Chicago Tribune, Feb. 8, 1942.

Seventy-five years ago today, February 9, 1942, the United States went on War Time, or year round Daylight Savings Time.  At 2:00 AM that morning, all clocks were to spring forward an hour for the wartime measure, which was intended to conserve electricity.

The measure had been adopted by Congress nationwide, and was to remain in effect until six months after the end of hostilities.

Broadcasters welcomed the change. The January 19 issue of Broadcasting magazine noted that “broadcasting’s semi-yearly headache, partial daylight saving time” would disappear and that the new law “inadvertently fulfills an industry campaign favoring ‘fast’ time on a universal basis, preferably year-round.”

The clock had previously presented headaches to broadcasters, not only due to the twice yearly need to change the clock, but because daylight savings time had not been universally adopted. Some states and communities moved the clock ahead, but others didn’t. For the first time, the entire nation would follow the same scheme.

A month after Pearl Harbor, civilian radios were still being produced. The War Production Board was created on January 16, 1942, and issued its order  on March 7, for consumer radio production to cease on April 22.  During those intervening months, there was uncertainty as to the availability of both radios and parts, but both production and advertising continued, but with the War clearly in mind.

Later in the War, the availability of B batteries became an issue. In fact, numerous construction articles, such as this one from 1943, focused on how to make a battery set work on household current. But in the early days of the war, there was a demand for battery operated sets, since it was believed that there might be blackouts and the AC power wouldn’t be available.

This is apparent from the Radiola ad shown above from the January 1942 issue of Service magazine.  Directed at dealers, the ad shows two “farm set” models, suitable for use with batteries on farms that had not been electrified. This ad suggested a new market for such sets, as an emergency set “that stays on when the power goes off.” It also suggested that electrification might be delayed in some areas due to the war.

The ad noted that one of these sets could be the best of both worlds. An optional accessory was the RCA model CV-42 “Electrofier” which would allow either of these sets to operate on household current. So there was a market for these sets even in town: The owner could run it off household current, but quickly switch over to batteries during a blackout.

US Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information photo.

Taken in January 1943, this photograph shows a Peñasco, New Mexico public health nurse relaxing with the radio in her quarters after dinner.  According to the photo’s caption,  “the radio is the only contact with the outside world. Papers come rarely to the town, and the nurse (identified in other photos as Marjorie Muller) at the clinic operated by the Taos County cooperative health association must depend on the news broadcasts to follow daily events.”  She served at the clinic shown at right.

The radio is Zenith model 6G-601-M, as revealed by the distinctive sailboat design on the speaker grill. You can see a well preserved example at this link.  The set was similar in circuitry and styling to the Transoceanic, but covered the broadcast band only.  You can see and hear a nicely preserved specimen of the radio at this video:

The six tube portable (3Q5GT, 117ZG, 1LH4, 1LF, 1LN5, 1LA6) could run off 110 volt household current or batteries. It’s almost certain that the set was being run off batteries, since it seems very unlikely that the clinic had electric power. This and other photos show a kerosene lamp, and there’s no evidence of electric wires in any of the photos. The clinic did have a telephone, as shown in another photo in the collection.

The radio’s dial is tuned to just below 900 kHz. An antenna is visible coming out the window in the picture here of Nurse Muller outside her residence. According to the 1943 White’s Radio Log, there don’t appear to be any powerful West Coast stations near that frequency. But it was night, she had a powerful receiver and an outdoor antenna, and it’s likely that she was listening to WLS in Chicago on 890 kHz. If that’s the case, it’s possible she was listening to NBC Blue Network news with Earl Goodwin at  7:00 Central War Time, which would be 6:00 P.M. in New Mexico.

The photographer for all of the photos shown here was Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information photographer John Collier, Jr.  More of his photos of the clinic are available at the Library of Congress website.