Young Wizards of the Airwaves

dream. Stern warnings from irate fathers tend to go unheeded— even to the brink of catastrophe.

Keith was deadly with the brace and bit. His bedroom window- frames were like Swiss cheese. There were even holes drilled in the glass! Countless feet of wire passed through these many holes, travelled up the side of the house and over the roof where they climbed up a pole crudely lashed to the main chimney. From here they stretched out in a four-strand formation high over the yard and street and across to another pole nailed to the gable-end of a barn.

With the exception of his little brother Tom, with whom he shared the bedroom, the rest of the family knew nothing of the aerial. Or if they knew, they certainly paid no attention to it. But the neighbours knew. One stormy day they banged on the door complaining that the wildly swaying, ice—encrusted contraption was about to fall down on their hapless heads.

Grandad hastened to get the ladder. It was gone. The rungs lying in a pile of sawdust were all that was left of it. Looking up, he realized

This aerial on his father’s house, [69 Euston Street, was the first of many to be erected by Keith Rogers for

wireless, radio and television.