Magic Brain and Teledial
 

Here I am again after only a few weeks since my last Philco 38-690 acquisition. Seems like when it rains...it pours, and I'm all wet right about now.

A few days ago I saw a post on Craig's List for an RCA radio. It didn't say what model it was, but it did list a selling price of $25.00. I took a look at the picture and it looked like it had a lot of knobs for a basic plain Jane 1930's console so I decided to do a little homework on this one. It turned out to be an RCA Model 811K, which happened to be RCA's 11 tube, 3 band top of the line model for 1937 with a selling price of $692! It also has what they termed a "Magic Brain", "Magic Eye", and "Magic Voice". I decided to go and check it out. I did and decided that despite the fact that the cabinet will need to be refinished, I would go for it.

As I was preparing to close the deal the guy said he had another $25 radio if I was interested, so I took a look. It turned out to be a 1938 Grunow model 1291 which is a 12 tube 3 band console. This unit has what Grunow called a "Teledial" which is the method of tuning the radio using the slightly recessed buttons on the perimeter of the tuning dial. It's quite an interesting and impressive looking contraption. The down side of this particular radio is that it would appear it was stored in a very damp smelly basement for a long time. The cabinet will need a lot of attention to bring it back. But I really like the looks and the lines of it and will do my best to make it look good.

So for $50 I think I made out pretty well. Now I need about two years of uninterupted time to do all of the work and bring them back.

Bob

The better RCA's are really great radios and that looks like a dandy. I had one of the Tele Dials and I was lucky that it was a working example. It was a very good performer nice sound and really pulled in the stations.

I had a 5 or 7-tube Teledial once, clever device they designed for presets. You stole those for $25 ea. Keep us posted on the restorations.