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July 8, 2019 9:46 pm  #1


Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

For me, it was a green colored radio that was plugged in and kept in my older sister’s bedroom. The thing had tubes and seemed to take forever to warm up. And after a while it would get hot if you left it on too long.
 
I don’t think any of us have a lot of clear memories from that age (an author I read once described it as being your mind covered in gossamer and cobwebs, making it hard to quite see through it or bring back anything from that early time with clarity.) But I do remember this:
 
My two older brothers came in from playing outside while I sat in my sister’s room listening to the sounds coming out of that green box. I was all of about seven.
 
“You missed a great game of cowboys and Indians,” one of them told me. (Not politically correct anymore, but hey, that was a different time!) And my response was, “And you missed the latest Beatles record on CHUM!” And that just about sums up my youth!
 
All this had been stoked even further a year earlier when my mother took me for a tour of CHUM as a present for my sixth birthday. Again, my memory is hazy, but I recall being very excited and I specifically can picture the afternoon jock, the late great Bob McAdorey, shooting at me with his finger from behind the announce booth glass. (In those days, everyone had an operator!)
 
The green radio was soon replaced by an actual portable transistor, and as I always say, I never throw anything out. So it probably won’t surprise anyone here that I went upstairs and found I still had it – an old AM/FM Koyo, whoever they were.
 
That thing went everywhere with me – on my bike, to school and even on many winter holiday trips to Florida by car, where I would tune around as we crossed into a new city and try to find the Top 40 station(s) that were there.
 
I have no idea if it still works, although I doubt it. But everyone remembers their first love. That Koyo was mine.


 

July 8, 2019 10:55 pm  #2


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

I do; but have no idea how to post a picture of it.  It was and is a Westinghouse table radio that was my father's; but he saw how much I loved it that he gave it to me.  Still here in my home.  

 

July 9, 2019 12:18 am  #3


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

It was a small Westinghouse AM radio that took a 9-volt battery.  I also had a headphone AM-radio that was red and white.  Again, it took a 9-volt battery.
 


Cheers,
Jody Thornton
 
 

July 9, 2019 9:22 am  #4


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

I can't  recall the brand right now but I remember the radio very well. Listened to mostly CHUM on it but I think I heard CHUM FM for the first time on it and the song may have been Bluebird by Buffalo Springfield. I found one pic of the set.


Cool Airchecks and More:
http://www.lettheuniverseanswer.com/
 

July 9, 2019 9:24 am  #5


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

Why do I want to guess at Hitachi?  Is that possible Fitz?
 


Cheers,
Jody Thornton
 
 

July 9, 2019 9:50 am  #6


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

Jody Thornton wrote:

Why do I want to guess at Hitachi?  Is that possible Fitz?
 

Perhaps Jody but I am not sure. I do remember my first stereo AM/FM receiver was a Realistic which I still had until about 10 years ago. 
 


Cool Airchecks and More:
http://www.lettheuniverseanswer.com/
 

July 9, 2019 9:51 am  #7


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

Did anyone else have one of these? : )) 

 

July 9, 2019 10:44 am  #8


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

I still have my second radio which was a Sony. I just got it out of the garage and shot this pic. Still works quite well after 47 or 48 years:


Cool Airchecks and More:
http://www.lettheuniverseanswer.com/
 

July 9, 2019 10:52 am  #9


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

I have my parents' portable Westinghouse radio (similar to the form factor your Sony is Fitz).  I'll have to dig it out and photograph it.  It still sounds good.
 


Cheers,
Jody Thornton
 
 

July 9, 2019 11:44 am  #10


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

By sheer coincidence, this article appeared in an online newspaper on Tuesday.

I don’t just listen to the radio, I also find ancient receivers and take them apart

     Thread Starter
 

July 9, 2019 12:29 pm  #11


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

My family didn't have a lot of money but my dad wouldn't buy anything that he considered was 'cheap crap'. When I asked to have a transistor radio "like all the other kids had" he bought me this.....




The black bar atop the unit was a directional AM antenna that pivoted, as I remember. The pull-out rod antenna extended taller than I stood, having a base diameter of at least 5/8".

Geez I wish I had this now!

Last edited by DeepTracks (July 9, 2019 12:32 pm)

 

July 9, 2019 1:14 pm  #12


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

That doesn't look all that cheap to me. And wasn't Zenith supposed to be a good name? (Their TV slogan was "The quality goes in before the name goes on.") One of my favourite radios that WAS a cheap piece of junk was made by someone called Juliette. Anyone remember that brand? (Yep, still have that one, too.)

I loved it because it was a multi-band radio, back before the police band was scrambled. It also had Air Traffic Control and SW. 

But my all time favourite moment came when I accidentally tuned into what used to be called "Toronto Mobile." This was in the era long before cell phones, the very early days when people rich enough to have phones in their cars had to go through an operator to connect a call. The operator would then dial the number, she would presumably get off the line and the parties could talk to each other. This radio would pick those up when the motorists were in range. 

One day, I heard a guy call his wife and say he wouldn't be home for dinner and had to work late. He then placed a call to what I believe was his girlfriend and told her they were breaking up. She pleaded with him not to, but he refused to listen and after a few minutes of arguing, he hung up. 

That was interesting enough (and no, I really shouldn't have been monitoring it, but it WAS on unscrambled public airwaves) but what happened after that was incredibly instructive. At the end of each call, after a few moments of silence, the operator would come back on and ask, "Mobile, are you through? Are you through with your call?" and then the signal would disappear as she disconnected them. 

In this case, I heard two operators come on. One said, "what a horrible man." The other responded, "The wife has no idea what's going on." They'd been listening in while this guy was two timing his spouse! I was just a young teen when it happened, but I've never forgotten it.

     Thread Starter
 

July 9, 2019 2:32 pm  #13


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

I remember the first time I heard FM. It was at my aunt and uncle's place in Welland in 1967. Mostly classical and elevator music.


"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
 

July 9, 2019 5:06 pm  #14


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

This is a picture [from google images] of the 1st radio I cut my teeth on.

I think Mom & Dad got it for me for Christmas. I was about 11.
I went through the AM dial noting all the AM stations I could hear especially at night. Also tuned in many FM stations to. One day I was picking up skip from NYC. Wow.
Back in the day, there was hardly any interference on AM and there were very few FM stations around here [Peterborough].
The radio also came with an VHF band. As well as aircraft, I could listen to the police and fire dept. Both were analog-duplex back then.
I couldn't figure out though how to listen to shortwave stations. Later, did I learn, 'you need to have a shortwave band for that'. Little did I know.
I got about 20 years out of that set. I regret I did not keep it.

Last edited by andysradio (July 9, 2019 5:07 pm)

 

July 9, 2019 5:23 pm  #15


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

I had a crystal radio set similar to the one that g121 posted above. I would have been about 5, and received it as a Christmas gift (had to wait till spring for Dad to string a wire antenna out of my bedroom window to the tree in the front yard). 

A couple of years later, my brother and I each received the Eldon radio kits as Christmas gifts...  we now had our own radios, so there would be no more fighting over the radio. That same year, I received 3 more Eldon radios from various aunts/uncles as Christmas gifts...  it got to the point where I could guess that it was an Eldon radio by the size and weight of the box...  (ungrateful little brat...)



https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-eldon-power-science-crystal-53236361

 

Last edited by Glen Warren (July 9, 2019 5:25 pm)

 

July 9, 2019 5:39 pm  #16


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

RA, your mobile phone story reminded of me of a tale Wally Crouter told years ago.

Gordon Sincalr had one in his Rolls Royce. Standard Broadcasting`s Radio president at the time was Don Hartford and he really, REALLY wanted a mobile phone too, but he couldn`t  justify the expense. (Ah, for the days of ethics!) However, eventually he got one somehow and one day he`s driving  up Yonge Street and he sees Sinclair heading south, so he gets the mobile operator to call  Sinclair and says, `Hi Sinc, it`s Don Hartford calling you from my car!!` Sinclair says, `Hold on a second Don. My other phone`s ringing!`

Last edited by potentiometer (July 9, 2019 5:39 pm)

 

July 9, 2019 5:51 pm  #17


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

What a character Sinclair was. I have only a very remote connection to him, though I never met him. My late father once heard him talking on CFRB about growing up downtown in the mid-30s and 40s. My dad had the same experience, so he wrote Sinclair a letter. 

To his astonishment, the radio news pro replied on a piece of personal stationery, obviously typed in his own hand and complete with his home address. Imagine anyone doing that today.

Where he found the time to write a listener is beyond me. They actually corresponded twice and it must have made an impression on my father, because he kept those letters for the rest of his life. (So that's where I get that packrat tendency from!) .

Here's the second of those replies.

   

     Thread Starter
 

July 9, 2019 6:49 pm  #18


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

@g121   That photograph brings back a flood of memories.  I received that model too,  for Christmas ('67 or '68?).  My dad threw the antenna line from my apartment bedroom to the balcony.  I had a few small "transistor" (as they were called back then) radios in my youth ,  but that Crystal was always special. 

Last edited by Media Observer (July 9, 2019 6:50 pm)

 

July 9, 2019 8:02 pm  #19


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

I actually heard this one myself, circa 1969 ...

`You know when I was a cub reporter at  The Toronto Star we used to get a lot of these. I can`t remember the last time, but  last night in Toronto there was a good old fashioned whore house raid!`

Of  course he pronounced `whore`correctly:  rhymes with  `Bloor`

 

July 10, 2019 4:00 am  #20


Re: Do You Remember Your Very First Radio?

I have truly enjoyed reading all of the stories on people's first radios.  Here is my tale.
I don't remember a main radio in our home...late 1950s.  But one day my dad brought home a transistor (green) with a plastic case, from the canteen where he worked.
I was eight and borrowed it to listen to the Habs games in french.
My first radio was a handheld model that I wore out.
When I was about 12, I got a Sound Design multi-band radio that I used all the time.  Whether it was a ball game or keeping up with the latest tunes, this was great!!!
When cable came to our part of Ottawa in 1968, I used to take the cable off the TV and put it on the whip antenna to get CHOM from Montreal.
I spent evenings listening to WABC, WLS, WCFL, WPTR and WKBW.  I tried to get CHUM, but WHN in New York was also at 1050.
While I was trying to do homework, I must admit I was a failure in psychology, but an A - plus student in Rockology.
I have always loved radio.  While I spent most of my career in television, radio was, and is my first love.  When this post came out, I began to count the number of radios in my home and stopped at 15.  My grandmother from Cape Breton game me an Addison 1937 model that still works!!!
Long live Rock!!!  and long, live Radio!!!