Before broadcasting was transferred to the FM band, radio listeners were obliged to listen via transmitters on medium wave and longwave. Reception could vary at different times of day, if you lived a long way from these transmitters, and the programmes were often disturbed by foreign stations.
Sweden, however, had a well-developed telephone network and telephone equipment in almost all homes. The telephone company invested in broadcasting radio programmes via telephone wires in areas with poor reception. This was done by connecting the telephone line to a filter that separated phone calls and programmes. The subscriber was then able to connect the aerial and earth inputs of his radio receiver to this filter and thereby get a stable and good reception at home around the clock without disturbing the telephone's function.
If you look at the radio receiver on the left, you will see that the indicator on the scale is set to "wire" (trådradio) on the long wave band. This is where one could hear the national program from Swedish Radio, the program that today is known as P1.
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