Were you around in the '20s, '30s, '40s or '50s? That's when radio was king. Sure, there may have been a few TVs around, but radio was KING! And these weren't tiny battery operated pocket radios, but full sized consoles that added style and grace to a living room or parlor. The first of these were indeed battery operated -- by giant dry cells or car batteries, but soon made the transition to power supplied from wall outlets.

The family would gather around the radio to listen to Gunsmoke (with William Conrad as Marshall Dillon), the Jack Benny show, The Shadow, Fibber McGee and Mollie, One Man's Family, The Lone Ranger..... Imagination was the key. Each listener could interpret what was happening in their own mind. There were lots of serials, news broadcasts, variety shows and more and more music, mostly played from 78 RPM records until the period of the 1950s.

Of course, the radios of the pre-WWII period used tubes, as there were no transistors back then. If you wanted a solid state radio, you had to use a crystal set that you might have built yourself. And those tube-based radios often needed repairs, supporting a nationwide network of specialized radio (and, later, TV) repair shops. The MOAH radio repair shop, located in the Frank Livermore Learning Center, recalls the period of the 1940s, displaying test equipment, electronic components, and radio equipment as they existed before the dawn of the semiconductor age.

Pre-transistor radios used vacuum tubes that generated considerable amounts of heat. The heat tended to shorten the life of the radio components, but since radios were relatively simple devices, they could easily be repaired. As the cost of a radio was significant in terms of the value of money at the time, radios were worth repairing when they failed. This was especially true during the WWII period, since no new consumer radios were built at that time.

In the 1920s and 1930s, readio was still a new and fascinating technology, resulting in the establishment of many radio sales and repair businesses. It seemed that every block in a large city contained a radio repair shop. These were often places where kids interested in radio technology gathered. The experience motivated many to go on to professional careers in electronics. This was also a time when imaginative and inventive teenagers built their own sets out of parts scavenged from the many discarded radios found in the back of a typical repair shop.

Repair of tube radios was a dangerous business because of the high voltages involved. Many of the sets operated with voltages of over 300 volts and were not designed to protect service personnel. It is said that old radio men were careful radio men! When television arrived, voltages of 15,000 volts were not uncommonly found.

In the MOAH exhibit, note the tube testers located near the center of the display. Vacuum tubes were the component that failed most often, but they were easily replaced plug-in devices. Their high failure rate made tube replacement the most profitable part of the radio repair business.

Other test equipment includes signal generators that produced a weak radio signal used for aligning repaired sets, meters to check the voltages in the radio, and oscilloscopes for viewing the shape of electrical signals.

This page last updated: December 20, 2001