History Main / TheRadioDiesFirst

* ''The Head'' is about the mysterious deaths of the winter team on an Antarctic research station. The radio operator is the first to die, found decapitated out on the ice. When the others go to call for help, they find the satellite radio has been sabotaged and of course the radio operator was the only one with the skill to repair it.

* ''Film/ABridgeTooFar'' uses the real life example of this from Operation Market Garden. After arriving near Arnhem, General Urquhart learns that their radios were issued with the wrong VHF crystals. This leaves him unable to contact the troops moving in Arnhem, General Browning's headquarters, XXX Corps, or England. The problems for the British paratroopers only increase from there.

* ''Literature/TheMartian'' goes one better, and has the radio dying set off the whole plot: The storm that forced the astronauts to evacuate rips the communications antenna off its mountings, whereupon it slams into Mark Watney and drives a length of guyline through his suit in ''exactly'' the right spot to kill the vitals monitor and cause him to be mistakenly left for dead. Finding some way to call for help takes most of the first quarter of the book.

Back before CellPhonesAreUseless, 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.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E1HorrorOfFangRock "Horror of Fang Rock"]], Skinsale sabotages the wireless to thwart Palmerdale's schemes.

** Also, one of the reasons why Gordon has to go up to the surface for help in the first game is that the resonance cascade took out the phones.

** In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'' one member from each STARS team has a radio. Alpha Team's dies during the chaos outside before the survivors reach the mansion, and Bravo Team's is damaged and can only receive. It ''still'' proves invaluable as Brad is diligent enough to keep hailing over the radio and even to assume they might be unable to respond, insisting they find some way to signal him and offering the first genuine method of escape.

* When [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider a Canadian airliner ran out of fuel over Manitoba and had to glide to a safe landing]], one of the systems they lost was the radio. The electronics on board were power by generators run by the engines. No engines, no electricity.

* One of the various things that went wrong with Operation Market Garden in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII was that the radios broke for the soldiers in Arnhem when they landed. This was particularly important as they were unable to secure the supply drop zones and were unable to inform anyone of this problem.

* Early on in the Literature/CiaphasCain novel ''Death or Glory'', a PDF squad's voxcaster (read: radio) is ''shot'' during a firefight, leading to a tense moment where Cain thinks his only backup has been wiped out. It turns out that they aren't, and they arrive JustInTime to save him from being cornered.

Yes, even before [[BlackDudeDiesFirst the black dude.]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* The first Literature/NewJediOrder novel, ''Vector Prime'', features a Yuuzhan Vong warrior named Yomin Carr sabotaging a scientific base that happens to be monitoring the eponymous invasion path at the edge of the galaxy. True to the trope, one of Carr's first efforts is to disable the colony's communications gear, forcing their technician to tromp all the way out and repair it -- at which point Carr kills him.

** "The Power of the Daleks" uses the sabotage version when the Doctor discovers that the communications room of the colony has been destroyed. Though the Daleks may not be responsible, as there's a revolution brewing on the colony.
** In "Terror of the Vervoids", the Doctor himself is seen smashing up the communications room with an axe. [[UnreliableNarrator Maybe.]]
** In "The Horror of Fang Rock", Skinsale sabotages the wireless to thwart Palmerdale's schemes.
** Commander Millington orders all radio receivers destroyed and the phone lines cut in order to isolate the naval base in "The Curse of Fenric".

* In ''Series/Space1999'': "Deaths's Other Dominion", Creator/BrianBlessed sabotages his own radio so Alpha cannot contact his planet.

[[quoteright:259:[[Series/DoctorWho https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/radio_dies_first.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:259:Going off the air. Permanently.]]

->'''Tarrant:''' The communicator's dead. It's stone dead.
->'''Soolin:''' I wish you could have found a less vivid way of putting that.

** Leon manages to keep contact with MissionControl for the first third or so of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'', and while the radio never actually dies the radio never actually ''dies'' the BigBad and his goons simply jack the line to prevent him from calling for help and to have a hotline to transmit EvilGloating to Leon whenever they feel the itch.

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'''s extremely finicky video communicators.
** Also, one of the reasons why Gordon has to go up to the surface for help in the first game is that the resonance cascade took out the phones.
* A mission in ''VideoGame/{{Vietcong}}'' pretty much carries on due to the radio not reaching a VC underground tunnel.

* In ''ComicBook/TheFurtherAdventuresOfIndianaJones'' #2, Indy knocks out the radio operator on the freighter and attempts to send a message. As he is doing so, someone shoots at him from behind and the shot shatters the radio.

* In ''Film/TheWickerMan1973'', the islanders sabotage the policeman's plane, cutting out his communication with the mainland.

* Done in ''Film/Tremors2Aftershocks''. The creatures destroy the radio accidentally because they associate heat with prey.

* Indiana Jones sabotages the zeppelin's radio in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' to prevent it from being ordered back to Germany. The zeppelin turns around anyway when the crew discovers the sabotage.
* ''Film/TheGerman'': Early in the dogfight, a bullet flies through Red Leader's cockpit and takes out the radio.
* In ''Film/FateIsTheHunter'' the airplane's radio failed as part of a series of cascading failures that led to its disasterous crash landing. Oddly, the same thing happened on a test flight although they had none of the other problems. They found [[spoiler: that the problems on the first flight had caused the captain's coffee to spill and seep into the electronics. This knocked out the radio and caused a false alarm in a good engine]]
* In ''Film/TheAbominableSnowman'', the radio is accidentally smashed early in the yeti-hunting expedition during a tussle between the team members.
* ''Film/KingOfTheZombies'': When Bill and Mac check the wreckage of the plane in the morning, they find that someone has disassembled the radio overnight.
* ''Film/PitchBlack''. As the spaceship is ComingInHot the navigator tries to send out a DistressCall to no avail. He demands to know what happened to their comms. In response the pilot ejects some kind of beacon, but they're going so fast it gets torn apart in the planet's atmosphere.
* Once the yacht runs aground in ''Film/Siren2010'', the protagonists are unable to transmit or receive anything on the radio. It is implied that this is a property of the island.
* In ''Film/{{Killdozer}}'', one of the first things demolished by the bulldozer is the hut that houses the radio.
* In ''Film/PetticoatPlanet'', Steve's interstellar communicator is damaged when his ship crashes, meaning he can't call for help.

* In ''The Heights of Zervos'' by Colin Forbes, a British saboteur disguised as a Nazi takes advantage of a sniper attack on "his" unit to put a bullet through the radio.
* In the second book in ''Literature/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 ''Literature/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 to the outside world. It keeps it up until Jack snaps and smashes the radio.

* Early on in the Literature/CiaphasCain novel ''Death or Glory'', a PDF squad's voxcaster (read: radio) is ''shot'' during a firefight, leading to a tense moment where Cain thinks his only backup has been wiped out. It turns out that they aren't, and they arrive JustInTime to save him from being cornered.

* Happens briefly in one of the ''Literature/{{Biggles}}'' books, and just to ratchet up the dramatic tension even more Biggles himself hears but does not see a plane crash and explode while separated from his comrades. [[spoiler: Turns out that the SkyPirate fighter that was attacking their slow and unwieldy transport plane crashed and burned instead after Ginger [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill emptied an entire drum-magazine into it from ten yards away]] in a fit of rage, but not before it shot a hole in their R/T set.]]

* ''Literature/TheMartian'' goes one better, and has the radio dying set off the whole plot: The storm that forced the astronauts to evacuate rips the communications antenna off its mountings, whereupon it slams into Mark Watney and drives a length of guyline through his suit in ''exactly'' the right spot to kill the vitals monitor and cause him to be mistakenly left for dead. Finding some way to call for help takes most of the first quarter of the book.

* At the start of ''Literature/BeyondThirty'', disaster strikes when the ''Coldwater'''s anti-gravitation screens fail, dooming it to wallow upon the surface of the ocean, and the engines fail, leaving it adrift. As its wireless radio has failed as well, Turck cannot even summon help.

* On ''Series/{{Lost}}'' a large part of the pilot is spent trying to get the plane's radio working so they can call for help. A few months later they find out that [[spoiler: all radio signals from the island are jammed on Ben's orders]]. Anyway the weird nature of the islands makes communication with the outside world very tricky.
* When the castaways are stranded on ''Series/GilligansIsland'' their radio transmitter is broken but they can still receive radio signals including a report of how the search for their boat is called off.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** "The Power of the Daleks" uses the sabotage version when the Doctor discovers that the communications room of the colony has been destroyed. Though the Daleks may not be responsible, as there's a revolution brewing on the colony.
** In "Terror of the Vervoids", the Doctor himself is seen smashing up the communications room with an axe. [[UnreliableNarrator Maybe.]]
** In "The Horror of Fang Rock", Skinsale sabotages the wireless to thwart Palmerdale's schemes.
** Commander Millington orders all radio receivers destroyed and the phone lines cut in order to isolate the naval base in "The Curse of Fenric".
* In ''Series/Space1999'': "Deaths's Other Dominion", Creator/BrianBlessed sabotages his own radio so Alpha cannot contact his planet.

* ''Series/The100'': Upon landing on Earth, the dropship's radio breaks because of the crash. As a result, the 100 cannot communicate with MissionControl on the Ark, with the wristbands each member possesses being the only sign that they are still alive.

* ''ComicBook/{{The Maze Agency}}'' #20 uses the sabotage variant, smashing the radio and then blowing up the boat to strand the characters on an isolated island.

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]

* Similarly, the failure of a strategic bomber's radio meant that the failsafe in ''Film/FailSafe'' did not, well, fail safe.
** The radio didn't fail, the system did. The bombers could send and receive messages but they were trained not to accept tactical orders once past their Fail Safe point.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

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

* [[Music/{{Marillion}} Marillion's]] song "Ocean Cloud" is about a man trying to cross an ocean alone and [[GoMadFromTheIsolation going a bit mad from the isolation]]. It ends with him "Ripping out the radio, I want to be alone".

[[folder:Video Game]]

--> '''Tager''': Kokonoe! ...No reception.\\
'''Kokonoe''': Tager! Come in, Tager! ...Damn reception...

-->'''Kendra Daniels''': ''[[LampshadeHanging Never heard of a total communications blackout on one of these things.]]''

* Narrowly averted on the UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic. The day before the sinking, the wireless set broke down. Operators Phillips and Bride had orders from the Marconi Company to not carry out repairs at sea and to use the weaker backup set until they made it to New York. However, they took it upon themselves to fix it. Had they used the backup wireless, it's unlikely they would have been able to get the distress signal out. In the sinking itself, the radio kept working almost until the very moment the ship went under.

[[folder:Comic Book]s]

[[AC: Comic Book]]

[[AC: Film]]

* In ''Fate Is The Hunter'' the airplane's radio failed as part of a series of cascading failures that led to its disasterous crash landing. Oddly, the same thing happened on a test flight although they had none of the other problems. They found [[spoiler: that the problems on the first flight had caused the captain's coffee to spill and seep into the electronics. This knocked out the radio and caused a false alarm in a good engine]]

[[AC: Literature]]

* ''Night Without End'' by Alistair Maclean. An airplane crashes near a scientific outpost in Greenland. When the survivors are taken there, they clumsily knock over the radio to the fury of the scientists, because there's not enough food for them all and the nearest settlement is 300 kilometers away. Then they discover that the aircraft pilot was shot InTheBack, raising the question of whether the radio being destroyed was an accident.

[[AC: Live Action TV]]

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "The Power of the Daleks" uses the sabotage version when the Doctor discovers that the communications room of the colony has been destroyed. Though the Daleks may not be responsible, as there's a revolution brewing on the colony.

[[AC:Music]]

[[AC: Video Game]]

[[AC:Real Life]]

A form of PlotDrivenBreakdown. Compare CutPhoneLines, which serve a similar narrative purpose, but are ''always'' sabotage. See LostInTransmission, where a working connection line is suddenly cut off. Related to ImpededCommunication, because the best way to have a plot get complex for the protagonists is to take out the communication.

* Narrowly averted on the UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic. The day before the sinking, the wireless set broke down. Operators Phillips and Bride had orders from the Marconi Company to not carry out repairs at sea and to use the weaker backup set until they made it to New York. However, they took it upon themselves to fix it. Had they used the backup wireless, it's unlikely they would have been able to get the distress signal out. In the event, the radio kept working almost until the very moment the ship went under.