There was a time when people dressed up to listen to the radio, as shown from this picture in the December 1939 issue of Radio Today.  This young woman is listening to her GE model HJ-628 six-tube radio-phono console with its walnut cabinet.

The set featured six pushbuttons, “feathertouch tuning keys” to be specific. The phonograph was automatic. Unfortunately, it didn’t tune the short waves; it covered only the standard broadcast band. For those wishing to tune in the war news straight from Europe, the Trav-Ler Radio & Television Corp. had just the thing they needed highlighted in the same magazine. Shown at left is the Trav-Ler “War Reporter,” a six-tube set designed specifically to pull in European broadcasts, in addition to the standard broadcast band.