Pre-War FM Radios

[MarioMania]

What was the last radio ever bulit with the Old FM Band?

[Sandy G]

I have a rather tatty Zenith that has BOTH FM bands-Figure it was made 1946-47.

[MarioMania]

Both FM Bands

Can I find any on ebay?

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by MarioMania

Both FM Bands
Can I find any on ebay?

Here is one of the last, a 1948 (47?) model (7H820):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1948-ZENITH-...item3ce4da0550
A really ratty 8H023 (also from about 1948):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Zeni...item27e26e4da9
not affiliated,
jr

[Olorin67]

Zenith made quite a few postwar sets with both bands.

[wa2ise]

Don't know which was the last here, but I have a web page of these FM sets
http://www.wa2ise.com/radios/fm45.html

[Sandy G]

Wasn't there a bunch of barmy BS floated after the war that FM would work better at "Higher" frequencies, but the REAL reason was that they wanted/needed the "Old" FM band for TV ? That, & Sarnoff wanted to completely & utterly discredit Armstrong, with whom he was in a big Pissin' War/lawsuit ?

[ZackN920]

^^Sounds like the same shit today, with how they forced analog TV off the air and replaced it with digital so the FCC could sell off the UHF and VHF bands to the cell phone companies.

Anyways I have 2 or 3 Zeniths with both FM bands.


Hay Mario, does my Avatar look familiar....

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

...That, & Sarnoff wanted to completely & utterly discredit Armstrong, with whom he was in a big Pissin' War/lawsuit ?

No way of knowing, and their egos were probably too big, but if Armstrong mentioned that FM would make a great soundtrack for Sarnoff's television, thus making TV a "killer app", maybe they wouldn't have gotten into this contest? I've always hated pissin contests myself...

[stromberg6]

Stromberg-Carlson also had a few models with both bands, such as the 1200 series, and the 1135 "monster chassis" (my opinion). Maybe a couple of others.
Kevin

[KentTeffeteller]

Other things to note! The old pre-WW II FM band and Old and New FM band sets were much more common in Northeastern states, due to FM being more commonplace there. Probably more of these sets from there than from other areas of the USA, though out West there likely are a lot of them in and around California. FM in Eastern Tennessee didn't begin catching on commercially until 1967. Before that, we had less than one dozen FM stations from Upper East Tennessee to Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 1966 in Knoxville, we had 91.9 WUOT-FM, we had WBIR FM 103.5, we had WSEV 102.1 in Sevierville, and one other station I remember. In late 1966, WIVK-FM 107.7 signed on which was the first Knoxville station not dependent on subcarrier background music revenue.

[Sandy G]

Don't forget WEZK-FM, 97.5, Kent. They played "Beautiful Music", which often was remakes of almost current top-40 tunes, that had the harder edges buffed off, to make them more palatable to an older audience.

[Adam]

I used to have this 1948 Stromberg-Carlson console that had both.

[KentTeffeteller]

Sandy G,

WEZK didn't sign on until 1967. And first signed on with a predecessor call sign. 1967 in the Knoxville area was a major year for new FM station builds. Several new ones built that year. WEZK was built and signed on by South Central Communications, the Muzak Franchisee. For many years, the SCA generated most of the revenue for this station.

[stromberg6]

Originally Posted by Adam

I used to have this 1948 Stromberg-Carlson console that had both.

One of the 1200 series sets. Nice pic! Thanks.
kevin