Kun Kuru upposi ja Svinhufvud määräsi

Varhainen ääniradio suomalaisten ajankäytön ja tilallisuuden kokemuksissa

Authors

• Paavo Oinonen

Abstract

When the steamboat Kuru sank and Svinhufvud ordered: The experiences of the time and space in early radio listening of FinnsThe Finnish Broadcasting Company Yleisradio was established in 1926, but at first the broadcasts reached only southern Finland. When the Lahti station was built in 1928, the situation improved and radio broadcasts reached in rural areas. The radio and its transmissions became a common conversation piece all over the country. The article discusses the memories of the listeners of early broadcasts. The crucial question is how listeners expressed their experiences of time and space, when remembering listening to the radio later on. How did the programs change into meaningful moments? The hypothesis is that the new communication technology – broadcast radio – became almost a necessity to the everyday life of Finns. The important theoreticians used in the methodological setting are radio scholar Paddy Scannell and cultural critic Raymond Williams. The main source material of this case study consists of the answers to the competition organized by The Finnish Literature Society and Yleisradio (1972). The research approach used here is a combination of oral history and media history. According to analysis herein, it is obvious that the programming of the Finnish Broadcasting Company greatly influenced the temporal organization of everyday life for Finnish people. The daily programme output formed a steady flow with some breaks. On the basis of the texts analysed, the news broadcast could transform into the memories of dramatic events when telling about accidents, the stages of Mäntsälä rebellion and wartime events. Other transmissions vividly remembered were church services and music programmes. Listening to the radio created a special, intimate public sphere. This means that at the same time the moment was shared with the thousands of listeners all over the country but also experienced in the private spheres of homes. This new sphere and programme output of Yleisradio informed the pace of the daily life. The article shows that when the radio was a novelty, the experiences of listeners were described being powerful and even eidetic.