Seventy five years ago this month, Pearl Harbor was still a month away, and the end of civilian radio production was still five months away. But radio retailers were starting to feel shortages, since many parts were in short supply due to wartime material priorities, and in some cases, the numbers of new sets available didn’t meet demand.

This led many retailers to take a closer look at selling used sets. Trade-ins were often viewed as a headache, and little effort was made to realize a profit from them. But the wartime economy made many retailers consider selling used radios. The November 1941 issue of Radio Retailing carried advice from the experience of M.M. Law, the proprietor of Radio Bargain House of Birmingham.  Law got into the radio business by accident when running a hotel.  A hotel guest turned a radio over to him for sale, and he placed a classified ad in the paper.  He received fifteen calls in response to the ad.  When he eventually lost the lease on the hotel, he decided to get into the radio business.

Law typically made a net profit of about $2 on each set.  He often bought in bulk from other dealers looking to unload their trade-ins, sometimes as low as $1 per set.  He typically invested about $3 fixing up each set, and quickly sold many for $6.95.  He estimated that his average sale was between $12 and $15.

He continued advertising in the classified ads, since his experience was that this was where bargain shoppers looked.  He always kept a set outside his shop, marked “today’s special,” and reported that he would often sell this set, with the buyer not bothering to look for others.  In other cases, however, the set outside would entice a buyer to come in the store to buy a better set on the floor.

One of the fascinating parts of collecting old radios is pondering the kinds of programs they pulled in over the years.  Chances are, the radio was used to listen to countless hours of news, music, entertainment, and sports.  They were a witness to history, but the frustration is that we can no longer listen to the programs that were broadcast.  Programs generally weren’t recorded, and most of the live programs that were broadcast were lost.

Fortunately, there are exceptions, although most of them were the result of accidental preservation.  One example is documented in this news story from KIRO in Seattle:

KIRO Radio accidentally saves American history

Even though it was contrary to network policy, KIRO made a practice of recording CBS network news on 16 inch discs, so that they could be replayed at a more convenient hour for West Coast listeners.  Fortunately, someone rescued these discs when they were to be discarded, and they are now in the collection of the University of Washington.  They are gradually being digitized, and many are available at this link.  The first one in that collection, for example, is a broadcast from September 1, 1939, and include a report from London of the declaration of war.

Shown here in the October 25, 1941, issue of Radio Guide is the Shortwave Listening Station which the NBC network had recently installed at Bellmore, Long Island. The station was in operation 24 hours a day, and the staff of 24 foreign language experts and radio engineers kept tab on the war of words coming from Europe.

The issue also reported on a publicity stunt recently conducted by Berlin Radio. For a number of days, the station had announced that Lord Haw Haw had been banned from the air. Then, an announcement followed that Lord Haw Haw would be allowed to come on the air and give his side of the story.

Many American editors fell for it, and the broadcast received plenty of advance publicity. However, Lord Haw Haw hadn’t been banned from the German airwaves. It was a publicity stunt in which he announced merely that the American networks refused to carry his propaganda.

On this date seventy five years ago today, October 18, 1941, less than two months before Pearl Harbor, Radio Guide magazine told all the ways that radio would defend America.  The author, an army officer who had previously served as an editor of the magazine, started by saying that the bombers would come first, make no mistake about it. They would do it, unless radio prevented them, as one of the nation’s first line defenses. He noted that the shores were ringed with listening stations on our territory, on distant islands and ships at sea, and aboard blimps above the ocean. One of those stations would see them coming, and radio would carry the message to commanders whose duty it was to defend our shores.

If enemies did get through, then “radio must do for America what it failed to do for France; it must tell Americans where to go and by what routes. When areas need to be evacuated, radio must instruct automobilists and truck-drivers to use certain roads and highways. The Army has first claim on the others. Indeed, it may be a part of one’s preparedness to keep his radio continuously tuned in. No other means can tell the public so quickly of threatened danger.”

Another aspect of national preparedness was monitoring foreign shortwave broadcasts. “Would you think, for example, that by listening to what Germans are telling Americans, both in North and South America, you could learn what Germany may do next? Well, you can. Even now German short-wave stations are talking to us at all hours. Each twenty-four hours they are sending us thirty thousand words of trickery and deceit. By following it for month after month we have learned that it assumes a pattern that is visible to experts. Our own Federal Communications Commission hires such experts and many others besides to listen to all foreign language broadcasts. Stations in Oregon, Texas, Maryland and Puerto Rico hear all broadcasts directed to this country and to South America. They make recordings of these broadcasts, turn them over to translators, then to analysts, then to psychologists. Result: The American government was warned ahead of time that Japan was going to occupy Indo-China. Germany’s attack on Russia was predicted within a few days.”

Air Corps radio operators.  “A few months ago many of them were ‘hams’ you heard on short waves. Today they’re learning everything from signal codes to radio night-fighting technique.”

The article also noted how broadcasting had served the public by providing information and quieting rumors.  It concluded by noting that in peace, Americans had used radio better than any other nation.  “We have more stations, more receivers, more artists, more technicians, more listeners.  In war, if it comes, we shall also use radio best–there can be no doubt of that–and employ its multitude of services in order that a complete and glorious victory may quickly be ours.”

Despite wartime parts shortages, the young man shown here was able to furnish his room with a radio, courtesy of plans found in the October 1944 issue of Popular Mechanics.

The lamp is not merely ornamental; it is part of the circuit. The 40-watt bulb serves to drop the line voltage to light the tube filaments. Two tubes are used, either type 37 or 76. The article noted that these tubes could be found in an old set, or in the radio student’s junk box. One served as a rectifier, with the other one serving as regenerative detector. The cabinet is a wooden file box. The lamp socket comes from the dime store and is mounted on a curtain rod secured to a wooden block on the cabinet with glue. The switch on the lamp socket turned on both the lamp and radio.

The coil was wound on a cardboard tube, and wire from an old transformer or filter choke could be used.

The set was billed as a “Desk Lamp DX’er for Boy’s Room.” For best selectivity on local stations, the article recommended an indoor antenna of 15 feet. For pulling in DX, it recommended a long and high outdoor antenna.

The article notes that no external ground is used, but doesn’t explain why not. Since the set is connected directly to the AC wiring, adding an external ground would run a 50/50 chance of blowing a house fuse (or in a modern home, popping a GFI). And anyone planning to make a modern recreation should be aware that the set isn’t exactly safe. One side of the headphones is connected directly to the AC line, and the antenna connection has only one capacitor between it and a hot wire. So the modern parent, before giving one of these interesting sets to Junior to put in his room, would probably be well advised to include an isolation transformer.

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Shown here are Radio Technician First Class Kenneth D. McCoy of Salem, Oregon; Radioman First Class Stanley T. Dixon of San Francisco; and Radioman Third Class Charles H. Wilson of Steubenville, Ohio, the operators of 2-1/2 watt “Rock Radio,” located in 1944 in American Samoa. The picture and accompanying article appeared in the June 1944 issue of Radio News.

The station was cobbled together with scavenged parts including “tired tubes, broken bed springs, and stripped Jeep gears.” The station’s microphone consisted of the receiver of a Marine field telephone. The record player was an antiquated Victrola purchased for $3 from one of the natives.

Each night, the station came on the air, manned by whichever of the three was not on duty that night. It signed on with an almost worn out recording of the Star Spangled Banner, followed by a variety program of recordings chosen at random by the announcer. After a fifteen minute newscast, requests were taken. On Christmas Eve, the station recorded and rebroadcast the President’s message to the armed forces.

The station’s signal covered the entire island, and proved popular with the sailors and marines stationed on the island.

Seventy years ago, the cover of the September 1946 issue of Radio Craft shows the well equipped station at W2OEC, the military recreation club station at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. Since the base was the home of the Signal Corps, it understandably had a large population of hams. Indeed, since there were hams from throughout the country, there was talk of adding an award for working all ten call areas within Momnouth County, New Jersey.

There were plans to equip the station with a kilowatt on all bands below 30 MHz. Transmitters consisted of military models BC-610 and BC-339.

The accompanying article described the station’s antennas, which included a rotatable beam for 10 meters. The 80 meter antenna’s main lobe was aimed for Missouri, allowing good coverage of the entire country.

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