Would need your own substation to run it.

I wonder how much Watts the loudspeaker had.

Think it was mentioned in the description, from what I saw it really rocks. I have a 1939 vintage United Motors (pre Delco) model R1160 that does an honest 10 watts from a pair of 6F6's. Many of the older higher end consoles had stout audio sections feeding the field coil speakers giving them a good punch.

IMHO, this radio seems to me to be far, far too much radio for most people. Most people in the 1920s-40s listened to radio the same as folks in the 1950s to now watched television--for news and entertainment. There would be little if any need, IMHO, for a radio with as much audio output and probably RF sensitivity as this one in radio's early days.

I believe this radio was made just for people who wanted the best radio available at the time, and could afford it (it probably sold for well over $500). Think of this radio as the Cadillac of radios, again with a price tag to match.

I don't think very many of these sets were sold; those which did sell were probably sold to filthy rich people, such as Texas oil barons or folks who inherited fortunes from deceased relatives. Most of the rest of America listened to radio broadcasts over consoles or small table radios, and made the best of it. There may have even been some people who could not afford even a small table radio, so they listened to the then-new radio broadcasts over a crystal set. There was a major radio manufacturer, I can't recall the name as I write this, which made a small one-tube battery-powered radio; the single tube was mounted in a tube socket on the front panel of the radio. I remember seeing a picture of this radio in an issue of, IIRC, Popular Electronics magazine, from 1960 or so, in an article on old radios.

Again IIRC, I think the picture showed this radio with the single tube broken at the base or elsewhere; however, this didn't make much difference since the photo was only meant to show the radio itself. On the front panel was the volume control, of course, and a large, lever-shaped knob with a hole at one end; this knob was the station selector, with the hole being used as an indicator to show the station to which the radio was tuned (the dial scale, of course, was printed on the radio's front panel and showed the numbers 1 through ten, not the actual frequency in kilocycles).

You're absolutely right, the monster Crosley was for the well heeled with the excess money but its also an excellent example of craftsmanship and the technology of the day.

As per the article the price of one of these was set at $1500, a ton of money at the time!
There was one of these listed on the auction site a couple years ago for $75,000, looked to be really nice but a little out of my league.

Greg B

Would need my own substation to run it

Did they even sell any of them, or was this just a large PR stunt?

Hello my Friend, from the article, it looks like at least one was sold, one was kept by Crosley, and possibly one was sent to Crosley's friend Commander McDonald :thmbsp:

The set was priced at $1,500.00. There is no record of how many of the WLW Model Super-Power Radio Receivers were built, but the first sale was made to Wheless Gambill — a Crosley distributor in Nashville, TN. Powel Crosley, Jr. certainly put one in his home and probably sent one to Eugene MacDonald at Zenith.

Probably had to jack up the floor from the basement to support all that hardwood, talk about a beautiful beast.