Guide
The Radio and Democracy Museum was the fourth of Konak Municipality's boutique museums and opened on 5 December 2013, with well-known radio producers and announcers at the opening. It occupies a historic building known as the Asmalı Ev, dated to the early 1900s, in the Basmane–Altınpark area of İzmir.
The collection is around 150 radios together with record players, a large number of records, and interactive pieces. Six rooms and a library make up the museum, and the display runs chronologically, ordered by the historical events the broadcasts belong to.
The pairing in the name is the museum's own argument: radio reaches its audience through sound waves travelling in air, and because air is common property the municipality treats radio as the most democratic of media — a view supported, in its account, by the fact that both receivers and transmitters are cheaper and easier to set up than those of any other mass medium.
The museum runs a film screening on a different subject each month and organises talks bringing notable radio producers together with the public, along with creative drama sessions for children and adults. Its programmes are planned for every age group and run through the year as workshops, talks and visual presentations. The address is Altınordu, 967. Sk. No: 16, 35240 Konak.
