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Some fun with vintage AM - how many are left?

D

DaveBayArea

Alright. This one is for the AM radio hobbyists here. Found this radio at an estate. Obviously from the West Coast somewhere - I was thinking maybe I should post it on the California board... So... Which stations remain? Which facilities are still there but with different call letters? How many are gone?

Dave B.PackardBell_StationRadio.jpg
 
DaveBayArea said:
Alright. This one is for the AM radio hobbyists here. Found this radio at an estate. Obviously from the West Coast somewhere - I was thinking maybe I should post it on the California board... So... Which stations remain? Which facilities are still there but with different call letters? How many are gone?

Dave B.
Click to expand...
No doubt you know that KFRC is now KEAR (as of 2005). KGW is now KPOJ, though the calls live on through the formerly associated TV station.

I'm a little surprised to see KTRH (still at 740) on there - had KQW (later KCBS) not yet moved to 740 at the time this radio was made? I know KTRH's night pattern: it is very unlikely to be heard anywhere west of the Texas Hill Country.

Others - KOAC is still around, now part of Oregon Public Broadcasting. KNBC is now KNBR. KOB is now KKOB - puts in a great signal at night on the Central Coast but blocked in the Bay Area due to KCBC in Manteca. KGO is still on. KLX is KKSF.

I'm pretty sure KWBU is now KCTA (Corpus Christi), but the FCC website is still broken, so I can't look up history cards to verify that. KEX is still in Portland. KFBK is still in Sacramento.

Direction of tuning on this unit is interesting, too.
 
Guess there were different versions of that radio back then depending on what part of the country you were in...
 
Any idea why 1600 is on the left side of the dial and 550 on the right? I've never seen a radio like that and I'm almost 70.
 
xkxrx said:
Any idea why 1600 is on the left side of the dial and 550 on the right? I've never seen a radio like that and I'm almost 70.
Click to expand...
I've been in cars back then when they had analogue dials - where the high part of the dial starts on the left.
 
in addition, KSL (SLC), KFI (LA), and KOA (Denver). All these still exist, and have existed continuously since they first went on the air.

EDIT: Oh, and KNX. KHJ technically, but it disappeared for awhile, so its existence isn't continuous, as it is for these other stations.

EDIT #2: These are all west coast stations, it seems. Where'd this radio come from? It seems like it'd be from California, as most of these stations are/were either here or can/could be easily heard from here.

c
 
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cc333 said:
EDIT #2: These are all west coast stations, it seems. Where'd this radio come from? It seems like it'd be from California, as most of these stations are either here or can be easily heard from here.

c
Click to expand...
Found at an estate in Oakland. I surmise, as was mentioned above, that there were multiple versions of this radio depending on where it was being sold.

Dave B.
 
DaveBayArea said:
Found at an estate in Oakland. I surmise, as was mentioned above, that there were multiple versions of this radio depending on where it was being sold.

Dave B.
Click to expand...
Ah, I see. That makes sense.

The radio dial in general actually was pretty simple and elegant back then. Each frequency had one, maybe two stations at most, so tuning was far more easy and predictable than it has subsequently become.

c
 
Negin said:
I've been in cars back then when they had analogue dials - where the high part of the dial starts on the left.
Click to expand...
I checked my first transistor radio and lo and behold, the dial goes right to left! It's a Columbia, incased in leather from the early '60s. It fell on its side one time and the sound was never quite the same.
 
xkxrx said:
Any idea why 1600 is on the left side of the dial and 550 on the right? I've never seen a radio like that and I'm almost 70.
Click to expand...
In my 1950 Chevy hot rod the in-dash radio had a push button vertical dial with 540 at the top of the dial and 1600 at the bottom.
 
"Stationized radios" by Packard-Bell. @DaveBayArea Might I ask, what you gave for it? You can still find them on eBay, from time to time, in varying degrees of condition. Average price is $150 or so. Neat find. You just never know what may turn up from an estate sale.
 
rosecitymedia said:
"Stationized radios" by Packard-Bell. @DaveBayArea Might I ask, what you gave for it? You can still find them on eBay, from time to time, in varying degrees of condition. Average price is $150 or so. Neat find. You just never know what may turn up from an estate sale.
Click to expand...
Not much. $15. But the home had a fire and everything has smoke damage. The cabinet stinks. I plugged it in and it hums. I suspect it will work with a new filter capacitor, but haven't had a chance to replace it yet. It's the octal version of the AA-5 (12SK7, 12SQ7, 50L6, etc).

Dave B.
 
DAVEBAYAREA . . . that's a nice radio.

I have seen home radios with the dial starting on the left at 1600, but not many.

I have a number of old radios with station call letters on them, got them years ago on the west coast, they show many west coast AM's

The fact that some radios started with 1600 on the leftside, car radios mainly, I think was just the way the manufacturer wanted it. AUTOMATIC RADIO a company that was in Boston made car radios that were perfect fits for cars in the 50's & 60's. Many of their car radios - the dial had 1600 on the left & 550 on the right of dial.

I have a 1955 FORD car radio ( that works great ! ) on a PS, that is unusual, it has a circular dial. The other thing that was common with many car radios was if you got the DELUXE model you got a push-pull (2 tubes) audio output stage, where as the " BUDGET " model had one audio output tube.

My 1955 FORD circular radio also has CHROME push buttons, (Chrome over black plastic) on the DELUXE model, the BUDGET model had BLACK plastic buttons.

The circular dial was unique in the 50's but some car radios going back into the 30's had them too.

I remember this radio when I was a kid, one of my Uncles had a 1955 FORD!

here they are on E-Bay . . .

Ford Vintage Car & Truck Radio & Speaker Systems for 1955 for sale | eBay

Got another old BIG wooden table model that has an AM radio & 78 RPM record cutter / player in it made by ROCKOLA . . . the people that also made jukeboxes. I had no idea they made radios too, this one I got working too.
I found a guy in Des Moines, IA that was an expert on ROCKOLA products and he provided me at no charge, the schematic and history of ROCK-OLA's short lived trip into radio manufacturing.
If I recall correctly they only made radios for about 5 years around the 1930's / 40's.

Al
 
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Negin said:
I've been in cars back then when they had analogue dials - where the high part of the dial starts on the left.
Click to expand...
Never saw one with a reversed dial, but a lot of Japanese cars of the 70s & 80s had the volume & tuning knobs reversed, ie-tuning knob on the left, volume on the right.
 
Oldbones said:
Never saw one with a reversed dial, but a lot of Japanese cars of the 70s & 80s had the volume & tuning knobs reversed, ie-tuning knob on the left, volume on the right.
Click to expand...
A former working buddy of mine (he was in Japan) said "we have them in the same place, relative to the driver, as you do".

Remember, Japan is a right hand drive country (same as UK, Australia, NZ etc.).
 
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