Seventy five years ago this month, the May 1943 issue of Radio Retailing Today detailed the experiences of Ben De Young, the owner of the De Young Radio & Television Shop, 126 S. Aurora St., Ithaca, NY. The magazine had earlier discussed the possibility of hiring “girls” to do radio repair work, and De Young had commented that the concept was hardly new, since he had been using girls since 1935. Wartime labor shortages were just then showing the wisdom of the veteran repairman’s foresight.

De Young noted that hiring experienced employees was always difficult, and that he often had to take his chances on an inexperienced man by training him. His experience, however, was that if the new man turned out good, then a manufacturer or jobber hired him away and he had to start the process all over again. And if the man turned out to be no good, the he wasn’t of any use to De Young either. Since girls were presumably less likely to be hired away in this manner, De Young found that hiring them was ideal. He noted that a girl had more agile fingers and in general did a neater job.

The secret to De Young’s success was having his shop equipped with the best test equipment. He was able to quickly diagnose the problem, and then letting the girl actually replace the components. He had a large bench so that she could get to work while he started diagnosing the next set. In the picture above, his assistant, identified only as a Miss Gould, is soldering in an IF coil that he had previously identified as the culprit.

She was also able to read schematics, and often saved him time by taking care of details such as looking up values of components.  When she wasn’t wielding the soldering iron back in the shop, she worked in the front of the store, as shown here taking in a set for service.