Show us your radios!

[The Reno Kid]

This is my favorite among the radios in my collection:

1936 Fairbanks-Morse

For some reason, I tend to gravitate toward Fairbanks-Morse and Silvertone. I'm not sure why.

 

[MK]

mine

 

[CharlieH.]

Beautiful radios everyone! I knew there were plenty of them in loungers' hands.

Say, seeing those phonos makes me wonder... would you trust your 78's to an automatic player?

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

Say, seeing those phonos makes me wonder... would you trust your 78's to an automatic player?

Here's a great site with all the info you need to decide which changers you should or shouldn't trust different records to. Slicer changers are the most common kind from before & during WWII, but are some of the deadliest when either the slicers are bent even just a little, or when you play them with Post-WWII 78's where the record edges are angular rather than smooth rounded. In either case, the slicers catch on the edges, and CRUNCH! lol

http://geocities.com/midimagic@sbcglobal.net/changers.htm

Then there were the earlier "throwoff" changers: when a record was done, an arm would throw the record off into a carpeted box...

That was WAY more than anyone wanted to hear...

[edit] oh yeah one of mine... a fave: a cherry Montgomery Wards console.

- C H

 

[Sweet Leilani]

Here are a couple more- I think this is all of them, now:

The 1959 Motorola R/P- just needs the amp rebuilt and she'll be good to go- I can't wait to hear how it sounds!

A 50s Westinghouse clock radio:

A 30s Detrola:

 

[dhermann1]

My Zenith

Ahhhh . . . . I'll never understand this technical stuff. For some reason the image I tacked up of my radio has gone to pixel heaven If you look at my MYSPACE PAGE (woohoo!!!) you'll see it. That is, if my profile updated properly. I'll never understand this . . . but I repeat myself.
I love my Zenith. And my Philco.

 

[Earp]

Here is my Kolster K-122 from about 1932. I have some restoration work left to do on the front. I need to spray some darker toner on the carvings and side edges, and on the fancy bookmatched veneer. That striped grain should be more subtle. My brother (retired electrical genius turned computer software genius) helped me with overhauling the tube chassis. It works beautifully and sounds as clear and fine as the day it was sold over 75 years ago.

I use an AM transmitter that I built to broadcast golden era radio programs and music to it. I can't tell you how satisfying it is to hear those vintage sounds coming out of it as I watch the little dial glow. Sometimes I get lost in another time.

 

[dhermann1]

Lemme try this again . . .


My Zenith!!!

 

[Mr. K.L.Bowers]

The New 1937 Philco

The 1937 Philco Model 116 High Fidelity which occupies a place of honor in our living room. 15 tubes and a sound that is beyond compare.

 

[CharlieH.]

I use an AM transmitter that I built to broadcast golden era radio programs and music to it. I can't tell you how satisfying it is to hear those vintage sounds coming out of it as I watch the little dial glow. Sometimes I get lost in another time.

What sort of transmitter do you use? I've been itching to pipe some shows into the ole philco for a long time, but nothing does it.

 

[Earp]

Please see my answer and more information in the thread titled "AM Transmitters."

 

[ScionPI2005]

Here are most of mine:

1937 Zenith chairside

1946 GE

1946 RCA

1958 Zenith clock radio

1946 RCA radio/phono

I'll try to take pictures of the rest ASAP, including our latest project, a 1959 Motorola console R/P.

Very nice collection. Aside from the radios, the fan in the second picture got my attention too. Do you know what model that is?

 

[ScionPI2005]

My radio

Well, I know this picture has been slightly floating around, but I guess I shall post it here as well. This was my grandfather's Zenith CobraMatic. I got it restored about one and a half years ago and it works great. The record cabinet its sitting on is actually another phonograph cabinet (for a 78 player) that was never installed. My mother refurbished it, and it looks great as a furniture piece.

 

[panamag8or]

I'm so jealous. Considering I worked in radio, I don't have any good vintage ones. I do have an old RCA mic, like the ones that Letterman and Larry King have on their desks, but that's all.

 

[Django]

On old thread, but what the heck.

Here's my Philco. My grandparents bought it in '35 or '36. They lived on a farm with no electricity in those days, so it was battery powered. Unfortunately my uncles took it apart in the 50's and the chassis probably got tossed. Can't find it anywhere. My grandma gave it to me in the early 90's. I stripped it and refinished it but it was one of my first pieces so it was just ok. I've learned alot in the last 18 years, so I decided to freshen it up a bit with new cloth and some knobs and a new shellac finish. I'm on the hunt for a chassis to put in it, but no luck yet.

I also have a working Silvertone tombstone radio. I don't have any pics of it and it is tucked away in storage at the moment. I have a WWII radio as well, and it works. I was never 100% sure it was WWII, because it is SO NICE. It's perfect. But then I was watching a show about some vets going back to Iwo Jima and in some of the vintage footage, there was my radio! I'll get some pics.

Picked up this pile for $15. It's a Coronado. It needs some veneer work and the chassis needs gone through. Who knows when I'll get to it, if ever, but for $15? Hell, I spend that on lunch some days! Needless to say, my wife was less than thrilled! Hahaha!

 

[dhermann1]

Hmmm . . . fender, headlight, grill, bumper . . . what's the story on the old car???

 

[Django]

It's my '36 Ford. More pics here.
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=7578&page=32

 

[Gene]

Not quite sure what model Zenith it is.

 

[GoldenEraFan]

This is my radio. It's either from the '30s or the '40s. I have no idea who the manufacturer is.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/artdecofan/3747317410/

 

[RetroToday]

Great radios here, I hadn't seen this old thread before now.

I sold a few off to make room so I currently have about 25 tube radios ranging from the 1920s to the 1950s, but this is one of the better ones, and one of my favourites. It's a 1937 McMurdo Silver "Masterpiece VI" console radio with a "Clifton" cabinet. In working condition, but it's in need of some servicing so I don't play it.

21 vacuum tubes make it a great performer, it can pick up just about every frequency available at the time - regular AM broadcast bands, AM apex band, Police Band and Shortwave.

You can see the other radios in my collection through the link in my signature, below.

With chrome dust shield on.

With chrome dust shield off.