Eighty years ago this month, the October 1939 issue of Boys’ Life carried this ad for two extremely interesting products from RCA, more specifically, the RCA “Electronics and By-Products Division.”  The first is the RCA Sound Control Studio, which enabled aspiring young radio producers to make their own radio programs at home, with a complete selection of devices to make sound effects.

With the set, they could make train whistles, slamming doors, horses’ hoofs, howling wind, driving rain, and many others. And if they also added the “RCA microphone and radio coupling unit,” the program could be heard on the radio in an adjoining room. The set included a book with drama dialogues with certain sound effects specified. The set sold for a mere $5.95.

The other set, which apparently included the microphone and transmitter, was the RCA Electronics Labs kit. The projects contained therein allowed youngsters to build a real radio receiver, transmitter to talk from another room, realistic telegraph set. The electronics labs started at $7.50.