Month: April 2021

236: The Radio Music Box

Mark Podcast
Radio station KDKA remodeled their studio in late 1922. Note the use of drapery on the walls and ceiling to dampen reverb.

Radio was originally conceived as a means for two-way communication without wires; that is, as a means to send telegrams or make telephone calls wirelessly.

As early as 1916, David Sarnoff, an employee of Marconi Wireless’s US subsidiary suggested a whole other use for radio: as a means of distributing entertainment. He called it a “radio music box.” No one took him seriously until KDKA in Pittsburgh announced the 1920 Presidential election results live on election night—a convincing demonstration of the potential of the new medium.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“The Japanese Sandman”
Composed in 1920 by Richard A. Whiting. Public domain.
Performed by Paul Whiteman and His Ambassador Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

235: The Five-Year Plan

Mark Podcast
This 1931 photograph shows a display in Russia touting the Five-Year Plan.

Following the death of Lenin, most observers saw Leon Trotsky as his most likely successor. But inside the Communist Party, the quarrelsome Trotsky had ruffled a lot of feathers, including Lenin’s. That was why Lenin nominated Joseph Stalin, and not Trotsky, to become General Secretary of the Communist Party.

After Lenin’s death, Trotsky’s opponents sided with Stalin and Trotsky became marginalized. Meanwhile, the Party wrestled with the question of exactly how one builds a socialist economy. Lenin’s New Economic Plan had helped Russia get back on its feet, but is was too capitalism-friendly to be a long-term policy. In 1928, Stalin proposed the first Five-Year Plan, an ambitious, centrally organized program to rapidly increase the USSR’s industrial sector.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Chant Hindou” from Sadko
Composed in 1898 by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Public domain.
Violinist: Vasa Prihoda. Performed in 1929. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

234: Chiang in Charge

Mark Podcast
Wang Jingwei (l.) and Chiang Kai-shek together at a public appearance in 1926.

Sun Yat-sen died in early 1925, just as the Nationalists were poised to regain military control over China. His death left a power vacuum. Many looked to the left-leaning Wang Jingwei as Sun’s most likely successor.

But the Nationalist Party’s senior military commander, Chiang Kai-shek, had other ideas. Previously seen as an apolitical centrist, Chiang used an incident with the Communists as an excuse to seize power. Once a successful offensive subdued the warlords, Chiang began attacking the Communists, while securing his own position as the new Party leader and the President of the Republic of China.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

《平沙落鴈》 (“Pingsha Luoyan” [“Wild Geese Descending on the Sandbank”])
Composed in 1868 by 蕉庵琴譜 (Jiao’an Qinpu). Public domain.
Performed by Charles R. Tsua, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY 2.5 license. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.