For those of you who have visited my studio, you are well aware that I have a modest collection of old radios. I am fascinated by radios and especially old radios. And I’ll tell you in a second why.

I have collected these radios over the years, and some of them I picked up at garage sales, antique stores, flea market, and a couple of them were given to me by friends.

People ask me why I collect them, and the truth is, I don’t think I’m collecting radios. I think I’m collecting sort of stories, the story behind the radio.

Every time I brought one of those radios home, I kind of like looked at it for a while before I plugged it in. And by the way, all my radios work.

I look at it and I wonder, where did this radio sit? Was it in the kitchen while breakfast was being made every morning? Was it in the living room or family room on a table where the family kind of gathered around dinner time? Was it on a nightstand of a little girl or a boy that kind of listened quietly to music once the parents thought that they are already asleep?

I don’t know. I remember our big, massive radio. It was big, maybe it was two and a half feet by one foot. It was massive, and it had a real deep sound. It sat in the living room. And when we needed to hear news, everybody gathered and it was turned on. And when the news was on, my dad used to say, “Nobody speaks now, we’re listening to the news.” I remember that very vividly.

I look at those radios and not only wonder where were they, but also what song or what was playing the last minute that they were on before they were just dumped or given away to someone else.

I also wonder who turned the knobs, who waited for their favorite song to come on, who heard good news through the speaker. I don’t know. It’s a kind of mystery, and I like to kind of have my imagination go wild, try to figure out the story behind each radio.

And something else I think about. I think about that these radios were new at one point or another. Somebody went to the radio store and bought it in a box, a brand new radio, situated it in a permanent place in the house, wherever that was. And now everybody was waiting for their favorite program or their favorite song to come on. Music wasn’t just a background noise, music was the main event.

Sometimes I turn one of those radios on, and despite of the static, I kind of can’t help it but smile. It reminds me that music always connected people all long, long before streaming services, playlists, and smartphones. People gathered around the radio waiting for their favorite song or program to come on. In fact, I remember that I was planning my entire evening around a radio program that I used to listen to when I was a kid.

And then came the transistor radio. Suddenly, the music has left the living room and followed us everywhere. The technology changed a bit, but the mission stayed the same. It’s always brought people together to tell stories and certainly create some incredible memories.

I put a fantastic lineup for tonight’s program. Tonight, we are going to tell some radio stories, and we’re going to remember the music that came through those radios. Whether you’re listening to this program over streaming, on your smartphone, through a wooden radio, or through a transistor radio, I want to welcome you to East to West World Music Songbook. And as a reminder, this is Eitan Battat. Stay with me.