The Year Neon Jammed Britain’s Radios

1939’s Strange Neon vs Wireless Battle

Looking back, it feels surreal: in the shadow of looming global conflict, Parliament was wrestling with the problem of neon interfering with radios.

Mr. Gallacher, an MP with a sharp tongue, demanded answers from the Postmaster-General. Were neon installations scrambling the airwaves?

The answer was astonishing for the time: the Department had received nearly one thousand reports from frustrated licence-payers.

Imagine it: creative lighting London ordinary families huddled around a crackling set, desperate for dance music or speeches from the King, only to hear static and buzzing from the local cinema’s neon sign.

Major Tryon confessed the problem was real. But here’s the rub: the government had no legal power to force neon owners to fix it.

He spoke of a possible new Wireless Telegraphy Bill, but stressed that the problem was "complex".

Translation? Parliament was stalling.

Gallacher pressed harder. People were paying licence fees, he argued, and they deserved a clear signal.

Mr. Poole piled in too. Wasn’t the state itself one of the worst offenders?

Tryon deflected, admitting it made the matter "difficult" but offering no real solution.

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Looking back now, this debate is almost poetic. In 1939 neon was the villain of the airwaves.

Fast forward to today and it’s the opposite story: the once-feared glow is now the heritage art form begging for protection.

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What does it tell us?

Neon has never been neutral. It’s always pitted artisans against technology.

Now it’s dismissed as retro fluff.

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Our take at Smithers. We see proof that neon was powerful enough to shake Britain.

Call it quaint, call it heritage, but it’s a reminder. And it always will.

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Ignore the buzzwords of "LED neon". Glass and gas are the original and the best.

If neon could shake Westminster before the war, it can certainly shake your walls now.

Choose the real thing.

Smithers has it.

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