Antique Radio Store

Information may not be reliable

Phone/Fax (858) 268-4155
Hours: Store hours are Monday and Wednesday 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. PST

Founded 1909, New York City, USA
Formed by a small group of dedicated radio amateurs and experimenters nearly a century ago, The Radio Club of America would soon count among its membership the very best in the Radio Communications Industry. Edwin Armstrong, David Sarnoff, Louis Hazeltine, John V. L. Hogan, Paul Godley and Allen B. DuMont, to name just a few - these were pioneers who would shape the industry.

No, we do not publish a catalog. Turn over of sets makes this prohibitive.
Please do not call or e-mail for set valuations.
Of the 20-30 E-mails I get every day, I really don't have time to provide them with the complete history of their set, value, etc. There are several fine collector guides avaliable, your local library will have them. (and other interesting stuff too!)
Last updated 10/7/2010 Click on part number for set pictures.
Check out "Repair" section (updated) for........Some Ideas!!!

For help with technical questions e-mail us at Antique Radio Store

Following is a list radios we have available. Unless otherwise indicated, they are sold "as-is" and have not been tested. Prices are F.O.B. San Diego, Calif. 92111. Include shipping and 8.75% Calif. sales tax if applicable.
California residents must pay a 8.75% sales tax
Store hours are Monday and Wednesday 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (All times PST)
******** click on the part number for pix of the sets********
Definitions: Restored: Repaired, aligned, cleaned, tubes checked, etc. Refinished: Self explanitory. r Repaired: Parts replaced by us, radio operates. w Working: Radio plays. Generally not a long term test. Problems, If any, (hum, etc) listed. ai As is: Pretty much self explanitory. No obvious fatal problems, but the set is NOT thouroughly tested. u Untested: Not tested. nbu NBU "Not by us" ss SOLID STATE a/f AM/FM a/f/s AM/FM/Stereo
*** Sets with an "ARS" number are usually ours, other numbers indicate consigned sets. We will warranty our sets, unless sold "as is" but cannot warrent consigned sets. ***
Pictures are available for the sets listed below (click on links)
For more information call or e-mail to Antique Radio Store Please include the Part number of the set in question.

GE model 62 (bright white) heat crack on top right

Sears 132.600901 (?) 1969 ss a/f has crack lower left front

DECALS Decals are shipped Post paid to the Continental U.S.

NEW STUFF BACK IN STOCK! yay! yay! Antique Radio Speaker cords. 6 foot. Pre-made with pin plugs on one end, and spade lugs on the other $14.95

Ceramic antenna insulators, the light color makes them less visable against the sky.. $2.50 / pr, $1.50 single

Collectors Guide to Antique Radios, Combined Edition.
By Marty & Sue Bunis and George Kaczowka

Combines Book Editions 1,2,3,4. Over 9,000 models listed with pricing. Over 1,800 full color photographs. Model number index for all manufactures. Requires web browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer. Works with both IBM or Mac PCs Send $40.00 prepaid (U.S. only, for Priority Mail add $3.00) to get your your copy of this very useful guide.

1. Station call letter tabs, several styles, inquire. sheet of 150+ $2.75 2. NOS Station call tabs for Philco 37-9, 37-11, 37-116, 37-675, 38-690 (and others), sorry no selection 1/2 sheet (60 tabs) $10 Full sheet (120 tabs) $19

LINKS Vendors we recommend
Reproduction knobs & Pushbuttons (and other worthwhile reading) renovatedradios.com
Grillecloth: John Okolowicz www.grillecloth.com
Expert speaker reconing and field coil rewinding. Hank Brazeal hankspkr@charter.net
Other Antique Radio Sites
Antique Radio Classified: "The national publication for buyers and sellers of old radios and related items" www.antiqueradio.com
Southern California Antique Radio Fest: (Scarf) Southern Cal swapmeets. home.pacbell.net/philbert/scarf/scarf.htm (dead link)
The Antique Radio Collector: members.aol.com/wrldradio.html
On Line Radio Trader (OLRT) link

Hauling and Trailer rental in SD: www.aztechauling.com
Green Light auto care: www.greenlightautocare.com Highly rated!

JLM has gone off the air... we will miss them.
San Diego's premier twangy band (with tiny guitars)
Ask about the "Electro-mukaleptitizer" to electrify your ukulele!
(I mean, if you would want to...)

We are looking for the following parts:
Snap in escutcheon for Zenith Model 6B631 (need 1)
If you have any of the listed part(s) please call or fax our store (858) 268-4155

He's still tuned in to radio history:
La Mesa craftsman keeps antique sets in working order

Jack Hofeld | Antique Radio Store
Tan, fit and trim, 74-year-old Jack Hofeld makes his money repairing and restoring radios, some of which are as old as he is.
Hofeld is the founder of Antique Radio Store, a 700-square-foot shop sandwiched between a coffee shop and a health food store in downtown La Mesa.
"In today's world, if someone's radio breaks, they throw it out and buy a new one," Hofeld said. "The radios we fix are like works of art. They're too valuable to be discarded or to just sit and collect dust."
Hofeld's world includes radios made by Atwater Kent, Fada, Philco, Crosley, RCA, Zenith and other companies that ushered in the golden age of radio -- from the 1930s into the 1950s -- and today sport price tags of from $50 to $2,400.
Hofeld opened the shop in 1992 -- and took on two partners who were antique radio collectors -- in an effort to turn a hobby into a "hobby business."
"I had a ton of radios and parts at home," he said. "I'd been collecting them and fixing them for years. I got to thinking, `What if something happens to me? Will they just roll up a big garbage can and dump all this wonderful stuff into a hole someplace?'"
Hofeld comes by his repair skills honestly. He was trained as a radio technician by the Navy and served from 1943 to 1946 repairing shipboard radios in the Philippines.
After the war, he completed work on a degree in electrical engineering at the Armour Institute in Chicago, then worked in sales engineering for RCA, ITT and Western Electric. He even owned his own mobile-telephone and pocket-pager business for 14 years.
With all that technical background, the Chicago native's current business might seem a logical turn, but it was owning a bar in Virginia City, Nev., that put Hofeld into the business of antique radio repair.
"When I had the bar, I'd find an old radio, fix it up and put it on display on the back bar," he said. "Pretty soon people would start asking, `Hey, what'll you take for that radio?' I began making sales right there."
Hofeld's shop usually displays between 100 and 125 radios. His knowledge of radios brings him calls from Hollywood set designers who need radios as props or want to know if a specific radio can be used authentically in a movie set representing a certain time period.
Commercial AM radio established itself during the 1920s. FM arrived in the '30s, but Hofeld marks the 1940s as the time when radio really grew up, and it is from that period that most collectibles evolved.
"It's important to understand that a radio can be expensive because it's in good condition, but still not be a collectible," he said. "Radios with cases made of a colored plastic called `catalin' are very popular with collectors. Catalins will go from about twenty bucks to over $2,000."
Console radios are very collectible, too, especially Zenith black-dial consoles. Those units sport round, black dials with white lettering and numbers. Most could receive AM and FM and had a shortwave capability of from 2 to 20 megahertz.
"We'll put a Zenith black-dial console out the door for $400 or $500, in good condition and guaranteed to work," Hofeld said. "Those radios sold for about $200 when they were new."
A similar radio has intrigued Hofeld since the age of 14, when he became a radio operator. He built a one-tube, low-power transmitter for sending Morse code and added a beat frequency oscillator to his family's Zenith console so it could receive code signals.
Old radios come in several distinct cabinet styles: consoles, which sit on the floor, cathedral and tombstone table-top models, and so-called coffin radios.
"The sides of cathedral radio cabinets curve inward and meet at a point at the top," Hofeld said. "They look like little churches. Folks call them `Depression radios.' They were cheaper to make because they took less material, so they sold well during the Depression. The tombstones are shaped like a console, but are small enough to fit on a table."
Trying to repair a radio made decades ago is challenging. Components weren't widely standardized, every manufacturer had its own idea of how a radio should be built, and the profusion of models available -- many only on the market for a few years -- complicates the fix-it business. That's why Hofeld's shop hedges its bets on parts sourcing.
"We have over 25,000 old radio tubes in our inventory," he said. "We use them not only to repair radios, but we sell them to people who collect radio tubes. We can even supply tubes in their original cardboard boxes.
"We buy old radios and warehouse them so we can cannibalize them for parts later on. We have three outside storage facilities for all this stuff, so sometimes it's more work trying to find a part than it is to fix the customer's radio."
Antique Radio Store ties into a worldwide network of specialty radio-parts suppliers and servicers for such things as knobs, dial bezels and specialty woods and cloth. It is common to find a person in one part of the country making custom and generic knobs in plastic to replicate wood originals while someone else devotes his time to re-coning speakers; that is, replacing the paper speaker cone that vibrates to produce sound.
"There are thousands of people who don't want to see this part of our history disappear," Hofeld said. "That's why we have specialty manufacturers doing these things. We even have replacement speaker grille cloth. It sells for 5 cents a square inch, and it comes in a choice of patterns and colors, all of which were used in the old days."
Repair charges for table-model radios are $35 for units made after 1934 and $45 for those made earlier. Parts are extra. For consoles, the labor charge is $45 for a basic radio, $55 if it has a built-in record player and $65 if it has FM. "We figure that it's going to take a certain amount of time to find out what's wrong with a radio," Hofeld said. "We've determined our labor, and the flat-fee servicing makes the most sense for us and our customers. Cabinet refurbishing runs $50 to $60 for most table-model sets and $100 and
up for consoles."
The shop also offers a wide variety of antique-look-alike radios. These are modern, solid-state radios housed in faithful plastic-reproduction cabinets that look as if they were made 50 years ago. Hofeld says the reproductions are popular in offices, dens and kitchens with people who want to capture nostalgia, but want the dependability of transistors and integrated circuits.
Those with a technical bent will find electronics kits, components for cat's whisker crystal sets, and older test equipment for sale, including tube testers. "I've always said that these things are only a half-point more honest than a slot machine," Hofeld laughed, slapping his hand on the large do-it-yourself tube tester that is the first thing you see when you enter the store. "They've been taking extra money out of people's pockets for