(Found) Story: TV and Radio don't work any more

[OldWolf]

Someone on another forum suggested The Waveries, by Frederic Brown, but I'm not certain that's correct - I don't have a memory of energy-eating aliens in this particular story.

The basic premise is that for some reason, TV and Radio stopped working - and the net result was, in order to keep from going crazy, people started fixing up, painting hydrants, visiting on their front porches, having hoedowns, and gathering at the barbershop for news and entertainment again.

Input gratefully received - many thanks in advance!

 

[joolzred]

I can't explain why, but the plot outline does seem to trigger the response "Ray Bradbury" - many of his short stories dealt with similar themes.

 

[Danny McG]

Well it's taken ten years to get an answer:- the short story is from 1957.
It is indeed by Ray Bradbury and the title is 'Almost the End of the World"

A snippet about it I found online...
For example, in “Almost the End of the World,” when sunspots destroy television reception, a world addicted to this opiate of the mind and heart is forced to rediscover the forgotten joys of interpersonal communication.