History Main / TheRadioDiesFirst

* Radio dies quite often in ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar''. It usually means that playing with satellite and roasting jamming creatures ensures.

Back before CanYouHearMeNow, the device that could really put a crimp in a plot's need to keep the characters isolated and cut off from information was the two-way radio. So in a lot of Twentieth Century media, the radio was put out of commission as quickly as possible. There were three main ways of doing this.

* When the shark starts its climactic attack in ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' and Chief Brody tries to call for help, Quint destroys the radio in a fit mad obsession to catch it.

* In {{Space 1999}}: ''Deaths's Other Dominion'', BrianBlessed sabotages his own radio so Alpha cannot contact his planet.

* In ''CrimsonTide'', the loss of both the boat's radio and longwave buoy (partway through a transmission) left the crew unsure whether an order to launch nuclear missiles had been countermanded. The tense scenario comes complete with an engineer racing against time to repair the radio.
* Similarly, the failure of a strategic bomber's radio meant that the failsafe in ''FailSafe'' did not, well, fail safe.

* In ''TheWickerMan'', the natives sabotage the policeman's plane, cutting out his communication with the mainland.
* ''FantasticVoyage'': It's the vital ''laser'' that is sabotaged, and the only source for parts to fix it is the radio.

* Early on in TheThing1982, it's established that the radio's been dead for weeks and Windows hasn't been able to get through. Later Blair uses an axe to make sure that it won't get used again.

* In the second book in ''TheMysteriousBenedictSociety'' series, ''The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey'', Reynie Muldoon (the main protagonist) actually pitched the radio out of a train because he mistakenly did not consider the person on the other end to be trustworthy.

* In ''TheShining'', one of the Overlook's first overt hallucinations is that of Jack's dead (and abusive) father, berating him over the radio that's the only link back to the mainland. It keeps it up until Jack snaps and smashes the radio.

1. Vehicle crash. Whenever a plane or boat had to make a forced landing, the radio always, always broke, no matter how gentle the landing seemed otherwise. This was close to TruthInTelevision before the widespread use of transistors and printed circuits; radios used a lot of easily breakable tubes, and wires jarred loose with relatively little provocation.

2. Interference. This was usually accomplished with the use of heavy weather conditions, which also helped isolate the characters. Imaginative writers could use interference to give only partial information to the protagonists, which they can then [[PoorCommunicationKills totally misinterpret]].

3. Sabotage. This ranges from the subtle (breaking or stealing a single hidden tube) to the blatant (taking an axe to the radio set.) This is usually a big hint to the protagonists that what's going on is no accident or series of coincidences.

* In ''The Beacon To Elsewhere'' by JamesHSchmitz, the protagonist has two communicators, and the same incident stops him using either of them. He's in an area where something is interfering with the planet's power grid; the power failure brings down his flying car. One of his communicators also runs off the grid, so it can't be used. The other has its own power source, but gets destroyed in the crash.

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* The Mann Gulch fire of 1949 that killed 13 smokejumpers. One of the things that went wrong was that the parachute dropping the team's radio failed to open, smashing the radio. It meant they were out of contact and could not get back-up or call in aid for their wounded members.

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* ''FantasticVoyage'': The vital ''laser'' is sabotaged, and the only source for parts to fix it is the radio.

* ''FantasticVoyage'': The ship's resident gadgeteer needs to fix the sabotaged laser, and the only available source for parts is the communication system.

* ''{{Jaws}}''?"

* ''HalfLife2'''s extremely finicky video communicators.

* In ''CrimsonTide'', the loss of both the boat's radio and longwave buoy (partway through a transmission) left the crew unsure whether an order to launch nuclear missiles had been countermanded.
** The tense scenario comes complete with an engineer racing against time to repair the radio.

* Um... "Jaws?"

* In ''Broken Path'', the opening scene includes the heroine commenting that the only thing her cell phone is good for is a kitchen timer because of the lack of signal and that their nearest neighbour is several miles away, setting the scene for the main characters being unable to call for help.