhanced and supported new waves of development, entertainment, and tourism in Miami Beach. Suddenly, listeners statewide— including prospective homeowners and tourists— could tune in and picture the sunny escape to the beach. Miami’s earliest radio stations were representative of its beautiful sunshine and unique culture, helping many of its diverse communities find their voice and space within the city. For example, Jack “The Rapper,” one of the earliest prominent black DJs, who founded the first Black-owned station in Atlanta, also worked in Miami throughout the civil rights movement. Similarly, WKAT, a Jewish radio station founded by former Miami Beach mayor Frank Katzetine hosted “The Jewish Hour” show, which nurtured the local Jewish community. Radio became essential to wartime communications and news and by 1941, 90% of households had purchased radios for family entertainment. From 1941 to 1944, The War Department used around 300 Miami Beach hotels to station soldiers. This received widespread coverage on radio and print, including a cover story in Life Magazine in 1942. Radio broadcast rig at the Fleetwood Hotel after a hurricane, 1926
Towers of radio station WIOD, 1926
As in architectural design, radio design of this period was influenced by both Art Deco and Streamline Moderne. Photo credit: Peter Sheridan
Radio also helped lure in tourists seeking the best in entertainment. Many show business notables would come to the island to perform on air, in clubs, and in its many hotels, including Frank Sinatra and Ed Sullivan. As the world began to recover following the war in the 1950s, both Art Deco and Streamline Moderne aesthetics took over art and architecture as emblems of progress and industrialization. These ideas and designs became internationally known as world fairs were showing off new inventions and designs for tomorrow. Streamlining, inspired by the spirit of transport, could be spotted on radios, trains, planes, ocean liners, cars, and home appliances. Over in Miami Beach, it was incorporated into the designs of many of the buildings we know and love today. Architects such as L. Murray Dixon and Henry Hohauser were instrumental in designing many of the buildings that make up the Miami Beach Architectural District. They were both influenced by streamlining trends like curves, towers, window eyebrows, and neon. The new style was not just futuristic but also allowed for lower construction costs, and similarly, the radio underwent a radical transformation in its designs and aesthetic. Physically, they upgraded from wooden, ornate family stations to sleeker, streamlined compact devices. Some of the most popular materials for Art Deco radios, which were mass-produced, included wood, synthetic plastics, resins, polymers, and acrylics. Detrola T-2 “Egyptian” (1938)
Emerson Patriot Radio by Norman Belle Geddes
Art Deco radios were mass-produced, yet they were manufactured in an endless array of forms, materials, and colors. Wooden cases were used, as were moldable synthetic plastics made from resins such as Bakelite, Catalin, and Tenite.
Transistor radios, which became popular during wartime in the 1950s, also revolutionized their design, allowing listeners to carry the news with them wherever they went. By the 1960’s and ‘70s, radios had become the most popular form of electronic communication. This more portable size of transistor radio also revolutionized how we consume popular music, sparking a new wave of devices that evolved into the boomboxes, disc players, iPods, and smartphones we rely on for news, entertainment, and more. Today, radio is still one of the most widely-used forms of media for Americans, standing the test of time as one of the most reliable and historic forms of communication and entertainment. And just like the trademark hotels that adorn the streets of Miami Beach, it will remain one of its true cultural pillars and the reason millions get to enjoy its sea, sun, and sand year-round.
Radio Waves will be on display at the Art Deco Museum (1001 Ocean Dr) throughout 2023. Admission is free for Miami-Dade residents. $5 General Admission. This exhibition is produced in collaboration with Little Gables Group and with the support of MDPL’s members, the City of Miami Beach, Miami-Dade County, and the State of Florida. Exhibit radios graciously loaned by the Harvey Mattel Collection.
Crescent Hotel (1420 Ocean Dr)
Marlin Hotel (1200 Collins Ave)
McAlpin Hotel (1430) Ocean Dr
Many of the buildings that make up the Art Deco District match the radios in their sleek style, adorned flair, and signature aerodynamic, nautical streamlining detailing.
