WMRN, Marion Ohio, ca. 1941 (courtesy Tom Bohlander WA3KLR)

For those of you who visit this site from time to time, I am making a few changes. When I started on this project more than a decade ago, my aim was to assemble a collection of artifacts, more or less. Now I find that I have put together nearly all the components of a working AM radio station in the 1940-50 period. The control room photo above gives a pretty good idea of ny collection, although I'm missing a couple of items in the rack to the right of the transmitter. The RCA limiting amp comes on the market on a pretty regular basis, but the prices demanded—and received—for them have gotten outrageous. I've gotten my ham ticket and I actually have a use for most of this stuff (although I'm not quite sure how useful the turntables will be on the 160-meter band). But most of the other stuff will work perfectly well in a radio shack. And the turntables still look very cool.

Of course, I still enjoy listening to programs from the Golden Age of radio using a micro-power transmitter. I have (or have access to) tens of thousands of individual episodes of a wide variety of programs. One simply has to download and enjoy them. I have managed to put together a modest collection of actual 16-inch transcription disks representing several different programs, mostly from the 1930s. I even have the majority of the records from a couple of shows. I have also built a fairly respectable collection of period sound effects 78s. I suppose I will have to round out the station library with some popular music from the time. There really is not much point in having a radio station without the programming material to fill the on-air hours.

Anyone out there reading this who enjoys working the AM bands, radio from the golden age, or vintage broadcasting equipment, please feel free to drop me a line. Enjoy the website and let me know if you have suggestions to make it more interesting.

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