Kurt Günther, The Radioist (1927) As radio emerged as a new medium and transformed communication and popular culture, critics raised questions about the impact it would have on people’s lives. In a 1924 article for the Frankfurter Zeitung, editor and critic Siegfried Kracauer wrote: “The radio, too, disperses our beings even before they have caught a spark. Since many feel they have to broadcast, we are in a constant state of receiving, always heavy with London, the Eiffel Tower, and Berlin. Who could resist the courting of those delicate headphones? They shine in the salons, they mechanically wind around heads – and instead of cultivating an informed conversation, which will surely be boring, we turn into playing fields of world noise which, regardless of its own potential objective dullness, doesn’t even allow the humble right to personal boredom.” [Siegfried Kracauer, Works, Volume 5.2, p. 162. Original text: Frankfurter Zeitung, November 16, 1924.]