The Radio Girls on the program : $b or, Singing and reciting at the sending station

In the summer heat of Roselawn, two high‑school friends, Amy and Jessie, stroll down a leafy boulevard, trading jokes while lamenting the meddlesome Belle Ringold and her clique. Their conversation drifts from gossip to the excitement of a live radio concert by Madame Elva, a beloved voice on the Stratford Electric Company’s program. With the town’s new aerial antennas still humming, the girls picture themselves in “radio suits”—re‑purposed farmerette overalls that mark their post‑war hobby of tinkering with wires.

Yet the promise of music is tangled with a mystery: a strange static that seems to twist the broadcast, and a looming school project that demands they repair the tower’s rigging. As Amy and Jessie race to their neighbor’s veranda, the story captures the blend of teenage camaraderie, small‑town rivalry, and the thrill of early broadcast technology. Listeners will feel the buzz of a bygone era where every summer evening could bring a new discovery over the airwaves.