A member of the Old Time Radio Lovers group recently shared the image above that includes all of NBC’s logos dating back to 1926. Some of these are truly iconic.
Of course, versions of the rainbow peacock have been used most of my lifetime, so they’re immediately identifiable. I also like the NBC “snake” logo used between 1959-1975.
But if I had to pick my favorite, it would be the 1942 logo.
How about you? What is your favorite logo? Please comment!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ray Robinson, who writes:
Hi, Thomas. In the 2019 movie Ford v. Ferrari, a battered old shortwave radio is used in California to listen to commentary on the 1966 Le Mans race from France.
I’ve attached a few stills from the movie (which I highly recommend, by the way). Might any of your subscribers know the model of the radio?
Post Readers: Please comment with links if you can ID the make and model of this radio. It looks very familiar, but then again the design is similar to so many other models of the era. Ray, I look forward to checking out the film, too!
Many thanks to UNT Archivist, Maristella Feustle, who writes with the following inquiry :
I’m in search of some historical literature cited in a 1970 dissertation.
Might anyone have access to a copy of the OWI’s “A Brief Statement of Shortwave Programs to Target Areas,” dated November 1, 1942? Thanks!
Post readers: If you happen to have a copy of this document or know its location, could you please comment with details? Many thanks!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave Zantow, who shares a link to this 1947 “Blondie & Dagwood” episode #21. Dave notes that the part of the episode with a radio slant starts at approx. 24:22:
Click here to view on YouTube.
Thanks, Dave! I’m not sure I’ve ever watched an episode of Blondie and Dagwood, although I’ve certainly read hundreds of the comic strips and listened to many episodes of the OTR shows.
In fact, if you’d like to listen to some of the Blondie and Dagwood radio shows, the Internet Archive has a collection of 42 episodes that you can stream or download.
I’ve embedded the Internet Archive Playlist below for your convenience:
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ulis (K3LU), who shares the following story of a popular CB Radio QSL Card design and print house:
73s and 88s :: The Ballad of Runnin Bare and Lil White Dove
We set a custom screensaver on Our AppleTV. Told it to pull images from Flickr tagged with “British Columbia.” After my wife and kids and I spent a few weeks in Vancouver and in various places on Vancouver Island, it had become one of our favorite places. We missed it.
And so, at night, after a show or movie ended and the AppleTV sat idle for a few minutes, a slideshow would automatically begin. The Parliamentary Buildings in Victoria, the Inner Harbor, the wild, rocky, tidepool-rich shores of Tofino, the murals of Chemainus.
Then, every once in a while, an illustration of some sort. I couldn’t tell what. A one-panel comic? Some kind of advertisement or flyer? It would be gone from the screen before I could really get a good look. Weeks would go by and I wouldn’t see it until, once again, there it was. It looked old, like something from the 60s or 70s. And it had numbers on it, like a code or a message: 73s and 88s.
It was the numbers that got me. Like the park rangers in The Shining calling for Wendy Torrance on the radio: “This is KDK-1 calling KDK-12. KDK-1 calling KDK-12. Are you receiving me?” They seemed to be saying something. But what? I had to find out. So, I took to Google, and began my search.[…]
FYI: Although the CB Radio landscape is quite different than it was in the 70s, most modern shortwave radio receivers can tune to CB channels. Here’s a quick tutorial from our archives.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mario Filippi (N2HUN), who writes:
Maybe this is old news but in the 1959 film “On the Beach” which was from the book by Nevil Shute, there is a Zenith transoceanic shortwave radio in this clip from the film. It is inside the lighthouse and appears just about five minutes into the film.
Big stars in this one, Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins.
Thanks for the tip, Mario! I love classic films, but I don’t think I’ve seen On the Beach. I’ll put this on my watch list!
I’ll add this post to our ever growing archive of radios in film!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bruce (VE3EAR), who shares the following:
I live in the village of Saltford, ON, Canada, near the eastern shore of Lake Huron. It’s a quiet location signal wise, and I’m lucky that I have enough property to erect some big antennas. My two favourites are a 1200 foot long terminated Beverage, aimed at 50 degrees true, which targets Europe and the UK. The other is a 333 foot perimeter delta-loop, apex up and oriented north-south. Both antennas are fed with RG-6 coaxial cables and impedence-matching transformers.
I use the loop with a recently acquired Airspy HF+ Discovery SDR and the Gqrx SDR software, in my iMac. I like to listen to amateur activity on 160, 80, and 40 metres, along with the few shortwave broadcast station that are still on the air. I also like to listen to the trans-Atlantic air traffic control stations in Shannon, Ireland and Gander, Canada.
I once heard a U2 spy plane returning from a mission over Russia!
My other hobby is designing and building simple, one transistor regen receivers, most of which tune the AM broadcast band, although I have built a couple covering the lower portion of the HF broadcast bands as well, just for a challenge. All my receivers are built breadboard style.
My favourite of them is one based upon the Vackar oscillator, with the addition of a diode detector and “Benny”, as is used in crystal radios.
Here is the schematic of the Vackar circuit:
The diode and “Benny” connect to the collector of the transistor, then to a pair of home made headphones using two telephone earpiece elements installed in a pair of hearing protectors. The receiver is both very selective and very sensitive. Here is a pic:
Most of the electronics are on a proto-board, which allowed easy component substitutions during the build. When I had it optimized, I decided to leave it that way! The controls, left to right, are on-off switch, regen, fine tuning, main tuning, and range selector switch, hidden behind the reduction drive. Audio is taken from the DET OUT jack, to either the headphones described above, or to an audio amplifier for listening with a speaker.
Bruce, it sounds like you certainly have an excellent spot and excellent antennas for DXing! I love regen receivers as well and radio design can hardly be more simple.
Thank you for sharing!