If you went to school in Minneapolis in the 1970’s, I bet these pictures look vaguely familiar. This is a 1972 ad from Setchell-Carlson, then known as SC Electronics, Inc., a subsidiary of Audiotronics Corporation, with an address of 530 5th Avenue NW, New Brighton, MN. This ad appears in the March 1972 issue of Broadcast Engineering.
The Minneapolis Public Schools were equipped with what I believe was the model at the left. I’m showing the one on the right to show the distinctive controls in the center, which are hidden behind the optional “tamper-proof control compartment door” of the black and white model on the left. I don’t think that Minneapolis had the door, or else the doors were routinely left open.
At Waite Park Elementary School, I don’t believe that every classroom was equipped with a TV. There were one or two of these that were wheeled in as needed.
Every room, as far as I can recall, was equipped with a radio, although it was rarely used. The radio, shown here, was the Newcomb Model AV-750. This was an 8-tube AM FM receiver, and was obviously built for severe service. I’m sure I’m the only kid who noticed, but it had a connection on the back for an external AM antenna and ground. I was always jealous of that radio, since I dreamed of all the exotic broadcast band stations it would pull in if connected to an external antenna. There was also a connection on back for audio input, so it could be used as an audio amplifier.
I’m not positive, but I believe this Audiotronics phonograph was the standard issue model in the Minneapolis schools. Again, I believe one was issued to each classroom, and they saw a bit more use than the radio.
The televisions were made not far from the school. Setchell-Carlson made some consumer radios in the 1940’s, and TV‘s in the 1950’s and 1960’s. They were never a big name nationally, although they did have a strong presence in their home state of Minnesota. By the 1970’s, they had abandoned the consumer market, but they continued to make the institutional models shown above.
There’s a good history of the company in the October 2008 issue of Radio Age.
Photo courtesy of Ian O’Toole, VK2ZIO, Kurrajong Radio Museum. Used by permission.
The company was founded in St. Paul in 1928 by Bart Setchell and Carl Donald Carlson as “Karadio Corporation.” As the name suggests, the company manufactured auto radios. Setchell claimed later to have been the “first” to use vibrators to power the car radio. The author of this article disputes that claim, but it is clear that Setchell-Carlson was one of the pioneers. In 1934, the company became Setchell Carlson, Inc., and made a few radios before the war. During World War II, the company was a defense contractor, and made products for the military, the most famous of which was the aviation receiver shown here. (For more information on this device, see my earlier post.)
In 1949, the company moved to New Brighton,
A Setchell Carlson TV from 1954, back when people apparently dressed up to watch TV. Popular Mechanics, Dec. 1954
Minnesota, and went into the TV business, which lasted until the 1960’s. At its peak, the company employed about 500, and also had a plant in Arden Hills. Setchell was later inducted into the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
One final note on the audio-visual equipment in use at my elementary school. The Minnesota Historical Society has this photo of the school’s public address system. The photo is dated about 1955, but based upon the one or two times I saw it, this is the same console that was in use in the 1960’s and 1970’s when I was a student there. Interestingly, the caption of this photo bills it as a “school broadcasting lab” and shows students at the mike. I never recall the console being used by students, certainly not on a routine basis.
The couple of times I saw this, I was quite impressed. It was in a separate room off the office, and in addition to the PA console, there was a radio receiver. I remember one dial being for the standard AM band. The other dial was calibrated in some numbers that did not look at all familiar to me. In retrospect, it’s possible that they were FM channel numbers, which were used for a short time on some FM receivers.
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I worked for WKSU on campus TV at Kent State in the late 1960’s. We had one of these S-C sets in nearly every classroom on campus.
I also remember the public address room at Theodore Roosevelt High School. Our console was a DuKane unit.
I worked at the New Brighton plant in 1976 as microprocessors where just happening. I was QA
on the line. Mostly Banks and Video Monitors. Nothing commercial anymore. Setchell-Carlson in the tube TV days, had sub-circuits on their own metal chassis that plugged into the main chassis, like board swapping the vertical circuit, or video…. Cept with Vacuum Tubes.