When Westminster Complained About Neon Signs

1939’s Strange Neon vs Wireless Battle Looking back, it feels surreal: real neon signs while Europe braced for Hitler’s advance, Parliament was wrestling with the problem of neon interfering with radios. Mr. Gallacher, an MP with a sharp tongue, rose to challenge the government. How many complaints had rolled in about wireless sets being ruined by neon signage? The figure was no joke: around a thousand complaints in 1938 alone. Think about it: ordinary families huddled around a crackling set, desperate for dance music or speeches from the King, only to hear static and real neon signs online buzzing from the local cinema’s neon sign.

Postmaster-General Major Tryon admitted the scale of the headache. The difficulty?: the government had no legal power to force neon owners to fix it. He promised consultations were underway, but admitted consultations would take "some time". Translation? Parliament was stalling. The MP wasn’t satisfied. People were paying licence fees, he argued, and they deserved a clear signal. Another MP raised the stakes. If neon was a culprit, weren’t cables buzzing across the land just as guilty?

Tryon deflected, admitting it made the matter "difficult" but offering no real solution. --- Looking back now, this debate is almost poetic. Back then, neon was the tech menace keeping people up at night. Fast forward to today and it’s the opposite story: the once-feared glow is now the heritage art form begging for protection. --- Why does it matter? Neon has always been political, cultural, disruptive. It’s always forced society to decide what kind of light it wants. Second: every era misjudges neon.

--- Our take at Smithers. When we look at that 1939 Hansard record, we don’t just see dusty MPs moaning about static. That old debate shows neon has always mattered. And it always will. --- Ignore the buzzwords of "LED neon". Authentic glow has history on its side. If neon could jam the nation’s radios in 1939, it can sure as hell light your lounge, office, or storefront in 2025. Choose glow. Smithers has it. ---


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