Retro Radio Rec-Room! I meet the Radio Guy and get my Sparton Bluebird back!

adventure is in my blood finding treasures big or small and having fun is what it's all about with my wife Melissa and our three kids life is pretty full but there is an amount we can't climb together this isn't your ordinary antiques store my name is Alex Archibald and this is curiosity hi everyone and welcome to today's frosty episode it is a balmy minus 35 degrees Celsius here today I went to go take my trusty old ambulance to get that going but the battery was dead so I thought okay well borrow melyssa's car which is a Volvo and it's battery was dead so it was kind of like a race to see which one could get charged up the fastest the Volvo won and so I'm taking that one today is not such a bad thing it has all-wheel drive I'm off to go pick up a very rare radio I am bundled up because it's freezing cold outside but that's not gonna stop me from having some fun today and hopefully neither for you guys watching home so let's go brave the arctic conditions here and go have a little fun there is a lot of traffic on the road today it's a Sunday it's not like a lot of you left you to work I think it's almost defiance like I'm not gonna let this weather stop me from going outside but that's what I'm doing today I made a commitment to this guy to be there at one o'clock and I'll be darned if I'm not gonna beat my commitment even if it meant having to boost both of my cars this morning it's gonna happen today Anders time to be out there's a car flipped over okay think I'm here to make sure they're home so great thanks so much for having by your house today and I can kind of tell looking around that you are into radios so how did you get started in this business well the very I was all sent electronics took electronics in school and at an auction many years ago bought a tube radio etta at the sale and thought what an amazing thing and brought it home got it to work but never really did much until about 30-some years ago my wife brought home a radio from a garage sale and said thought this would be a great winter project for you and thousands of radios and tubes later it's all your wife's fault oh yes nice when they inspire us but with our hobbies you've got a few interesting pieces here in the front so why don't you tell us a little bit about this guy right here this is Phil COEs top-of-the-line radio for 1938 it's a 38 model 690 it has two chassis z' tuner chassis and Apollo chassis 20 tubes and seven speakers in this one so that would have been a pretty deluxe model that was as Deluxe as you could get and it was also considered high fidelity at the time I like how you change the the dial and selector with what looks almost like a phone dial but that's pretty curious and this comes down does it - it does roll it's a roll top like a roll top desk and it's a little little sticky but this radio is not restored really it's in fantastic condition and years ago before TV families would all sit in front of this listening to the radio like listening and watching it as almost as if it was a TV and it was the centerpiece of the family room back in the day you got your news you know you think this piece is what you said from the 30s right 38 so world war two somebody was listening to all the activities on that radio as well so you would have got worldwide reception and that was important at the time to find out what was happening all around the world and I thought next to you on now I was lining up one of these recently I was in Ontario and I've kind of always wanted one and here you've got one of these they're a rocket lamp but what's the official name for these the luma tone that's the one yeah now and there was some debate whether that was the original shade or not I always thought these would look good with sort of a mid-century space-age kind of lampshade on them but well it's in great shape and neat piece it looks good you've got another fill comb not as many speakers 15 Tunes and for four speakers you've got one of these son whap two ashtrays I have a friend that works at CFR and he collects those things oh I see yeah oh he will know all of them he'll know all bill Fowler yeah those are probably all old this is from the 50s yeah no I will I'll send that over to him he'll think that's really neat and then I saw this somebody actually wrote me about one of these not that long ago in the states they had one this is Canadian made Devore's Crosley tall clock radio yeah where's the radio hidden on this one just a little door right here the secret compartment controls well it almost looks like the same kind of dial is what you'd see on a cathedral radio yes speaker sits about right clock is there this is not better story this is a region and now the reason we're here is has you've done some restoration work for me on one of my radios yes I have so we go check that out and see how it's working for sure but I recognize these these are the Addison waterfalls yes bakelite yes that's an Addison courthouse which I've got one of those really rare radio it's Catalan which is an early form of plastic different and much more rare and desirable than bakelite by far yes and then you've got a Catalan Addison waterfall right there for those of you who don't know and you're watching at home Catalan radios are probably the one of the most desirable types of radio that you'll find these ones are Canadian made really nice condition I have one of these in my store but mine's in great shape but it's missing the two two of these little bars on the other side really really nice art deco piece I can see is this you that collects the smalls there's this here I see sue she's got some cats and some tea stuff but you aren't messing around no you've got a little bit of a thing for radios I do now how many of these are your now you repair radios I can see you've got some stuff going on down here you've got some Shafi these are like I had one that was in McMurdo silver masterpiece that was chromed and had all the chrome tubes on it you can always tell the higher end ones usually have a chrome chassis well a lot of times but that's Scott Mackintosh radio craftsman Dinoco Dinoco Sansui look at all the Cathedral radios some really interesting little table tops up there too and repair manuals I'm sure those come in handy yes and they call this style more like a a tombstone or Cathedral because of this style oh yeah taller than wide and cathedrals more articles talk look how gothic these ones are with intricate carvings on them it's kind of funny those radios they were a very economical radio to buy in the day 29.95 they're molded epoxy and sawdust in a mold to get the nice look yeah and usually a very poor quality radio in it really but they look fan so that they look fancy and for a low price you could get a fancy looking radio wow they're just absolutely lovely but at Philco as I see these you don't see that style I've actually you should pop by the shop I've got a Cathedral sitting there that needs some TLC you probably start sitting on the table but I look at the mass amounts of I mean look at everything that looks like a scud missile or something you just into all the things nice high-end turntables at a customer's turntable brand-new in the 70s direct drive back in the 70s that was quite the deal Radio Shack but it certainly wasn't me it's C and what were you listening to laughs on it astral projector well you've got eclectic taste that's is that the one your wife got you the Easter this is the one I bought when I was 17 years old and you just thought heck that's cool and yep that's how these things snowball and then before you know it you end up with all of this and I can see oh that's kind of neat that's a guild spice chest they were into novelty radios so they made that they made the wall phone that's over on the wall there oh I didn't even notice oh so that wall phone is actually a radio that's so neat I've never seen so that is a radio very unique and how hard did it define those novelty radios like that they're pretty common there are there's quite a few of them they're round also me to what they call the spice chest they made a teapot they made a full-size sit at roll top writing desk that's funny yeah they may be lots of neat things oh this is another giant rocket just sitting here yeah okay that's the rebuild the last flight of this one was ended in disaster okay so fun times and then not so fun so fun you were able to retrieve most of it though yeah I got that in the payload section you are definitely not messing around how do you say that fato or theta everyone I've ever talked to since beta beta if that Catalan or bakelite that is I believe polystyrene oh okay it's an early plastic I was way around beautiful though they made they made some catalan radios I had I found one these ones are very translucent so when the yeah at night in the dark if it's turned on they kind of glow cool yeah quite the variety you've got here I just look at all these little Westinghouse you've got all the different colors I'm missing three actually four yellow pink gray and black oh I bet you'll get them maybe somebody watching this video will have one and we'll get one your way who knows it's like a wonderland of radio as an electronics down here and you've got tons of TVs tons of TVs now if you people do collect TV they're a little heavier thing to collect but they're really cool so they started off well I mean what age would this be 50s probably 50 1950 and the first TV was around 46 or so the first TVs that were readily available for the average person was just after the war so 46 but you could actually buy a TV in the 30s but they were only in LA in New York and Chicago because it was still a test market right and so they've gone from looking like this with the tiny little black and white screen and an antenna on top to of course your modern flat screen right there how things have changed but you know I love I mean here we've got the wood paneling in the rec room and these TVs look right at home with the vintage paneling you got going on down here this RCA that you're looking at right now yeah I got that from the original owners here in Edmonton and the daughter that sold it to me said that the company they bought it from placed it in their family room and she said she never ever remembers it moving had been there so your had been there since 1957 now what's this pilot radio TV look at how small the screen is I mean there's the size of my thumb three inches and what purpose would they have served why would they be so small and they were marketed to students because you could put this TV on your desk while you're studying and watch TV they've been distracting kids with TV for years ever since they could and this TV was the first TV under $100 it was 99.95 Wow and so what would a TV like that be worth now there you run it depends on the picture tube because the picture tubes are really scarce in them because this is the only service that particular too bad okay well it's a unique piece I see you've got a bunch of others over a year too yes okay we got to check that out I see that little red and white well that's cute very 1950s if I was gonna guess I'd say like 57 to 61 somewhere in there it's got that rocket kind of 57 Chevy kind of look and this hello crafters that's you know looks like a pretty heavy-duty piece of machinery into communication ham radio type stuff and of course when TV became mainstream in the 40s and look at these little film I mean they're not little but they look like a transistor radio but absolutely massive the way that they've done the stitching this is just what you'd see on like a little transistor or something but it's a television and it's the first transistorized Wow and do they still work oh you've got it ready to go right now I just turn it on I'll just turn on my transmitter oh I see he's got a special transmitter you really set up here okay he's turning that on well it kind of projects so I guess this is why I see the screen is tiny yeah and then it just uses mirrors to make a larger image it's a semi-transparent mirror on the front so you could take this thing camping with you or to the beach well isn't that neat I just love the fact you've got it working I guess I can turn that off for you but yeah isn't that cool oh well it looks good sitting there yeah and the Miss America pageant shared advertising so if you in your life magazine you'd see an advertisement for a Philco TV there would be Miss America displaying it for you and I didn't know that there was a Canadian connection oh I see if you look right there it's the Miss Canada model they miss Canada model well that's got to be a pretty unique piece and it came from the original lady that owned it and she was still watching it she was still using it she's watching her old shows on her old TV yeah well and of course I mean there's so many cool TVs to look at the ones that people might recognize would be of course your philco predicta s-- yes and that is still a very desirable TV and I don't know in terms of value what some of these other ones are worth and maybe you can educate me but I know the predicta is still highly desired by collectors and mainly because it has that futuristic space-age kind of look now this is the floor model that's a bit more unique and then actually you don't see them with this stand too often either the original Philco issues stand as well a lot of times when I find them I get them kind of like well I mean this is even a little bit more on the unusual side I'll find them kind of like that you know but without the stand stands were as collectibles the TV I can imagine yeah the predictors can be thousands of dollars to the right people yes Hillsboro hideaway the idea back at that time was the living room all this stuff was supposed to be off out of bounds that ladies didn't want the stuff so they started building them so they could hide so how does it a coffee table oh it's a coffee table that turns out to be C isn't that ever cool you watch the game it's like a slightly disappointing transformer all oh it doesn't doesn't shoot Rockets right well mind you could shoot raw goods you could equip it pretty easy with all your stuff around here that's so neat I've never seen I'd be almost practical for today's purposes put a little hideaway TV there oh yes super high-tech so there she is okay so what exactly was wrong with this a whole bunch of stuff okay well that's why I brought it to you the number one cardinal sin is he used plumbing solder to do as repairs plumbing Florida slaughter has acid core oh and it there was a couple of parts just laying in the bottom of connected and this is everything that I changed out of it wow that's a did you replace it with original and vintage to type stuff no because that's a recipe for disaster right okay sale and half of these parts are not original to the radio it's been repaired a number of times so that's what had to be replaced that's what had to come out that's like the brains of the whole radio four things the speaker which is not the original speaker the original power transformer and speaker are both gone and replaced by something else okay so it's it's it's had a bit of a hard life but now no we'll start with just this is the antenna okay so we got the wire in the back of the antenna okay lights up yeah yeah you have to wait for the tubes to get going they had the unfortunately they have the wrong dial lights in it and they burnt holes into the scale which is actually a really common problem you see that yeah that plastic doesn't doesn't like the heat but overall it's not in terrible shape no that's not actually that mirrors probably one of the better ones I've seen now what I need to find and I notice it I'm missing one of these these just come out yeah and I thought well maybe I could get somebody to machine another one of those for me because it's got it just basically slides in there have to find another bar somewhere oh yeah there we go it sounds good to tone is working so it's a full functioning radio now that's gonna be great and this is one I have at my house on display so now it'd be nice to be able to use it and listen to it that looks awesome I'm pretty glad I brought it to you you definitely look like the right guy to have taken on this project thank you so that's it I got my radio back Greg's a fantastic guy and I always find it so important to get to know people in your community that can have these sorts of skills because you never know what you're gonna need them so there it is safe and sound back at home fantastic radio and now it's in fantastic working order great combination so thank you so much great for giving this radio back in working condition and that was a really cool collection - now I don't where to go if I ever find an old TV that I need to sell there go see great thanks so much for watching today's episode guys don't forget to hit that subscribe button if you haven't already you can check us out on instagram at curiosity hey yeg on facebook under curiosity incorporated or come visit us live in person at our real live store in Edmonton Alberta Canada thanks again guys we'll see y'all soon and bye for now you [Music]

Channel: Curiosity Incorporated

Views: 31,579

Rating: 4.977685 out of 5

Keywords: iMovie, curiosity inc, alex archbold, the radio guy, old radios, old TV, collectibles, collecting, hoarders, american pickers, pawn stars

Id: hi8jJEd1fj4

Length: 20min 53sec (1253 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 12 2020