Radio History Society Museum Fame Spreads!

Radio History Society
Radio-Television Museum
News
Volume 9, Number 2
May 2003
Museum Fame Spreads!
by Brian Belanger
Publicity Galore for the Museum!
T
he museum has enjoyed excellent publicity over the past few months. When we
held the grand opening of the broadcasting
exhibit at the George Washington University
at the end of January, Bob Madigan of radio
station WTOP interviewed Curator Brian
Belanger about the exhibit and the museum.
Recently WTOP and its sister station WGMS
have been playing spot announcements based
on that interview. Because WTOP is the most
listened-to station in the DC area, this publicity will certainly give the museum high visibility.
A film crew from American Ingenuity (a video
production company) filmed "leads" at the museum for three days in March for the Good
Life TV Network, a cable channel that brings
reruns of old TV programs to millions of home
across the U.S. ("Leads" are the announcements that precede programs.) Nick Clooney
(the father of movie actor George Clooney and
brother of singer Rosemary Clooney) was the
host. For each lead he would showcase one of
our artifacts−e.g., a TV set or radio−and his
announcements typically began with something along the lines of, "This is Nick Clooney
speaking to you from the Radio-Television
Museum in Bowie, Maryland, and what a great
place this is. Look at this beautiful 1940s Philco
television set..." Unfortunately not many homes
in the Washington area have access to this channel. Nevertheless, thousands of Americans who
did not know about our museum will henceforth
be aware of it. Both Nick Clooney and American Ingenuity President Jeff Grimshaw liked the
museum so much they joined RHS!
On May 10 RHS President Rusty Wallace, former President, Ed Walker, and Museum Curator
This unusual circa 1929 Jacobs Brothers grand
piano radio in room 202 is a recent donation from
Nancy Licato. It also features a 78 r.p.m. phonograph in the rear section of the cabinet.
Brian Belanger were interviewed live for about
40 minutes by Walden Hughes of Yesterday
USA. Hughes' radio nostalgia program, which
originates in Southern California is heard over
many smaller radio stations around the country
via satellite and is available on the Internet.
More good publicity for us! It seems to be paying off, too. Our attendance so far this year is
about double what it was for the same period
last year.
The City of Bowie continues to give us good
coverage in their museum newsletter. Most
weekends the Washington Post lists our museum among its listings of local museums. We
expect that the July issue of Washingtonian
Magazine will have a photo of our neon Philco
sign in their special museum section. So while
there are still people who have not heard of the
Radio-Television Museum, there are many
fewer of them than a year ago.
Donations:
Donations of artifacts continue to arrive. Hardly
a week goes by that we do not receive an interesting donation. (We need a larger building!)
We cannot keep all items that are donated, but
we are careful to explain that to potential donors. Rare or particular nice items are kept for
our permanent collection. Common items are
consigned to our surplus property auctions that
we have from time to time. Such auctions are an
important source of operating funds for us. Here
is a list of recent donations:
Mabel Adams
Chester, MD
Atwater Kent Model 47
Brian Belanger
Rockville, MD
~250 NOS vacuum tubes
Paul Bernazani
Vienna, VA
1922 booklet from Woodward and Lothrop,
“How to Make Your Own Radiophone”
Barbara Camera
Olney, MD
1940s radio/phono
Peter Eldridge
Alexandria, VA
Box of books
Esther High
Pottstown, PA
Box lots of small radios
Ron Houff
Edison Dictaphone and cylinders
Buddy Kinder
Bowie, MD
RCA turntable, books
Edward Kisliuk
Silver Spring, MD
New and used tubes, including some early rare
types, test equipment, transistor radios, radio
books, parts. etc.
Robert Lerch
Bowie, MD
RCA Victor phonograph Model 67V1
Nancy Licato
Burke, VA
1929 Jacobs Bros. grand piano radio
Howard Mars
Bowie, MD
Hallicrafters Model SX-42 & speaker
Marguerite Mattison
Bowie, MD
Zenith Trans-Oceanic Model G500
Charles Nelson
Arlington, VA
Sylvania “Halolight” TV Model 51C529B
Dianne Parlow
Bowie, MD
Philco console cabinet
Merrick Shawe
New Carrollton, MD
GE radio Model 62, other table models
Rusty Wallace
Rockville, MD
Silvertone antenna rotator control
Alice Zatarain
Bakersfield, CA
Mclns. paper items including brochures for
Magnegraph Corp.
The Jacobs Brothers grand piano radio donated
by Nancy Licato of Burke, VA, pictured in this
issue, is certainly an unusual item. We immediately put it on display and it has been attracting many comments. Does anyone know anything about the Jacobs Brothers Corp.? We are
guessing that some other manufacturer made
the chassis and Jacobs Brothers made the cabinet. If any of you have any information about
this obscure company, let us know.
Another fabulous donation came from Ed Kisliuk of Silver Spring, MD. His donation filled
a mini-van and included a box of rare tubes
and some mint condition Channel Master transistor radios among many other things.
New Displays and Exhibits:
Our Volunteer Coordinator and master craftsman, Dwight Heasty has outdone himself
again. He has previously created marvelous
demonstration devices for us including for example, the Jenkins scanning disk TV repro, the
Marconi coherer receiver, the Hertz experiment repro, and the Wimshurst static machine.
Now he has added another remarkable device
to that list. He has recreated a Marconi magnetic detector that looks identical to the original, and after long hours of adjustments to get
it just right, it works fine. You can actually use
it to listen to AM stations if you like, but
Dwight arranged to store spark transmitter
code signals in a solid state memory device
such that you can pick up the earphone attached to the magnetic detector and hear a
code message (CQD, or call for help) like the one
that would have been received from the sinking
Titanic. Thanks, Dwight for making one more
hands-on (or should I say “ears-on”) display to
enhance our visitors' experiences.
Several new exhibits are on the drawing board.
Closest to realization is a special exhibit on the
history of the Voice of America. We have been
meeting regularly with VOA staff to plan it. The
exhibit will open first at the George Washington
University and then move to the museum.
Other exhibits that we are thinking about include:
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The history of radio in Annapolis
DuMont
The National Radio Institute
Ham receivers
Atwater Kent
On loan from Paul Courson (WA3VJB) is a circa
1950 Collins 250-watt AM broadcast transmitter
that was used by a radio station in Florida. The
transmitter is a beautiful example of its type, with
a classic Machine Age design and glass windows
in the front that really show off the glowing
tubes. Paul and his associates shipped the transmitter from Florida and will be working on it in
our annex building to prepare it for AM operation on the lower ham bands. Once it is working,
we will erect a temporary antenna and schedule
The Collins transmitter loaned by Paul Courson
arrives at the Museum.
some special weekend events when local hams
can come by to see the transmitter in operation
and view some of the antique ham receivers in
our collection.
Schematic and Tube Sales:
We have made progress on getting our library
service materials unpacked, sorted and catalogued, although there is still much work to do.
We now are one of the best sources of old radio
and TV service information around. Orders for
schematics and service data are increasing.
Our "Tube Czar" Tony Young continues to
sort, test, and box tubes. Tube sales are a growing source of operating funds for RHS. If you
need vacuum tubes, check our website,
www.radiohistory.org, for a listing of what we
have available and current prices, or call Tony
at (301) 262-1917. Our tube prices are generally less than those of dealers. As we continue
to unpack boxes of donated tubes and organize
them, the number of types available is steadily
increasing.
Nye Estate Auction, Part II:
are being auctioned to raise operating funds for
the museum.
We will be holding a third (and presumably last)
Nye estate auction at the same site on June 22.
Everyone is welcome. Viewing is from 11 to 1.
The auction begins at 1 p.m. and continues until
all is sold. Limited food will be available (hot
dogs, etc.).
Directions: From Rt. 50 between Washington
and Annapolis, exit south on Rt. 424
(Davidsonville Road). In about 3 miles turn
right on Rt. 214. After 0.7 miles, bear left on
Queen Anne Bridge Road and watch for the
chain link fence on the left. Turn in at the main
gate. The auction is in Ford Hall--around the
corner of the building to your left as you enter
the parking lot.
Bring a truck--we have lots of console radios to
sell.
Don’t miss RHS’ 3rd Nye
Estate Auction
Sunday, June 22!
The second installment of the Rodger Nye estate auction was held
at the Davidsonville
Family Recreation
Center on March 30.
We made roughly
$5000 that day and
sold hundreds of
items. The best sets
from the Nye estate
have been kept for our
permanent collection.
For
example.
Rodger's Catalin radios and his Philco
grandfather clock radio are currently on
display, and are permanent additions to
the museum. Other
Eager buyers inspect the items to be auctioned at the second Nye estate
more common items
auction on March 30.
RHS Election Time Again
Exercise your right to vote!
R
HS' annual election for the Board of Directors is held in May. Terms are staggered, so that several Board members come up
for election each year. Once the new Board is
in place as of July 1, the Board of Directors
elects the President, Vice President, Secretary,
and Treasurer for the coming year.
Ed Lyon, who has served on the Board since
the early days of RHS, is stepping down.
Thanks, Ed, for your service to RHS during its
formative years and for your sound advice! Ed
will continue to be active in antique radio matters as the Co-editor of Radio Age, the newsletter of the Mid-Atlantic Antique Radio Club.
Our Nominating Committee has come up with
a new excellent candidate for Board member— Don Ross. Thanks, Don, for agreeing to
be a candidate. Current Board members Chuck
Grant, Ken Mellgren, and Ed Walker, have
agreed to be candidates for another term. Bio
sketches for all of the candidates can be found
below. You must be a current RHS member
(having paid your dues this year) to vote.
Please return your enclosed ballot to our Secretary, John Holt, whose address can be found
on the enclosed ballot. Deadline for return of
ballots is June 20.
Ken Mellgren : Ken served as Vice President
of RHS for a number of years. A long-time
member of MAARC, Ken also currently serves
on the Boards of the Columbia Lighthouse for
the Blind and the Radio-Television News Directors Association. A resident of Rockville,
Ken was program director/operations manager
for WRC Radio (6 years) and regional manager
of operations for Metro Traffic Control (5
years). Prior to moving to the Washington area
in 1984, he was in radio station management,
and was a radio and television announcer in
Boston. For the past 8 years, he has worked for
the Associated Press Broadcast Division in
Washington as Manager/Affiliate Relations, AP
Broadcast Division.
Don Ross: Don Ross is senior editor at the
Newseum, which reopens in Washington, D.C.,
in 2006. Since joining the Newseum in January
1998 he has worked on a variety of exhibits,
programs and projects. In an earlier life, he
worked in the newspaper business for nearly 25
years – the last 16 of them as an editor for USA
Today. Don is a licensed amateur radio operator. He began restoring and collecting vintage
radios about two years ago. He has been an enthusiastic volunteer docent at the museum since
September of last year. He and his family live
in Springfield, VA.
Bio Sketches of Candidates
Charles Grant: An RHS Board Member since
1999, Chuck Grant is an attorney specializing
in business and legal issues in entertainment
and media. He also holds an M.B.A. in finance; his area of graduate research was television and motion picture finance and marketing. Chuck has authored several publications,
including a history of the DuMont TV Network, published by the RHS as our first monograph. Chuck is especially knowledgeable
about the early days of television broadcasting
in the Washington area and federal regulation
of broadcasting. He has developed plans for
RHS to carry out oral history videotape interviews with prominent radio/TV personalities.
Ed Walker: Ed Walker was RHS' president
during our formative years. He is a well-known
local radio and TV broadcaster, having been on
the air nearly 50 years! Old timers in the Washington area will recall that Ed, along with
Willard Scott of NBC TV fame, were the “The
Joy Boys” who captured such a large share of
the local radio listening audience in the days
when they were on the air together. Today you
can listen to Ed on WAMU-FM every Sunday
night with his program of old-time radio programs, The Big Broadcast. Ed brings to the
Board a “behind the mike/camera” comprehensive knowledge of the radio and TV broadcasting community.
The Latest Radio News (1922, That Is)
by Brian Belanger
I
t's fun to browse old radio magazines to see
what topics were being discussed when radio
was just beginning. Here's what I found in the
late 1922 issues of Radio Broadcast magazine.
Station Proliferation Concerns: The editorial
in the November 1922 issue was titled "Too
Many Cooks are Spoiling Our Broth." It decried
the Federal government's willingness to license
anyone who applied for a broadcast station license. "It seems to us that a curb should be put
upon the licensing of broadcasting stations or
there will soon be country-wide troubles of the
kind which recently occurred near New
York−conflicts between the various stations for
the most desirable hours and the resulting interference of signals between the several stations,
which made listening-in no pleasure." The author points out that there were 500 stations already licensed, and more being added, with 26
new licenses added in just one week.
In 1922 most broadcasting stations were licensed to broadcast on the same wavelength−360 meters, or about 830 kHZ on the
dial. Stations in the same town had to
time-share. Most stations were very
low power, nevertheless, listeners located between two cities would often
hear two or more stations simultaneously.
Radiotelephones on ships: A demonstration project was reported in the
November 1922 issue involving the
ocean liner S. S. America. RCA, General Electric, AT&T, and Western
Electric had collaborated to design
and install a radiotelephone exchange
on board the ship so that passengers
crossing the Atlantic could make
phone calls to shore-based friends.
The challenge was to provide duplex
service, that is, allowing callers on
both ends of the call to be on the line
simultaneously, instead of having a send/
receive switch that had to be thrown after each
person finished speaking. The goal was to
have the ship radiotelephone operate just like
a land-based telephone as far as the user was
concerned. This would not be too difficult if
you could use separate receiving and transmitting antennas, separated by some distance, but
on a ship this is not possible. The solution is
to operate the receiver and transmitter on different frequencies and use a trap circuit to
keep the transmitter signal out of the receiver.
While this is conceptually simple, achieving it
in practice is difficult, especially with the
technology available in 1922. The traps had to
have extremely high attenuation for the system to work.
Western Electric's U.S. receiving station was
located at Deal, NJ. The Deal station was connected via long distance lines to AT&T's
switching center in New York City, from
which calls could be routed anywhere in the
U.S. (In those days, live operators made the
connections for long distance calls.)
The radio room of the liner S.S. America. This is one of
the first radiotelephone systems on an ocean liner.
New Stations Springing Up: It's fascinating to
see the diversity of organizations that owned
small radio stations in 1922. Here are just a few
of the brand new stations on 360 meters:
KFAY (Central Point, OR),
W. J. Virgin Milling Co.
KFBJ (Boise, ID), Boise Radio Supply CO.
WJAH (Rockford, IL),
Central Park Amusement Co.
WJAX (Cleveland,OH), Union Trust Co.
WJAZ (Chicago, IL), Chicago Radio Lab.,
(soon to become Zenith)
WKAJ (Fargo, ND),
Fargo Plumbing and Heating Co.
WKAK (Okfuskee, OK),
Okfuskee County News
WKAM (Hastings, NB),
Hastings Daily Tribune
WKAN (Montgomery, AL),
Alabama Radio Manufacturing Co.
WKAR (Lansing, MI),
Michigan Agricultural College
WKAS (Springfield, MO),
L.E. Lines Music Co.
WKAV (Laconia, NH), Laconia Radio Club
WKAW (Beloit, WI), Turner Cycle Co.
WKAZ (Wilkes-Barre, PA),
Landau's Music and Jewelry Co.
WLAK (Bellows Falls, VT),
Vermont Farm Machine Co.
WLAR (Marshalltown,IA), Mickel Music Co.
WMAJ (Kansas City, MO),
Drovers Telegram Co.
No media conglomerates in those days!
Radio vs. the Phonograph: An article titled
"Will Radio Replace the Phonograph" raised
concerns over whether people would continue
to buy phonograph records when they could
hear music free over the airwaves. The author
points out that with radio, you never know
what you are going to hear, and the station may
not play the kind of music you like. Also, the
quality of radio sound in those days was poor,
so a good phonograph would produce more
natural sound. The author suggested that radio
would probably not make the phonograph ob-
solete. The next month a letter to the editor
confirmed this. A music store owner said that
his sales of records had increased after a radio
station came on the air near him, because people would hear a new tune played on the radio, like it, and then come into his store wishing to purchase that record.
Fleming vs. de Forest: In a late 1922 issue of
Radio Broadcast, an author commented on
various key radio inventions, and in discussing Lee de Forest's invention of the triode
Audion tube, he implied that de Forest's invention was just a Fleming diode valve with
another element inserted. De Forest wrote an
irate letter to the editor the next month saying
this interpretation was completely wrong− that
the Fleming valve and the Audion were totally
different concepts and to suggest otherwise
showed a lack of understanding. Of course
because of patent conflicts between de Forest
and the Marconi Company, which owned the
Fleming valve patents, there was a strong incentive for de Forest to try to convince the
world that his invention was completely different from Fleming's.
WSA Loses in Court: A news report said that
the Wireless Specialty Apparatus (WSA)
Company had lost a case that had gone to the
Supreme Court. WSA had advertised that it
owned crystal radio patents and implied that
any company that sold crystal radios might be
guilty of patent infringement. "Among other
ideas contained in the advertisements is the
suggestion that all radio dealers should require
the manufacturers of crystal sets to sign guarantees of protection from recovery of damages
in case the court should declare certain of the
crystal patents valid. Evidently the circulation
of such an idea would harm the business of
those not working under license from Wireless Specialty Apparatus Company and the
suit was therefore brought against this company by one of the alleged infringers, the
Freed-Eisemann Corporation, with the idea of
testing the legality of the methods used by the
owner of the patents." The Supreme Court
declared the WSA advertising campaign un-
fair and enjoined them from continuing it.
ASCAP and Royalties: ASCAP (the American
Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers)
was holding meetings to consider the issue of
collecting royalties from radio stations that play
music that has been copyrighted. The broadcasters responded that they were having difficulty figuring out how to pay for radio broadcasting even without having to worry about royalties to artists. (Remember, this was before
stations began to sell commercial time.) The
magazine urged the artists to drop the issue,
saying "...legally they cannot collect royalties
from an activity which yields no profit, and it is
doubtful if the balance sheets of any of the
broadcasting stations today show a profit."
They also argued that the artist receives a royalty each time a record is sold, so the radio station pays a royalty each time it purchases a new
record. This issue would continue to cause tension between broadcasters and artists as radio
grew.
RHS Schematic Service:
Radio and TV schematics and service data
are available from RHS at reasonable
prices. For some early radios, all that is
available is a schematic, but for many radios and TVs, quite a few pages of additional service data are available in addition
to the schematic.
Radio schematics: $3 for the first schematic, $2 for each subsequent schematic in
the same order. TV schematics: $5 for the
first schematic, $3 each subsequent schematic in the same order.
Make checks payable to "Radio History
Society" (Maryland residents please include
5 percent sales tax) and mail to:
In our current museum exhibit in Room 103,
“TV in the American Living Room in the 1950s,”
this 1959 Philco Predicta TV on loan from Tom
Houghtaling, invariably draws visitor comments
like “Wow— what a neat design!”
Robert St. John Dies
RHS member Robert St. John died on February
6 at age 100. St. John had been a newspaperman,
author, and NBC radio journalist during his long
career. He was particularly well known for his
World War II era broadcasts. He had been working for the Associated Press in Eastern Europe
when NBC hired him in 1942 to report war
news. At an RHS dinner several years ago he
held us spellbound while he told stories of that
period of his life. During the D-day invasion
period he was broadcasting almost constantly for
days without sleep.
Radio-Television Museum
2608 Mitchellville Road
Bowie, MD 20716
Allow two weeks for processing.
During the 1950s McCarthy era when people
with left-leaning views were hounded for being
Communist sympathizers, NBC fired St. John
because his name appeared on a list of people
suspected of being disloyal. (Those lists read
like a "Who's Who" of broadcasting, and included many names of famous radio and Hollywood personalities.)
Contact: Brian Belanger, RHS librarian,
(301) 258-0708,
email: [email protected].
St. John was the author of 23 books. His wife,
Ruth, has been a museum volunteer. He will be
missed!
Great Expectations
A Report from the RHS Treasurer
U
nexpected events transformed 2002 from a
quiet year for RHS into a hectic time of
growth and challenge. The RHS financial situation in 2002 and for many years to come was
importantly shaped by the terms of Rodger
Nye’s will. From a broad perspective, the net
worth of RHS will more than double in the 24
months starting in January 2002, and ending in
December 2003, rising from about $116,000 to
something in the range of $250,000.
For the record, RHS enjoyed an operating income of $25,400 in 2002. Significant sources of
income included:
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Dues and donations from RHS members
exceeding $6,700;
Donations by the public at the RHS museum
of almost $1,000;
Grants from governments and foundations
of about $2,800;
Investment income of about $1,600;
Sales of tubes by Tony Young and his crew
of almost $1,000;
eBay and other sales of surplus equipment
by Brian Belanger and others that earned
more than $4,000; and
Initial income from the Nye estate of
$8,100, that was made possible by the prodigious efforts of RHS volunteers in carrying out the first Nye estate auction.
RHS spent $22,600 in the year 2002. Significant expenditures included:
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Almost $9,000 to upgrade the garage at the
Bowie museum, another effort guided by
Tony Young;
 Operating costs, including rent $1,100, utilities $1,850, insurance $3,600, displays and
general maintenance of more than $4,600;
 And many small costs, the largest of which
was about $1,000 to do the first Nye auction
(truck rental, hall rental, publicity, etc.)
RHS Newsletter, May 2003
Like the Shadow, the Treasurer knows. And
what he knows by managing RHS funds on a
day-to-day basis is that RHS benefits immensely
from the work of people like Brian Belanger,
Tony Young, Dwight Heasty, and many others,
the volunteers who are RHS.
The Nye auctions and bequest will fall to the
“bottom line” for RHS. As I said in the first
paragraph, the RHS balance sheet will witness a
doubling of net worth in 24 months, creating
new challenges. We need to develop an investment strategy for approximately $150,000 in
new funds, and revisit the strategy we have followed for our endowment of about $70,000. After suffering with the rest the stock market performance last year, our mutual fund, Washington
Mutual Investors Fund, has rebounded nicely.
This fund is managed by American Funds, and is
among the five largest in the country. We will
need for formulate a strategy that balances longterm growth with the organization’s need for a
stable and predictable income from its investments.
Challenge also faces the treasurer. The new,
larger, RHS will be subject to greater scrutiny
and regulation by the Federal and state government. In particular, in future years we will need
to seek the services of independent, certified
public accountants to perform either financial
reviews or audits.
Michael Rubin, Treasurer
—————————
Have you considered mentioning RHS in your
will? Because RHS is an IRS 501(c)(3)
organization, gifts to RHS in your will can
reduce estate taxes if your estate is sufficiently
large. Even if your estate is small, a gift to RHS
will help preserve the history of radio and TV
technology and broadcasting for future
generations.
Page 9
Operating room of radio station KDYL, Salt Lake City, in 1922. Note the phonograph on the right, the
crude transmitter on the table, and the spittoon on the floor.
RHS Officers and Directors:
President:
Rusty Wallace (2004)
1205 Gladstone
Rockville, MD 20851
(301) 279-2268
[email protected]
Vice President
Chris Sterling (2005)
4507 Airlie Way
Annandale, VA22003
(703) 256-9304
[email protected]
Corresponding Secretary/
Membership Chair:
John Holt (2004)
9403 Ulysses Court
Burke, VA 22015
(703) 978-6642
Treasurer:
Michael Rubin (2005)
1427 Woodman Avenue
Silver Spring, MD 20902
(301) 649-3722
[email protected]
Museum Curator and
Newsletter Editor:
Brian Belanger
5730 Avery Park Drive
Rockville, MD 20855-1738
(301) 258-0708
[email protected]
Volunteer Coordinator:
Dwight Heasty (2005)
1830 Clayton Drive
Oxon Hill, MD 20745
(301) 894-0550
[email protected]
Webmaster:
Ken Mellgren (2003)
13 Bitterroot Ct.
Rockville, MD 20853
(301) 929-1062
[email protected]
Ed Lyon (2003)
(301) 293-1773
Katherine Marks (2004)
(410) 765-3803
Bill McMahon (2004)
(301) 977-4807
Harley Perkins (2005)
(410) 685-6206
Jerry Phillips (2005)
(202) 726-5115
Gerald Schneider (2005)
(301) 929-8593
Walter Starling (2005)
(301) 840-7373
Directors:
Tony Young (2004)
(301) 262-1917
Charles Grant (2003)
(301) 871-0540
Ed Walker (2003)
(301) 229-7060