The radio in the corner

 

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When radio was King

 

I first saw this 1941 Zenith counsel radio Model 12S568E, Serial Number A158327, in 1973, in the house of Casey and Maria Moauro, grandparents of my wife, Mary. It was shoved into a dark corner of their basement, didn't work, with a rotted cord and a parched, faded wood cabinet. But I sensed that underneath lurked the spirit of a dormant old time radio with vacuum tubes seeking to rekindle their orange glow. Years went by. I often expressed my admiration for this antique to Grandma Maria. After Casey died in 1985, she lived alone in that house till 1996, when at age 95, it was time to move in with a family member. "You take the radio", she told me. "You're the only one who showed any interest in it". So I did. Several years passed and now I had the radio in a dark corner of my basement, still silent and decaying. One day in February, 1999, I heard of a old fashioned TV repair joint in Chicago that repaired vacuum tube radios. On a lark I took a not very optimistic 30 mile drive where I encountered George, a repairman older than the radio, who said he'd give it a shot. Two weeks later I paid $200 to retrieve a now functioning AM and Short Wave radio whose cabinet had also been lovingly brought back to life. Back home the 8 inch speaker produced a sound that could fill an auditorium and I had many an interesting evening showing and playing this beauty to visitors. Exactly fifteen years went by when one day in February of this year, the radio fell silent once again. I retrieved the February, 1999, repair ticket and called the shop. It was still in business and amazingly, George, now in his eighties, was still at his work bench, repairing an occasional antique radio. A week after dropping it off George called. "Get your radio", he intoned. "How much?" I asked. "Just the $48 inspection charge. It had a corroded contact - an easy fix".

Now Zenith Radio Model 12S568E, Serial Number A158327, made in Chicagoland, once again sits in an prominent corner of our dining room. It takes about 20 seconds for the vacuum tubes, with a load pop, to project their orange glow, filling the house with an incredible sound. Though Zenith doesn't make electronics in the US anymore, when my 1941 Zenith springs to life, I'm reminded of their famous motto: "The quality goes in, before the name goes on".