Shown here, eighty years ago today in the January 22, 1946, issue of the Detroit Evening Times is Miss Nanci Trumbull, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. George T. Trumbull of Bloomfield Hills, MI, serving up some sodas from the soda fountain to her classmates at Kingswood School, Phillis Klinger, Elizabeth Boyne, and Beverly Whiting.

One might be forgiven if they concluded that Nanci had gotten a job at the local soda parlor.  But that would be incorrect.  The soda fountain had actually been installed in the recreation room of the Trumbull home for after school snacks.

She passed away in 2014 at the age of 86.  Her obituary (Mrs. Nancy Elisabeth Seibert) notes, quite fittingly, that she was a trendsetter all of her life.  And she certainly was in 1946.  Of course, we have no doubt that these girls were listening to the radio as they enjoyed their sodas.  Their listening options are shown below.  (You can click on the image for a larger version.)  Since it was after school, our bet was that they were listening to “House Party” at 4:00 on WJR.

Seventy years ago, the January 1956 issue of the British magazine Radio Constructor had the plans for this handsome “transportable” six-tube (including rectifier) receiver for the medium and long waves. The set was a superheterodyne, and was said to perform well even in weak signal areas. It earned status as transportable and not portable due to the fact that it ran on AC power.

The main innovation was the use of a ferrite antenna coil, which outperformed earlier built-in antennas.

Eighty-five years ago, the January 20, 1941, issue of Life magazine carried this ad for the RCA Super 6.  The ad listed 18 “features” of the set, such as the “big continental style plastic cabinet,” and noted that the price tag of $16.95 was less than one dollar per feature.

In today’s dollars, the price works out to about $373.

If you were a British motorist and radio enthusiast 75 years ago, putting a radio in your car was a do-it-yourself project, thanks to this five-tube superheterodyne medium-wave receiver shown in the January 1951 issue of Practical Wireless. There was nothing novel about the circuit, and it probably wouldn’t pull in a lot of foreign stations. But for entertainment and information from local stations, it would serve well. A vibrator power supply was on a separate chassis, which employed a sixth tube, the rectifier.

There was a time when the Sunday newspaper would show you the schematic for a two-tube short wave receiver, and a hundred years ago today was one of those times. The diagram shown here appeared in the San Antonio (TX) Light, January 17, 1926.

One hundred years ago, the young woman shown here is obviously an experienced broadcast listener. But she had to start somewhere, and at some point, she probably asked the question, “what can I get?”

A discussion of that question appeared in the January 1926 issue of Radio In The Home, and this listener’s picture graces that article. It covered a number of issues, such as selection of the set, and the importance of a good antenna and ground. But it concludes by noting that the most important factor in DX reception was the “dial touch.” This listener is clearly demonstrating that, and the article notes that every night, the answers to “what will I get” will become more and more numerous.