Wendys Classic Corner Wendys Classic Corner Hi, this is Wendy from Wendy's Classic Corner.

And today we're in the beautiful Brentwood, PA to check out the Pittsburgh Antique Radio Society.

Have you ever wondered about the history of radio and how radio evolved over the years?

Well, if you have, you're in luck today because we are going to hear all about radio.

So come with me and let's check it out.

My friends are calling me while I go in.

I'm trying my best to stay.

Okay, so we're here with Ed and Ed.

You're going to tell us a little bit about radio.

So for the people that might not know, which is probably not very many, but maybe some, what is radio.

That's a good question.

And the easiest way for me to explain it is I'm talking now my my vocal chords are going back and forth.

Yeah, they're making airwaves audio frequency.

And they're traveling through the air and they're hitting your eardrums and you hear it.

So that's a one on one communication.

Now think of a stage and there's an actor or a band or something.

Again we have audio frequencies and it's going out over the air to the audience and they hear it.

Now that's a one to many.

Okay.

And those frequencies are, 20 cycles per second to 20,000 cycles per second.

The the better term for it is called hertz.

Okay.

So that's that's, what we know is, close communication.

Now, radio allows you to take audio signals.

Same as you would as I would talk or same as a performer on a stage would be.

And they put that on top of a high frequency signal.

Okay.

And it's transmitted out now with the appropriate receiver, which we call radio picks up that signal, decodes it back to audio and someone can hear that and many people can hear it.

Anybody who has a radio tuned to that frequency will hear it.

So that's again one to many.

And that's kind of what radio is.

Okay.

Very interesting.

I've never had that explained to me.

So thank you.

So can you tell us a little bit about the history of radio?

The way radio came about?

Sure.

It started pretty much.

1887, I believe.

A fellow by the name of Heinrich Hertz.

And that's why we call these waves Hertz.

He worked on, in a lab, and he proved that you could send information over that through magnetic waves.

And that was built on math, that it was done, by a guy by the name of Maxwell, who was a theoretical physicist.

So right around 1894, there was a young man called, Guglielmo Marconi.

Oh, yeah.

And he got interested in this.

He was a young man, and he decided, he was going to experiment with it.

So he started it, and he got from one room to another with making communication.

That was 1884.

By 1901.

He had built transmitting equipment that would cross the Atlantic.

Wow.

Now, you have to understand, this was very powerful spark generators.

Okay.

And the only intelligence for that was to turn on the spark on and off.

And because we already had Morse code, the railroads used that for many years before that.

It was a natural thing to go to Morse code to transmit.

So that's kind of how we got to communicating.

However, took 20 years for a lot of smart people to get information, as we know, as audio on top of this high frequency.

Took 20 years to do that.

And there were many, many people.

There was, lead the forest.

Edwin Armstrong.

Okay.

John Fleming they all contributed to that.

So by 1920, there was the first commercial broadcast with audio, and it was done by a gentleman named Frank Conrad.

He worked for Westinghouse Electric, and he was a tinker.

And he convinced Westinghouse to let him make a transmitter, which Westinghouse did.

And Frank, operating from the workshop above his two car garage in East Pittsburgh, made the first voice transmission.

Okay.

And a commercial broadcast.

And this was 1920.

Was the 2nd of November, 1920.

And he reported the results of the Cox, Harding, presidential race.

Wow.

So that's where we go as far as history.

Oh, wow.

So the started kind of started in Pittsburgh.

Commercial broadcasting began in Pittsburgh at KDKA.

That's correct.

Awesome.

We have that distinction.

Well, I look forward to seeing all the radios.

And we thank you for the history, Ed, and thank you for inviting us out here tonight.

Thank you.

It's my pleasure.

All right.

All right.

We have Bob here.

And Bob, can you tell us the year of this model?

Yeah, this is from about 1922.

It's an RCA aerial, a junior.

It's actually manufactured by Westinghouse.

Okay.

And can you tell us a little bit about it?

Yeah.

This is a crystal radio and crystal radios didn't need any power.

There's no batteries or anything involved.

You simply hooked it up to an antenna, and you had your headsets, and it was powered basically from the actual reception of the radio station.

So it's one of the earliest types of radios?

Yes.

I've never seen anything like this very interesting.

So can you tell us how you got involved with Pittsburgh Antique Radio Society?

Yeah, I had worked as an electronics technician, years ago, and got involved with the hobby.

Found out about the Pittsburgh Antique Radio Society.

I, rejoined again after I retired.

And then, you know, I've been collecting and repairing radios since I was a teenager, so I kind of fit what I had done in the past.

Yeah.

Awesome.

And I know you have other radios to show us, so thank you.

We'll go on to check out your other radios in a moment.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

We have Chris here.

And Chris, you have two radios.

Can you tell us what year these are?

From 1922.

Okay.

Maybe into 23.

Okay.

And can you tell us a little bit about these radios themselves?

Their early battery sets.

So, you know, like radio didn't really start till about 1921.

And, these are what we would call a tuned radio frequency radio.

Very simple.

No AC power.

These ran off of batteries, so I call them battery sets.

Okay.

Interesting.

And what brought you to Pittsburgh Antique Radio Society?

Well, I'm a retired electrical engineer.

And back in the day, when we moved back to Pittsburgh, I was just on the web looking like, come on, there's got to be something fun to do.

And, yeah, you know, I found a club, back around year 2000.

Yeah.

And there is something actually very special about these radios.

Can you tell us what it is?

Well, I, I like history, and I like the history of radios.

These are from the Pittsburgh area.

This one actually down on Liberty Avenue, 1963.

Liberty.

I was there the other night.

It's a pizza place.

And I walked in and asked, do you know anything?

And I didn't know anything, but, yeah, these were built on Liberty Avenue, and there was a couple of stores there that specialized on radio parts.

This one's from Newcastle.

And if you look inside, this was made in Grove City.

So not exactly Pittsburgh, but close up.

Awesome.

Well thank you so much for these are really wonderful and thank you for sharing them with us.

Thank you.

Oh yeah.

Well welcome back Ed.

And you have a radio for us.

Now, can you tell us what year this radio is?

This is the 1925 radio model 26.

Okay.

Can you tell us a little about this radio?

Yes.

I'd like to tell you a little bit about how I acquired it and why.

Certainly.

I was, I retired in 2009.

Hadn't been touched the radio till then, joined PARS in 2011.

So I had always saw these radios.

This is a the basically first super header or dime portable that was made a successful one.

And I was done with, Edwin Armstrong, who is a genius and he's the one that put this together.

And, so I joined PARS in 2011.

So I'm kind of a late bloomer when it comes to to PARS what brought you to that and what made you join, because I had been away from the hobby for so long.

I always loved, crystal sets.

I made those as a kid and didn't do anything, like I told you until 2011, when I came to hear.

So it was a natural.

It was like.

And the other little, maybe comment I can make.

When I retired, I went to stay married, so I didn't want to collect these big console radios.

So I said, Ed, you better stick to something smaller, okay?

Like portable.

So that's what I did.

And again, this is a portable okay.

And that that got me into it okay.

Awesome.

Thank you so much for sharing this.

I think we're going to see you later with another radio.

But for now we appreciate you sharing this.

Thank you.

Thank you Wendy.

Hi, Fred.

So you brought your radio here today.

Can you tell us what year this radio is from?

1933.

Okay.

1933.

Can you tell us a little bit about this radio?

It's a majestic 49 B duo.

It has Am and shortwave bands.

It's four tubes super Hatcher dyne and it's a classic iconic art deco radio from that era.

Super retro dime.

Do you have layman's terms for that?

Well, what it is is it boosts, the frequency of the radio to one specific frequency.

And that way the radio is more tuned and it it actually plays a lot smoother that way.

Oh, excellent.

And what made you want to join the Pittsburgh Antique Radio Society?

Because I wanted to learn more about radio and the function of the radios, the way they work.

I was always intrigued by it, because dad worked in that department in Bloomingdales, and as a result of it, this club is fantastic.

I have learned so much from them.

They are the greatest guys.

Very caring, very, very, very caring about trying to teach you everything and it is truly a wonderful experience.

Okay, well thank you so much, Fred, and thank you for telling us about the radio.

My pleasure.

Wendy.

All right, Bob, you're back with another radio.

Very interesting radio.

What year is this from?

This would be the mid 1930s.

This is a zenith model 805.

It's a cathedral radio.

Yeah, but what does that mean?

Cathedral.

It's the design, the shape.

It's the classic Gothic cathedral arch that was used in the great cathedrals of Europe.

And, the radio manufacturers, especially Philco, you know, made a lot with this design in the 1930s.

It's quite a beautiful design.

Yeah.

And is there anything else you want to tell us about this radio?

It's a super.

heterodyne radio.

I acquired this radio when I was a teenager, and, unfortunately, it had been, you know, put through a couple repairs.

The, you know, didn't really do it justice.

So I fixed that up and, you know, have been using it since then.

Yeah.

Excellent.

Well, thank you so much.

And I think we still have one more radio from you.

Yes.

All right.

I'm excited to see it.

All right.

We have Craig here.

And Craig brought his radio and Craig can you tell us what year this radio this is 1933 okay.

And what kind of what can you tell us a little about the radio?

This is a, majestic model 461.

It was called the Super six, has six tubes, and it was an early super heterodyne, as you probably heard.

and, it has the tombstone shape to it.

Okay.

And what made you want to join the Pittsburgh Antique Radio Society?

I've been into electronics since I was age 13 collecting radios.

My mother used to work at an auction house, and, I used to buy radios.

They're cheap back in the day.

Take them home, experiment on them, and I had to throw them away.

Oh, but I do retain most of them now.

Okay, excellent.

And do you have a little story you want to tell us about this particular radio?

Yes.

Chris brought this to me at the October, radio clinic, and he sat it down and he said, is there anything you can do for this?

And I looked at it and I said, oh, my.

Because it was a real basket case.

It's a nice way to put it, but, I put a lot of hours in it.

I restored the cabinet, restored the chassis, and it is playing again.

Awesome.

Well, it is very beautiful.

And we thank you so much for sharing it with us.

So we're here with Mark.

Mark, you've brought one of your radios.

Can you tell us what year this radio is from?

It's a 1936 Troy radio.

Okay, awesome.

And can you tell us a little bit about the radio?

The radio is, a very, rare radio.

It was made by a small manufacturing company out of Los Angeles.

And the the name of the radio came about from the inspiration of the University of Southern California Trojans, a well known football team, and the dial on the radio.

I really like its a brass dial, and it depicts a, Trojan soldier with a spear and then two small biplanes in the corner of them, like like like tri motor planes.

And I really like the dial on the radio.

Oh that's awesome.

And can we turn the dial?

Yes.

All right.

Excellent.

Okay.

And what brings you what brought you to.

How did you come to belong to the Pittsburgh Antique Radio Society?

About four years ago.

I got an interest in, restoring radios.

I had a radio that had had for a very long time.

And, I wanted to learn more about restoring radios.

And one of the things I found very early on was they always recommend that you join a, radio society because there's this a wealth of information there.

And in this club there are people that have 40 or 50 years experience.

There's people that are experts in repairing the electronics.

There's other people that are very experienced and excellent in restoring cabinets.

So I thought it would be a great place to learn.

You know, more about restoring radios.

Every time I come to a meeting and, you know, I, I always, you know, seem to learn something from somebody because there's just a wealth of information here.

All right.

Well, thank you so much.

We've really appreciate you.

Come in and share your radio.

And thank you for joining us and talking about your radio today.

Right.

Thanks for having me.

Yeah.

All right.

So we have another person here today, John, and you have another radio for us.

What year is this radio.

This radio is in 1937.

And 38.

Was its lifespan okay.

And can you tell me a little about this radio?

I see it's I think it says zenith.

I can get that much.

What else can you say made by zenith.

And, it's a, pretty good quality radio.

It has an RF amplifier, which means it's more sensitive.

Okay.

And again, it's super heterodyne receiver so that it has one high gain amplifier and it converts all the radio signals to that one frequency.

It's called the intermediate frequency.

And it results in sensitivity and selectivity that we all need.

Okay.

Excellent.

And what led you to join the Pittsburgh Antique Radio Society?

Well, I always had a love for radios and electronics.

And I helped my neighbor.

We used to communicate and I built little things.

When I was in eighth grade, we did things.

And then the, I was part of an amateur radio club.

In fact, one of our members was, one.

And then I heard about the Pittsburgh Antique Radio Society.

A friend introduced me, and I came and I really thought, this is it.

I'm enjoy this.

The people were so friendly, so knowledgeable, and it just worked out perfect for me.

Oh, excellent.

And I think you have some as a little story to tell us about how this radio special to you.

Yes, back in the late 70s, I was driving through McKeesport with my two sons and my wife, and we saw an amateur radio festival they call them Ham Fest.

I went in, they looked and I saw this radio here and I thought, well, that's interesting.

And I acquired it for like $15.

It was a little rougher looking back then, and I brought it home and we all enjoyed it.

Once I got it working, it received shortwave.

And AM.

And a little story with my children, my, my eight year old son, decided he would do what daddy does and help cleaned it up.

Well, he got his felt tip pen and he wrote on the grill cloth, so.

Oh, that's great.

And my younger son, I was attuned to it, what they call radio beacons.

You hear beacons?

He said, daddy, that's aliens.

So I carried that on a little bit and generated some interest in them.

So that's this has a special memory with your family.

It does.

All right.

Well thank you so much for bringing it and showing us here today.

Oh you're welcome.

Fred.

You're back.

And you have another radio.

What year is this.

Radio from 1939.

Okay.

And you have a little this is very patriotic looking.

I think you have a little story to tell us about this.

Yes.

Thank you very much.

In 1939, the world was at war and it was going on all over.

And so zenith, in order to promote patriotism in the United States, came out with a version of a radio called affectionately, the Stars and Stripes radio.

If you look at the brass escutcheon of the radio, it has stars on it.

It has the impression of a flag waving and stripes for the patriotic American flag.

The radio has three bands to it shortwave, police, and broadcast, and it has a big gold dial that, when it's illuminated at night, is beautiful.

Zenith traditionally had big black dials on their radios, and as a result of it, the gold dial became an icon.

Very, very exciting.

Look, the radio is finished in a photo finish.

Burled motif.

It has the original white zenith knobs with a Z cast on each of the plastic knobs, and it has five tuning positions.

This was the first year for Zenith Radio to have automatic tuning.

Yeah, it's beautiful and I think you want to tell us a quick story about this picture here.

Yes, this radio sold new for $45, which in today's money is about $1,000.

This is a picture of Lou Costello in the movie Rio Rita.

And in the background is the zenith, Stars and Stripes, radio and Rio Rita was a story about what was going on in South America and Mexico.

And at that time, the story revolved around, besides the comedy of Abbott and Costello, Nazi spies were trying to sneak bombs into the United States through Mexico.

So it was an interesting story with a lot of comedy and a lot of truth to it because of the treasonous activities that were going on during the war.

All right.

Well, thank you again, Fred, for your second radio.

It's really beautiful.

And thanks for joining us today.

My pleasure.

Wendy.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

So we have JD here.

JD you've brought your radio.

What year is this.

Radio.

That is a 1940 model zenith model 7S 432.

Okay.

Can you tell us a little bit about this?

That was the mid range table, home radio that zenith offered in 1940.

Also that was transitioning over into the 40 series.

You know, I mean, pre-war radios.

Zenith was experimenting with that slide rule dial.

Most everything that zenith had before that was what they called a big brown or big black dial.

And this is the first year for the slide rule.

And, this radio, particular radio has, your AM broadcast and two shortwave bands.

Okay.

And the slide thing, you mean it's more going this yes than around?

Yes, yes, yes.

It.

Okay, excellent.

And what made you want to join the Pittsburgh and Antique region?

I run into Mr.

Wells.

Chris Wells, who's the secretary of this club about eight years ago at the, antique, Spring Fest down at Monaca.

And I was intrigued with the way the club operated.

And, of course, I had been affiliated with a club over in Ohio, where I'm from.

And this was this a much far advance.

So I approached Chris and said, yeah, yeah, we'd be glad to have you.

And, that a staple in and out for several years now.

Oh, excellent.

Well, thank you so much.

We appreciate you.

Bring your radio and talk to us today.

You're welcome.

All right, Ed, so as you, we promise you're back with another radio.

So what year is this?

Radio.

This is 1941.

Okay.

And can you tell us a little bit about this radio?

Yes.

This is a zenith, transoceanic.

It's their first one.

And it was really a trendsetter.

The owner of zenith, at that time was Eugene McDonald.

And he was a yachtsman, an adventure.

And he went on expeditions, and he was always disappointed about how radios performed when he took any of them on his trip.

And he he had a whole engineering staff to work for him.

So he said, guys, I want you to come up with a best portable radio that you can possibly make.

And he went and he tested all these and sure enough, it worked great and interesting enough.

If you look at this radio, it has a sailboat on the front.

These were made from October of 1941.

Until April of 42.

What happened was and in December 7th 41, we were attacked Pearl Harbor.

And Eugene McDonald was very patriotic.

And he said, okay, when that happened, the later productions from December, middle December on, they had B-17 bombers instead of a sailboat.

And that was that finish that the, the run.

And this is, it has five, shortwave, channels and one broadcast, and it's a six tube and it runs on batteries or 110.

And the interesting thing, these went off to war with our GIs.

They were really they love them.

They fell off a back of jeeps and survived.

It was amazing.

And, there's quite a few left of these that you can find, and the price is getting up on those now, just for historical significance.

Okay.

Well, awesome.

It's really cool.

Thank you very much again, Ed, we appreciate it.

You're welcome.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah.

All right, so we have one more radio here with you, Bob.

And what yours is from this would be the late 1940s.

This is an Emerson Model 520.

And it's kind of a special kind of radio.

The cabinet is made out of material called catalin.

And it's almost like a type of early plastic.

You can think of it like that.

Yeah.

This looks a little bit more familiar now as we get into like the and this is like a still a pre-war or.

No, this isn't just after the war.

Yeah.

But it's starting to look more like a radio that most people would recognize.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Excellent.

Well, thank you so much for bringing all your radios and talking to us today.

Thank you.

All right.

So we're here with Bob, president of the Pittsburgh Antique Radio Society.

And so can you tell us a little bit about when the club started?

Yeah, the club was founded in 1986 by a group of antique radio collectors and enthusiasts, mainly from the south Hills here in the, Pittsburgh area.

And I happened to actually be at the first meeting, which was in 1986.

And, I had joined for a few years and then, got busy with a career and, you know, and I came back and now I'm in the current president of the club.

Excellent.

And how many members do you have in this club?

We have about 150 members.

Yeah.

And probably you're always looking to have new members.

Oh, sure.

Yeah.

Would you all I sometimes wish that, you would you be able to somehow target or get younger members in the club?

Yeah, we do have a few younger members.

It is difficult sometimes to generate interest.

Yeah.

A radio is almost like a rotary telephone to a lot of people.

You may not have seen one, but you may have heard about them.

So, yeah, we try to get the word out and, and get some younger folks interested as well.

Yeah, well, hopefully we can help you with that.

And then also, what if I was going to join?

If I was going to be a member, what would I expect to happen?

What events would I be able to attend?

Yeah, we have a, quarterly, newsletter that you would be automatically subscribed to when you join.

And we do have, regular meetings, approximately eight meetings a year.

You know, and we also do radio clinics, which you got to see today where we repair and troubleshoot on radios.

We also have some social type events for our members, like a summer picnic.

And we also have a holiday luncheon.

We have with every meeting, a, contest of some type.

And there'll be a theme to the contest, for instance, we might have a contest on cathedral radios, or we might have a contest on battery radios.

Portable radios.

So that gets the interest of our members, you know, and we try to keep our contests, you know, interesting to the membership.

And sometimes you do, meetings where you have you include other areas.

Correct.

Don't you have, like, a tri state area?

We have one big annual event every year.

We call it the tri state Radio Fest.

It's typically, right after Easter season.

And, you know, that is a big flea market that we have.

And, small auction there to get together.

There'll be a contest.

And, we advertise this on our website.

Of course, you know, you can always come and, buy a ticket at the door.

Yeah.

So you have a website so people can Google search, Pittsburgh Antique Radio Society if they're interested.

And they can reach you that way and join if they want to join.

Right.

Okay.

Excellent.

And are you on any of the social medias or just you have the website?

One of our members does have a Facebook page that you can look up and find, that group as well.

Okay.

Well, hopefully we get some more folks out to join you.

And we appreciate your time today.

And we love what you're doing with classic, radios.

Yeah Thank you.

Yeah.