Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
So, why is this leafy thoroughfare called Wireless Road? Travel on down to the end
of the road and you will find, opposite Lumpini Park, a scene of most awful desolation,
at least, at the time of writing. One doesn't need to be an old-timer to remember when
this huge area, fifty-one acres of royal land, was the Armed Forces Preparatory School.
Founded here in 1958, it was a parade ground and playing field where cadets drilled and
worked out, attended classes in the buildings facing Rama
IV
Road, and lived in the warren
of barracks behind the buildings. In 2000 the school moved out to Nakhon Nayok, and the
Suan Lum Night Market moved in. The market always seemed a dodgy venture, with very
little security of tenure for the vendors and investors, and a rather strange location for a
market that didn't open until 9 p.m. and had little walk-past trade. It closed in 2011 and
the developers bought a large piece of land on Ratchadaphisek Road. Some of the vendors
moved there, and some went to Asiatique, on Charoen Krung Road. Suan Lum was bull-
dozed, and remains to the present as a flat area of rubble and weeds. Except, that is, for a
very high radio mast that has a small building at the base, and appears to be a functioning
island in a sea of desolation.
Radio, as with so many other technological developments, came early to Siam. Two
experimental transmitters were installed in the early years of the twentieth century, one
at Golden Mount, high above the city, and the other at Si Chang Island, of the coast of
Chonburi. Both were used by the Royal Thai Navy for ship-to-shore communications. In
1919 Rama
VI
used both these transmitters to proclaim the birth of radio broadcasting
in Siam, but the technology was primitive and local resistance to something so unnatur-
al was strong. In the early 1920s Prince Purachatra Jayagara, the Prince of Kamphaeng-
phet, was appointed Minister of Commerce and Communications. He had a natural in-
terest in technology, and installed a small transmitter in his palace at Luang Road, near to
the second moat. The test broadcasts proved encouraging, and on 31
st
May 1928, Station
4PJ, carrying the prince's initials and broadcast from the Post and Telegraph Office at Wat
Liab, went on air. In 1930 the Telegraph Act was amended to allow the public to own ra-
dio receivers. To cater for the new demand, a radio station was established at Phayathai
Palace.
