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"Chevy has one of the first radios with remote control. It was manufactured by General Motors in 1932. The radio stood alone wherever you placed it, connected by wire to its dials built into a pedestal ashtray which could be positioned beside your sofa or chair. Ninety years ago, one needn’t stand up to change stations or volume.
"There was a shelf with a Sony Watchman, and various other radios with miniature TVs that you could take to the ballpark to watch the instant replays."
What I want to know is where does the guy find the room to store everything?
Radio lover tunes in to 'controlled chaos'
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Thanks for posting. I love that kind of stuff.
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Interesting read. I collected a dozen vintage radios the past seven months while recuperating from an injury and subsequent surgery. I worked in the industry for 15 years in my younger days and had nothing to show for it but an old aircheck cassette . Now , I look at the radios on my book shelves. Anybody interested in joining the hobby, just scour Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace. You can spend as little as 20$ or 1000$ depending on the unit. My average expense was 40$.
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Thanks, RA. Seems like a great guy with a neat collection.
My neighbour has been collecting for years. I'll make sure he sees the story in Barrie Today.
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I was a radio nut. My wife used to ask how many radios do you have? I've got solid state radios (many vintage) from a 1963 Channel Master, through the Pansonic RF-2200, a couple of Grundigs, a couple of Sony RF-2010's, other Sony (7600) and Sangean short wave units, three GE Super radios and I am going to start selling / giving them away. I've replaced the electrolytic capacitors in many of the older ones. My kids don't want them. In the house it's almost impossible to listen to any distant AM stations due to the noise generated by the many switching power supplies that are used with most modern devices. Of the FM stations receivable few offer any compelling reason to listen. I will keep a couple of the better units, there's just no point in keeping these things unless it is for display purposes.
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Only 4 of the dozen I collected actually work. I got them for display and memory reason. A lot cheaper to buy and maintain than the classic cars I bought and sold over the past 25 years.
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Using the email address in the Barrie Today article, I sent this to Chevy (great birth name, by the way) Halladay...
"Congratulations on your story being published in Barrie Today. You certainly have a magnificent collection, and a great attitude. My neighbour has been collecting old radios, telephones and clocks for years. I’ll make sure that he sees your story."
His almost instant response...
Wow. Thank you. Greatly appreciated. I have over a thousand radios now and I love them all. John, the columnist, tried to catch almost as much as he could but I have far too many. He did an amazing job. I tried to convey to him the human side that the physical and monetary side really mean nothing at all as I'm just a caregiver of these radios.
Take care and be safe
Chevy
Once again, RA, thanks for sharing the story.