Category Archives: Radio history

Phonographic Spam Sales, 1939

1939MayRadioRetailingEighty years ago this month, the May 1939 issue of Radio Retailing carried this feature explaining how salesmen from Austin, Minnesota, based Hormel Foods did their jobs.  To tell the story of “a new canned meat,” the salesmen brought along on their calls to grocers a portable phonograph and played a record of the canned meat’s story.  They “stood speechless while the record did the selling, softened up the prospect with suitable musical interludes.”

This salesman was employing an Emerson radio-phono.

While the meat is not identified in the caption, it is plainly visible in the photo, which reveals that the phonographic sales pitch was for Spam, the venerable luncheon meat which had been introduced by the company in 1937.



D-Day Preparations

1944May20MilJournSeventy five years ago, the exact time and place of the D-Day invasion was a closely guarded military secret, but the fact that is was coming soon was no secret. 75 years ago today, the May 20, 1944, issue of the Milwaukee Journal carried this headline that Gen. Eisenhower had issued his first orders to the Underground.

The orders went out over American radio stations recently constructed on the continent.  The commander-in-chief advised the underground to take minute and detailed note of every move of the enemy, with particular attention to the moves of his men, tanks, guns, as well as their markings and strength.

When this was published, the invasion was just over two weeks away.



Boys’ Life SWL’ing, 1969

1969MayBLFifty years ago this month, the May 1969 issue of Boys’ Life carried a one-page primer on shortwave listening. It coached scouts on the basics of the hobby. The article noted that you could get started with a portable or table radio, but for the best experience, it recommended a communications receiver in the $100 price range. The bandspread was identified as the most important feature.

The article noted that the lower frequency bands up to 25 meters were best at night, with the higher frequencies being best during daylight hours.

It noted that it was possible to listen in on both U.S. and Soviet space shots, and noted that the frequencies of 17,655 and 20,186 kHz were the most likely.



1944 One Tube AC-DC Receiver

1944MayRadioCraftSeventy-five years ago this month, the May 1944 issue of Radio Craft carried this simple one-tube AC/DC circuit sent in by one Bob Smith of Montclair, NJ.  The set uses a single 12A7 tube as rectifier and detector.  According to Smith, the set would perform on either the standard broadcast band or on shortwave, with appropriate plug-in coils.

The filament voltage is dropped through a standard light bulb, although the schematic shows 70 watts, and the text shows 40 watts.  I suspect 70 watts is the correct value, but we’ll leave it up to the reader to do the calculations.



Radio’s Geography

Screen Shot 2019-05-08 at 9.59.43 AMEighty years ago, the May 15, 1939, issue of Life Magazine introduced readers to the sometimes counter-intuitive geography that comes from living on a globe. In particular, the magazine noted that it was important for shortwave broadcasting.  For example, it pointed out that the first reaction on how to reach Manila from New York would be to point the antenna toward Mexico and the Pacific.  But by looking at a globe or an azimuthal map centered on New York, it’s clear that the shortest path is over Alaska.

Similarly, the magazine notes that it’s easier for Berlin radio to reach South America than it is for New York.  This is because to reach the entire continent, the American station needs to have a beam 40 degrees wide.  The German station, on the other hand, can get by with only half the power, since most of the continent can be covered with a beam of only 20 degrees.

Screen Shot 2019-05-08 at 10.00.12 AM

It’s not a coincidence that New York and Berlin were chosen as the examples.  Shortwave radio was an important force in World War II.  For more information, see our earlier post.



WMTW, Mt. Washington, 1944

1944May15BCThis ad appeared 75 years ago today in the May 1944 issue of Broadcasting. It shows the facilities of WMTW, one of the stations of the Yankee Network’s FM network, broadcasting from Mount Washington, New Hampshire.

The network relied upon daisy-chaining the signals, and WMTW received its signal from WGTR, Paxton, Mass., 142 miles away, on 44.3 MHz, and rebroadcast on 43.9 MHz.



1959 Baby Monitor

1959MayRadioElec

1959MayRadioElec2Sixty years ago this month, the May 1959 issue of Radio Electronics magazine showed how to construct this simple baby monitor. The device consisted of a two-tube (plus selenium rectifier) audio amplifier and speaker, with a remote crystal microphone at the end of a long cord. The mike could by placed over the baby’s crib, and the parents could keep their ears open in another room while dining or watching TV.

1959MayRadioElecSchematic



Communicating with Mars, 1919

1919MayPSA hundred years ago this month, the May 1919 issue of Popular Science tackled the topic of communications with Mars. The magazine quoted Prof. Percival Lowell as saying that Mars is much older than Earth, and therefore it was reasonable to assume that the Martians had more time to evolve into creatures far superior to ourselves.

The magazine seemed to believe that radio waves wouldn’t do the trick. It noted that radio engineers on Earth require about 400 kilowatts to communicate 4000 miles. Thus, to make the millions of miles to the red planet, it looked bleak for wireless telegraphy.

1919MayPS2A suggested alternative was to use light, and the magazine proposed setting up a lighted display of the Pythagorean theorem in the Sahara desert. “The Martians ought to recognize that Euclidean theorem, and reply with another. Picture would follow picture, until at last some kind of interstellar code would be established.”



Wartime Diversification for Radio Dealers

1944MayRadioRetailingWith manufacture of civilian radios being suspended for the duration of the war in 1942, radio dealers had to seek other avenues to augment their income. Of course, servicing sets became especially important, but dealers also diversified, and that often meant selling records. Shown here, on the cover of the Radio Retailing for May 1944 is the colorful record display at Paramus Tire Exchange, 150 E. Ridgewood Ave., Ridgewood, N.J. The unusual name for a radio store (much less a kids’ record store) is explained by the fact that owner Cy Jacoby had diversified into the radio business in the 1920’s. The article noted that he was one of the many automotive men who took on radio way back when lots of music merchants were not interested.”

The address proved to be a good one from a merchandising point of view. With the inability to sell radios (or tires) during the war, Jacoby put together this display. In fact, since the shop was wired with intercoms, he even put a speaker behind the display and would speak to kids as the looked at the display of books and records.

1944MayRadioRetailing2The magazine warned of another kind of diversification that was illegal. Some dealers were buying broken radios and using the parts to rebuild new sets. In some cases, the rebuilding consisted of putting a refurbished chassis into a new cabinet. But the magazine reported that the War Production Board had taken the position that this was illegal.

There had apparently been no prosecutions, although the magazine did note that there had been several cases of action taken against dealers who had converted automobile sets to home use. Presumably, making the conversion at home (as described at this post and this post) were OK, but a dealer could not do the conversion and sell the set.



Electric Fences: 1939

1939MayRadioRetailingFenceThe May 1939 issue of Radio Retailing offered some advice for radio men thinking of diversifying their business–the electric fence.  The magazine pointed out that a fence needs to be “pig tight, horse high, and bull strong,” but that this ideal has never been fully arrived at.  But a small electrical jolt will encourage all animals to shun the fence completely, at a much lower cost.

The article noted that the concept of an electric fence was fairly new, and that a Wisconsin survey showed that only about ten percent of the farmers in that state were employing them.  Many states had adopted regulations prohibiting the direct connection to the electrical mains, so even in areas of rural electrification, the dealer would be able to sell batteries and chargers to satisfy the need.