Send a photo of your favorite radio for display on this page.  I'll scan it free and show it to the whole world right here.   Show us that soft side!  Open up and tell us why your favorite radio occupies that special place in your heart, right next to Mom.


I first saw this Arvin 417 Rhythm Baby sitting on top of a sewing machine in a junk store in Westover, Alabama. I swooped down on it and had it in my grasp before looking at the price tag (it said $25). Everything except the grille cloth was intact! I had to refinish it twice because I messed it up the first time, but it looks great now. It has an intermittent problem which I haven't found yet, but it's still my favorite. I especially like its compact size and colorful dial. Click here to visit my web site.

I have been collecting and restoring antique radios for 24 years and I found this in the attic of an old collector six years ago. It's an Atwater Kent 10C in great original condition and all the tubes test good. It needs a horn and batteries to be complete.

The radio is a 1941 Zenith 10H571 Spinet. Original cabinet and grille cloth, Complete electronic restoration and a down converter built so it receives the new FM on the old FM band when tuned off the radio dial.

I’ve been collecting old radios since late 2003 (not much time!) and I only collect RCA Bakelite radios. I have about 15 radios and my favorite is the 1940 RCA Q-122A. I gave this radio to myself as a 2004 Christmas gift! It has a great sound and all my job was clean and polish. This radio is 100% original and I just love it! (Jean lives in Brazil)

I found this Freed-Eisemann Model 10 at a flea market and thought it was a reproduction. On close inspection, I realized it was original and in Mint condition. It had been found in an attic wrapped in pre-WW2 newspapers. The seller was more interested in the newspapers it was wrapped in! I just had to dust it off and clean out the cob webs.

This Arvin 3586 is my favorite. I found in the back of an old music store, being sold as junk. Its styling and appearance were so distinctive (espescially the car radio style contol buttons) I had to pick it up. Despite being assured it was junk, I plugged it in and turned it on. I was stunned when it powered up and started belting out sounds so rich it compares to my Pioneer stack system!! (I'd like some info on this set, too, if anyone can help)

I found this RCA Model 19k console about a year ago at a local antique shop. It was in pretty bad shape, but I just fell in love with its styling. I purchased it for $45.00. When I brought it in our home my wife almost died, she thought I had lost my mind, but I told her to be patient because the finished product would be worth it. She now also considers it her favorite radio! Everyone who enters our home is immediately attracted to it. The quality of the sound of this console is beyond comparison. I have many more radios, but none gets my nostalgic juices going like this one!

Picking a favorite radio is like saying "what's your favorite food?" if you like to eat. I'll say this Zenith 9S244 shutterdial chairside is my favorite for now. My son found found this at a garage sale literally falling apart. After two long distance phone calls to me while I wasn't home, I called him back and told him to "GET IT." I completely disassembled the cabinet, finished stripping the old finish and tested the radio. Wonder of wonders it played great! After securing some exact reproduction grille cloth for both sides, lifting out the unknown black stain in two places, reassembling, restaining, and refinishing, it almost looks like new. It had all the original wood Zenith knobs in perfect condition. I do most of my shortwave listening on this great radio. Needless to say, my son is going to inherit this one someday. See some more of my collection at my web page. Click here to visit my web site.

This Air-Way Type-F radio is my favorite; not because it is the most attractive radio in my collection, nor does it have the highest value. It is because it is among the oldest (1923) and the most unusual radio of that era in my collection, being a high rectangular case rather than the more common low rectangular case. I saw it at an estate sale for $150 and first thought that too much money. After driving about ten miles, I turned around, went back and purchased it for the marked price. And, I am very happy I did.

A friend of mine found this Zenith 7-S-28 tombstone in deplorable condition. The veneer was either missing or peeling off on the top and the sides. The chassis was rusted with no tubes and the speaker was missing. He asked me if he could trade it for a GE Bakelite I had just picked up at a flea market. I did with great delight. After several weeks of case work and another couple of weeks refinishing it with lacquer, it turned out just fine. The radio was restored and a Crosley speaker was added. Hopefully, I will find the right speaker for it someday. It is one of my favorite players. Believe it or not, I was given another 7-S-28 case that has no chassis or speaker and looks worse then this one did. One day that will be restored as well.

I have been collecting old radios since ten year. This radio is my last hunt from a flea market; to my surprise this radio has everything in original and sounding great. At the begining the price was 300 euro but after a long bargain I bought it to 130 euro. This was my dream radio. I live in İstanbul Turkey.

I picked up this RCA 125 (1934) via eBay straight off an estate sale at a good price. The cabinet was falling apart and had to be reinforced; the finish looked too far gone to save but the guy swore that "the radio works." When it arrived, I turned it on - Unreal ! - it played loud and clear with no hum! The bandswitch was, however, frozen in the AM broadcast position. The chassis was removed and after a little contact cleaner the switch freed up and the SW band was found to work also. I completely removed the old finish and had to raise a number of dents with the old "soldering iron over a wet cloth" trick. I was lucky in that there was no loose veneer. I was able to remove the old grille cloth, clean it and then reinstall it. I tried different stains on some scrap walnut veneer and found that Minwax "Special Walnut" stain was a perfect match to the original color of this radio. My wife still can't believe what this radio became from where it started.

Favorite radio? How do you to settle on one set. Hmmm...'been thinking about this for two weeks. It's a lot like choosing your favorite date after not having dated for twenty years. When it gets right down to it, I guess I'm fickle. My favorite date and radio have one thing in common. They're the most recent in my collection of memories. I still love my wife (the last girl I dated) and I absolutely love my latest Philco Model 70, number six in a series. Other sets in my collection can be seen at my web site, Radio Doc/KQ6CM. Click here to visit my web site.

This is my favorite radio. I have not removed the cardboard bottom cover as yet to inspect for a manufacturers name, and there is none visible from the top. It appears to be a manufacturer's display set, not a homebrew. The speaker is in my opinion the most beautiful ever made. It is an English horn made by S.G.Brown, a model "Q."

This L&B regenerative radio was made in Detroit, about 1923 and still plays well! I found it at a small town flea market in Michigan being manned by a gentleman born in 1910 who "collected radios since he was a boy." I had to buy it even though I never heard of L&B and could find no "book value" in collectors books. Soon after, at the summer Michigan Antique Radio Club meet, it won the Chairman's Choice trophy (the only trophy I've ever won in my 45 years) over dozens of other entries because it is the only known radio from L&B company in existence! This radio was called "an important part of Michigan radio history" and will always be my favorite.

My favorite radio is this Rogers Majestic 348 manufactured by Rogers Majestic Limited, Montreal, Quebec, in 1948. My parents bought this radio in 1948, the same year I was born, so I've listened to it all my life. We were four children, born through the early thirties to the late forties and this radio/phono has played the 78's of Bing Crosby to Patti Page and the 33⅓'s of the Kingston Trio to Elvis to the Beatles and beyond! Sitting atop it are a 1960's Scott Stereomaster 348 and a 1950's Eico Hi Fi amp. I now have the Rogers able to become the centre channel on the Scott receiver. The Scott has a derived centre channel which I put through the Eico amp and then to the Rogers speaker. It can be used as a monobox on its own or become the centre channel with two Akai (1971) four way speakers on the Scotts left and right channels. So, I find it wonderful. All kinds of other things are tied into this system too ,all told spanning five decades, the 1940's through the 1990's.

This Atwater Kent model 206 was given to me by a guy I worked with in 1962. I used it as my everyday radio, and it went to school with me in 1971 with a huge sparkplug socket wrench as the antenna. It stopped working in the late 70's. About two years ago, I had it restored inside and out - it is once again my everyday radio.

This little 1937 Zenith 5-R-317 "Glass Rod" set is my favorite. Acquired for far too much money via an Internet auction (as a gift for my unbelievably supportive wife), this was my first electronic restoration project. Fate had smiled upon me and brought into my life Mr. Bob Mantz. With incredible patience, generosity and unflagging good humor, Bob took me through a truly craftsmanlike restoration of this unique set, all via email. I found a good friend, learned a heck of lot, ended up with a great-sounding radio, and the gift was a real hit. What more can one ask?

This Freshman Masterpiece takes me back to a time in my youth when I used to make crystal radios and simple electronic radios. Fiddling with the knobs trying to get distant AM stations and get them in clear and strong is *very* fun to me. Also the construction of the components of the day is such that one can literally take them all apart and fix them and rebuild them. I know the Masterpiece is not the best technically, but it is so much fun to play with. Check out the rest of my collection at my web page. Click here to visit my web site.

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