Seventy-five years ago, this little radio would set you back exactly one dollar (along with an additional $29.95 purchase) at Wadlheim’s furniture store in Milwaukee. This ad appeared in the Milwaukee Journal, June 5, 1941.

It looks like a great bargain, and it probably was being sold below cost, but this radio is about as basic as they get.  While most table radios of the day were four or five tube superhets, this one was actually a two tube TRF receiver.  It would probably pull in the local stations, but even then, an external antenna would probably help it along considerably.  You can see a nice example of this patriotic little set at the Radio Attic, with more discussion at this forum.  As can be seen at those links, the white set has red and blue knobs for the full patriotic effect.

The set is identical to the Emerson model CF-255 “Emersonette” from 1939, and uses a 12B8GT serving as RF amplifier and detector, with a 32L7GT audio amplifier.  The 32L7GT also contains the rectifier.  The filament voltage is courtesy of a curtain burner line cord, in addition to another fixed resistor in series.

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