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'''Tecum Umam''' was a legendary figure of [[Guatemala]]n and [[K'iche']] history.  Despite a debate over his historical reality, Tecum Umam is at once a symbol of the state and a symbol of the peoples within the state.  Whether in the candlelit ceremonies of ''sacerdotes Mayas'' or in the chambers of the national congress, Tecum Umam's presence is felt in nearly every niche of the daily life of the Guatemalan people.  He is celebrated by poets and invoked in ritual and festival contexts throughout the highlands.  He has been raised to the status of national hero of Guatemala and commemorated on its currency.  And he is known as the defender of the K'iche' people and a symbol of indigenous resistance because he refused to surrender to the Spanish conquest of his homeland.
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The legend of Tecum Umam says that he commanded the thousands of K'iche' warriors who met the army of invading Spanish and indigenous warriors under [[Pedro de Alvarado]] on the plains of El Pinar in February of 1524.  In the midst of the fray, Tecum Umam and Alvarado met face to face, each with weapon in hand.  Alvarado was mounted on a horse and clad in armor while Tecum Umam wore the feathers of his [[nagual]] (animal spirit counterpart), the [[Resplendent quetzal|quetzal]]. A battle ensued that claimed the life of the K'iche' hero.
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Taking to the sky in the form of an eagle, Tecum Umam struck down Alvarado's horse believing man and animal to be one and the same.  He realized his error and turned for a second attack but Alvarado's spear pierced his opponent's chest and Tecum Umam fell to the ground dead.  Then a quetzal landed on the fallen hero's chest, staining its breast feathers red with blood; the bright colors of the quetzal continue to remind us today of the great deeds of Tecum Umam.

Latest revision as of 10:19, 11 September 2020

1901 photograph of a stentor (announcer) at the Budapest Telefon Hirmondó.

Telephone newspaper is a general term for the telephone-based news and entertainment services which were introduced beginning in the 1890s, and primarily located in large European cities. These systems were the first example of electronic broadcasting, and offered a wide variety of programming, however, only a relative few were ever established. Although these systems predated the invention of radio, they were supplanted by radio broadcasting stations beginning in the 1920s, primarily because radio signals were able to cover much wider areas with higher quality audio.

History

After the electric telephone was introduced in the mid-1870s, it was mainly used for personal communication. But the idea of distributing entertainment and news appeared soon thereafter, and many early demonstrations included the transmission of musical concerts. In one particularly advanced example, Clément Ader, at the 1881 Paris Electrical Exhibition, prepared a listening room where participants could hear, in stereo, performances from the Paris Grand Opera. Also, in 1888, Edward Bellamy's influential novel Looking Backward: 2000-1887 foresaw the establishment of entertainment transmitted by telephone lines to individual homes.

The scattered demonstrations were eventually followed by the establishment of more organized services, which were generally called Telephone Newspapers, although all of these systems also included entertainment programming. However, the technical capabilities of the time meant that there were limited means for amplifying and transmitting telephone signals over long distances, so listeners had to wear headphones to receive the programs, and service areas were generally limited to a single city. While some of the systems, including the Telefon Hirmondó, built their own one-way transmission lines, others, including the Electrophone, used standard commercial telephone lines, which allowed subscribers to talk to operators in order to select programming. The Telephone Newspapers drew upon a mixture of outside sources for their programs, including local live theaters and church services, whose programs were picked up by special telephone lines, and then retransmitted to the subscribers. Other programs were transmitted directly from the system's own studios. In later years, retransmitted radio programs were added.

During this era telephones were expensive luxury items, so the subscribers tended to be the wealthy elite of society. Financing was normally done by charging fees, including monthly subscriptions for home users, and, in locations such as hotel lobbies, through the use of coin-operated receivers, which provided short periods of listening for a set payment. Some systems also accepted paid advertising.

Footnotes