I have been recording the shop names from tube labels . I have purchased these tubes from closed shops, old tinkerers, radio swaps and god knows where (I probably own 4000 of them). Most of the names are shops that existed in Detroit near me.

I have begun searching out these locations and dropping notes in the mail to current occupants to see if anything still exists in the attics or basements (you never know !). Sadly, it seems 80% of the buildings are gone, as Detroit imploded over the last 40 years. No responses from the 2 I sent notes to recently. My list is about 25 names currently.

Back in the 80's I got a list from the ESDA (Electronic Service Dealers Association) of then-existing Detroit area shops. It was about 50 names then. The guy at ESDA said at one time, there were OVER 100 repair shops operating in the metro Detroit area ! I bet that was in the 60's during the peak of TV servicing.

Dig out your tubes and write down the name on the label, PLUS record the type of tube and the date on the label if any. Then do some internet checking to see if the address still exists, or do a reverse lookup to get a phone number of any existing business there and call them. Worth a shot.

Mark Oppat
www.oldradioparts.net

I worked dealer lists back in the early sixties. Got good hits on maybe one out of fifty.
I had better luck contacting relatives of the original owners when they could be identified. Found several sheds and a couple barns loaded with left overs. A lot of newer TV era stuff mixed with a few 1920's parts. A few times the original owner or a employee was located. One dealer in Oklahoma said they took in old battery sets as trade in for AC sets. He had a annual bon fire prior to Xmas as a advertising gimmic every year using the trade ins. He did a booming business during the federal rural electrification era up into the early fifties. The govt wired one plug to each property, either to the house or barn. He said the radios took priority over lighting and electrified farm equipment.

Here's an outfit that advertises a lot on radio and dates back to 1944.

http://harrisburgradiolab.com/index.html

As is typical of most of the historical accounts they seem fixated with broadcasting which I find boring, just a bunch of generic talking heads mostly, I'm much more interested in the technological aspects. The Rogers Telecom Website isn't too bad, it fills in some more of the blanks on the manufacturing business. Even so I never see anything mentioning who or what was behind things, like why did they develop the 2X3 rectifier tubes? Why did they use bias cells? Things like that.
Best Regards
Arran

My Dad started in or around 1950 or 51 , I was in the late part of 3rd grade , He took a home course that had 8 mm movies witch I watched with him , my older brother was never interested ,
so I got to see the first color TV's come in around 1953 , that was all hand wired ,

after some time Dad got a shop set up he always let me fix the easy TV's and most the radios that came into the shop ,
he always laughed when I brought one in that I found in a trash can and got it going
I have had one shop in 1971 that I closed back in 1989 , still have a few things from Dads shop ,
at one time must have been at least a dozen repair shops in this small town , I only know one that is still open but closing very soon

Daniel - that's a great story - I wish my son shared my interest the way you did with your dad. I had that same interest as a child - but my dad died when I was two - I didn't really get to explore electronics until I went to college - but the curiosity about radios and tubes was always burning in the back of my mind - I can't explain why - but it always did.
Arran - I think the consensus is that the 2X3 was strictly a marketing gimmick - but maybe there is more to it - could it be that there is an advantage to having 2 half wave rectifiers ? Increased plate voltages ? hum reduction ? noise reduction ? - I don't know.
I read an article just recently about the development of the bias cel - I'll have to see if I can find that - It stated very clearly why the bias cel was needed and its advantages - I think it was a reprint from a Mallory Yaxley encyclopedia.
Steve

This isn't the exact article I read - but it is full of info.

http://www.antiquewireless.org/otb/biascell.htm

Hatrys shut down sometime in the late 80s or 90s. The ham department had become a shell of itself, although I do remeber playing with the newly released Icom 735.

I would buy parts but the pickings were becoming slimmer and slimmer.

Hi, I know this thread is two years old - so maybe no-one will see it. I am researching a book about small businesses. More specifically it will center on the small business my family has owned since 1934 on the Upper West Side of Manhatten. It started as a radio repair shop (Radio Clinic was the name) and evolved into a appliance/electronics store. I would love to hear stories of other small radio repair stores if anyone on this thread either owned or parents owned this type of store.

This tread maybe old but I really enjoyed all the stories and pictures! I worked for a friends family radio and tv sales and service business-Zylla TV. Then best buy came to town and we went under in 1983. I loved working there and watching the guys repair TVs and a few radios too!!!
Thanks to everyone who posted!!!

Lynn

Yeah, great thread, and great stories. Unfortunately I can only contribute a side note. My dad was a protestant minister his whole career, and he just told me an interesting radio story two weeks ago when I was visiting my parents over my daughter's spring break. In my later childhood my dad always had a couple shortwave receivers on his workbench, and he'd listen to his Hallicrafters s-107 while he fixed some random thing I'd broken.

So two weeks weeks ago we got to talking radios, and he went back to his closet and pulled out the *other* SW he'd always had on his bench, but which I don't remember him using. And he told me about it. You see, when I was a babe in arms, just 8 weeks old, my parents finally got the mission assignment they'd been waiting for for more than a year. Nigeria. This was the late 60s. When we got out to the mission field, they were issued a SW receiver and a SW transmitter... the only means available for communicating between the mission outpost and headquarters 400 miles away. But the receiver was in parts... a Heathkit GC-1A Mohican! My dad's first assignment on the mission field... in addition to language training... was to build up the radio that was to be our only communication mechanism with the outside world. That was HQ's assurance that he'd be able to fix it if it broke.

And my dad still has that radio to this day. I don't remember him using it because it's a battery set and he doesn't have the AC adapter for it. But my recent interest in radio has gotten him interested again, and now he's trying to see if he can get that old Mohican running again. (The hallicrafters is still going strong, although one of us should really recap it one of these days. )

Rodney

Rubinjen: Just curious if this Radio Clinic is the same as the one you mention. I'm not up on addresses in NYC.

Hi, Gary,
Recognized the name from the news groups... thanks for the story.
You're the man!
Cheers,
Roger

I just found the website for the abandoned radio shop that I mentioned in the original post on this thread. It may have been mentioned in the past on the forums - but here's the link anyway.

http://www.qsl.net/wa0jcv/LostShop1.html

Hi,

2290 Broadway is close to W.83rd st which would be the upper west side of Manhattan.

Jerry F Bacon Dallas,Tx ♫♫

@Roger, Great find! I very much enjoyed the website, photos and stories! So much history and so many memories! I wonder where in Minnesota it was? Thanks for posting that, I learned some thing new today!!!

Lynn in Minnesota!!!!

The Radio Retailing magazines are filled with pics of radio stores. I highly recommend buying the CD version:

http://www.renovatedradios.com/retailing_mags.html

Can anyone report on the above mentioned cd/dvd's ? - did you enjoy going through them - or use them for refererence ?

True, I wander into Bay Bloor Radio from time to time to "kick the tires" if I go to lunch nearby... but now it's too much Bose stuff, which leaves a nasty taste in my mouth... or do I mean a nasty ring in my ears?! But I did buy a TT drive belt and cartridge there last year.
Cheers,
Roger

Radio Retailing is one of my favorite Old Radio Magazines and to get 175 issues on DVD for $40 is a real bargain! I use them for references all the time since they are chock full of ads and lots of great info. It also saves me from having to dig out the few hard copies I've managed to pick up over the years. Kudos to Renovated Radios for making these available to us.

If you don't have a copy of Ghirardi's Radio Troubleshooter's Handbook or the Mallory Encyclopedia you might want to order those on CD also. Both are great references for servicing radios from the 30's.