Yes, even before the black dude.
A two-way radio is put out of commission to allow the plot to proceed.
Back before Cell Phones Are Useless, 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 [...] [tvtropes.org]