By Ed Reynolds
On the corner of 18th Street North and Reverend Abraham Woods Jr. Blvd (aka Eighth Avenue North) in downtown Birmingham sits a white building loaded with antique radios and the various gadgets, technical manuals, and assorted spare parts necessary to keep the radios operating.
Overseen by a gang of electronics wizards, this shop is home to the Alabama Historical Radio Society (AHRS), which has an impressive collection of vintage radios including pre-World War II radios with immaculate wooden cabinets; futuristic-looking, colorful clock radios from the 1950s and ’60s; and an array of military and other short-wave equipment.
Established in 1989 by the late Don Kresge, a retired General Electric engineer, the society was organized for anyone interested in the vintage radio era, whether that involved simply listening to old broadcasts or the restoration of antique items by skilled hobbyists. Dave Cisco was one of the early AHRS members.
“I’ve been involved in radio since I was in fourth grade,” says Cisco, who, like many of the members, is a ham radio enthusiast. “[As a kid] I was starting to build some things. The neighbors would end up setting an old radio outside and I’d pick it up and start taking it apart to find out what was in it.”
Down the street from AHRS headquarters, the Alabama Power building features the Don Kresge Memorial Museum, which is open to the public. Among the many vintage radios on display is the Superflex, designed by Ernest W. House and manufactured in 1927 by the Radio Products Corporation in north Birmingham. Each sold for $80 (the equivalent of $1,000 today) before the Great Depression forced the company out of business. (The Superflex radio has a curtain depicted on the face to suggest the proscenium of a theater stage.) The museum also includes old photographs detailing the history of radio station WSY, which was started by Alabama Power employees in 1922 as the first licensed station in Alabama.
AHRS members meet Tuesdays and Saturdays at 9 a.m. for “shop days,” where restoration projects are ongoing. The group also offers classes in electronics restoration, vacuum tube radio construction, and cabinet refinishing. Anyone interested is invited to attend. Not only are they a friendly group, these radio geeks are an eclectic bunch whose skills span a wide spectrum of technical expertise. Nothing is unsolvable.
“There’s such broad experience in our group, somebody can fix whatever problem we face,” says AHRS member Steven Westbrook. Gesturing to the manuals in the organization’s shop, Westbrook explains: “These include schematic diagrams. They tell you the type of vacuum tubes that were in the radio, the type of capacitors, the value, and so forth. Everything you needed to repair the radio. We’ve got all of them for all the old radios.”
Most of the inventory has been donated. Westbrook recounts stories of wives calling AHRS after their husbands had passed away to ask, “Does anyone want this stuff in my basement?” The AHRS headquarters also house a pair of 1949 TV sets with 8-inch screens —one made by Tele-Tone and the other by Hallicrafter. Each sold for around $170 originally, with the Hallicrafter featuring a row of push buttons for changing channels, much like automobile radios of the 1960s and ’70s.
A 1960s-era disk jockey booth is set up for broadcast in one corner of the shop. AHRS president Dee Haynes hopes to someday have an AHRS internet radio station featuring former radio personalities. “I’ve been collecting old radio shows for 30 years,” says Haynes. “I started by going to the Birmingham Public Library and checking out ‘Fibber McGee and Molly’ tapes. Eventually the internet came along and now you can buy collections. I bought a collection of old radio shows that has 40,000 shows on it for 50 bucks. If you listen to ‘The War of the Worlds,’ it’ll make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.” and was the subject of Francis Barraud’s painting, His Master’s Voice.
“We’ve got members from all walks of life—from common laborer types to doctors and lawyers,” Haynes says of the society’s diverse membership. “Everybody has their own little field of expertise. [AHRS member] Marvin Shepherd is in his 80s; he was in the South Pacific repairing watches during World War II. Marvin is our field coil winder. He knows so much about repairing radios; he can probably look at it, smell it, listen to it, and then tell you exactly what’s wrong with it.” Field coils, which were used in speakers before powerful magnets took their place, are no longer made commercially.
Kyle Owen is a 19-year-old Auburn engineering student and one of the club’s youngest members. He’s also the only one with a satellite orbiting the earth: a four-inch cube named AubieSat-1 that is testing solar panel protective films. (As chief designer, Owen has his name etched on the side of the tiny satellite.) A collector of electronic antiques since age eight, Owen started with vacuum cleaners, telephones, electric fans, and clocks. His radio fixation didn’t begin until high school.
“It all started when I was in about 10th grade. I was at an antique store and I found a 1950s Zenith radio that was all tube,” he says. “I paid too much for it but it was going to be my summer project. As far as radios are concerned, I think people love the look of the tube era. There really is no feeling like spending a couple of hours getting an electrical thing to work again, and then being able to look at a project before and after and knowing the work you just put into it.”
Alabama Music Hall of Fame member Ed Boutwell, who started Birmingham’s first commercial recording studio (Boutwell) in 1961, has been involved with AHRS for several years. Boutwell began working in radio as a 17- year-old at WAPI radio. Though he calls himself “the goober of the group,” he refers to his AHRS comrades as “a bunch of card-carrying geniuses.” Their resourcefulness and willingness to share their knowledge never ceases to amaze him. “They’re just so smart, it’s unreal. And they are very caring,” Boutwell says. “Those guys are perfectly capable of rejuvenating an old radio and getting it operating just like it used to. And also making it look even better than when it was brand new.” &
Visit www.alabamahistoricalradiosociety.org or phone 841-4630 for more information on AHRS. The society’s address is 1801 Reverend Abraham Woods, Jr., Blvd. The public museum is located on the first floor of the Alabama Power Company building at 600 18th St. North.
Originally published in Black & White Magazine June 14, 2012