Kmart Radios

1924 catalog

Kmart was originally founded in 1899 as the S. S. Kresge Corporation. (Sebastian Spering Kresge) The use of the brand name "Kmart" only began in 1962, but they kept using the Kresge name on retail stores until 1987. At it's peak in 1994 Kmart had 2,486 stores globally, making it the largest retailers in the world at that time. But 1994 was already 4 years into it's first major bankruptcy. Their decline continued for decades and as of 2026, there are only three remaining Kmart locations in the world. You can imagine that with a 125 year long history, Kmart sold a lot of radios. But most antique radio journals steer clear. The only entry I found was a someone selling reprints of the 1929 Kresge radio catalog, and of course the many works of Don Kresge at the Alabama Historical Radio Society. [LINK]

The earliest radio the Radio Museum lists with a Kmart-related brand is the Kres-Tone Six Transistor radio [SOURCE]. (Kres is short for Kresge). It's a nice 1950s-style plastic chassis table radio. The earliest Kres-tone branded radio I am aware of is the 75-1 from 1948 which is a wooden table radio.  Unhelpfully, the US patent office lists the first use of the Kres-tone trademark to be in 1957. So that was either filed very late, or the one below is a fraud. (I am assuming the former.)

radioatticarchives.com

The chassis is in a somewhat less ornate, art deco style similar to the RCA sets of the era. For those big wooden radios, some of which were basically furniture, Kresge even sold their own Kresge Household Polish. It specifically said on the label "Cleans and polishes all radios, furniture & autos."  But in the 1920s and 1930s their advertising outside of the catalog was scant. Except for those catalogs, Kresge  appears in no publications I can find; except for their daily stock price in the New York Times, and that only prior to Black Thursday. 

From surviving paper catalogs we know that Kresge was selling radios as early as 1924. But that 1924 catalog was mostly kits. These were parts and parts lists with instructions for hobbyists to assemble a Reinartz detector receiving set. That receiver design is named for John L. Reinartz. He started his own eponymous company and began making and selling 1-tube regenerative receivers. The name Reinartz remained attached to CW receivers through the 1920s even as the designs grew more complex and added more tubes. But early experimental stations like 5EK did use those early Reinartz receivers. 

That 1924 Kresge's Radio Catalogue and Buyers Guide is definitely early. It's 31 pages long and doesn't even includes the tubes... though it did have tube sockets. I guess you were on your own to source the vacuum tubes. It's also notable that the radios are not branded and the questions arise: When did Kresge start selling branded radios and when did they start selling Kmart branded Radios? Do those dates overlap? When did it end? I can confirm that hobbyist mindset continues at Kresge through the 1929 catalog. We also know that no Kmart branded radio can exist before about 1962. So that's our time brackets. 

Kmart sold many different branded transistor radios over the years, mostly portables. The site plasticradio.com has a few images. [SOURCE]  I think we're all very familiar with the vintage Sears and Radioshack radios. There are legions of them. But I think Kmart is under appreciated. Take for example this little AM transistor radio. It's nice and compact, about 3" x 2.5" and less than an inch thick. That's less than half the size of my 1950s Candle 6 transistor. There is even a 1/8th headphone jack in the back. It's adorable.

This one [above] has a clear number in the middle of the CPB. It looks like 6OIA, or maybe 601A... unless that's a G and not a 6. Maybe it's not so clear. The Tuning capacitor is stamped 2A-20H1 and below that 5213. I tried to parse it but none of these seem to be date codes. This particular 1960s Kmart Radio also came in green and yellow. It's more sleek than the boxy leatherette portables carry that brand name. I've also seen that pocket model with the Emperor logo on them. The Hong Kong manufacturer clearly found another buyer. All of these models proudly bear a "Made in Hong Kong" origin imprint.  

But that's not the end of the Kmart radios. In the 1960s there dual-branded portable AM/FM radios appeared. The best example I found was a series with the model numbers: 30-01, 31-60, 31-42, 30-30, 31-88, 30-62, 31-64 and 30-50. The front has a Kmart logo embossed on the surface, usually painted silver. and on the back is a paper label "S.S. Kresge Company." They all have similar materials, finishes color schemes and vary only in size and features. The 31-88 for example is a multi-band, AM/FM/AIR/Police/Weather radio. From that set the 30-02 and the 30-50 are beige instead of brown. I think it's the earlier model line. 

I also found models of walkie-talkies with the dual brand, models 32-61 and 32-65 clearly from the same 1960s series. It is tempting to think that the last two digits are the year, but that does not line up chronologically. But they provide a clue as to the end of the dual brand because the next set of walkie-talkies from the 1970s is model 06-32-67 and instead of S.S. Kresge on the paper label it reads "Kmart Corporation."  Luckily those have the manufacturers date stamped on the back March 1978. Also from this clearly transitional era I found a portable AM/FM Cassette recorder, model 6-33-56. Despite the numbering is is still labeled S.S. Kresge Co. So it appears that the Kresge brand was retired from radios about 10 years before the end of the retail signage.

1979 Kmart circular

By 1980, table radios were basically extinct at retail. So what we have left are car radios and different sizes of portables. How much longer did Kmart "make" radios? Those Kmart Corporation radios like the 06-31-51 and the 6-33-56 have a continuity of design which put them all in the late 70s. But there was at least one more model line. In the 80s I found the 06-44-10 which looks distinctly like a new line and new design. It's minimalist silver chassis looks vaguely 90s and eschews the ornate designs of the prior lines. This was probably their final line as the bankruptcies quickly followed.

Find That Zenith

 

I do like it when I find a radio with identifiable presets. It means we get to play a game I call Find That Radio. It also helps that this Zenith is gorgeous, though I think it's been refinished. This looks like someone stripped it and put on a thick coat of modern polyurethane. Looks good though, nice job.  It's a model 5S319 made in 1939. [SOURCE] Zenith made a few Art Deco models mostly in the late 1930s and early 1940s: 5S126, 5S218, 7S323, 7SC33R, 6R631, 6S632 and the 5F233 which this one also resembles. 

The call signs on the 5 preset buttons are WJZ, WORK, WLW, WCAU and WGR.  The WJZ-AM of today is on 1300 in Baltimore as it has been since 2008. But this is definitely the earlier WJZ. The original WJZ was out of Newark from 1921 - 1923 on 833 kHz. Based on the age of the radio, 1940s this is the WJZ in New York City that operated from 1923 - 1953 on 660 kHz. It's a 30-year window of time, but we can narrow that down I think.

1000 WORK-AM was a station in York, PA. They signed on March 17, 1932. After NARBA in 1941 they moved to 1350. They kept the calls until 1973 which narrows our time frame significantly on the bottom end. Despite using the call letters for over 40 years there is very little written about WORK. Most of what you will find focuses on Shorty Fincher and his Prairie Pals. This 1,000 watt station would have been mostly a local or regional station even in 1940. 

Station WLW began as experimental station 8XAA around 1921. That start date is somewhat debated.  More here. Putting that aside, WLW became WLW in March,1922 and operated on 833 kHz. It moved to 970 in 1923, then 710 where it stayed until 1927 when it made the move to 700 kHz where it remains today. This completely envelops the time frame and adds little to the story. Except for adding a pin to the map in Cincinnati, OH. 

This WCAU is not the 98.1 WCAU-FM but the AM station which began broadcasting in 1922. It operated as WCAU from 1922–1990, almost 70 years. The frequency would have been 1170 when this radio was first plugged in. It was probably listened to before and after WCAU both the AM and FM sides were sold to The Philadelphia Record in 1946.  After 1990 it became WOGL, then WGMP and is today WPTS, a news-talker on 1210. 

The last station on the list is 550 WGR-AM in Buffalo, NY today.  There is no debate on the frequency, they have been on 550 since 1928. It's interesting that the frequencies hop back and forth and aren't in any particular order on the presets. This 5,000 watt station would have been audible for hundreds of miles back in 1940, whereas WLW at 50,000 watts would have had it's frequency to itself across the whole east coast and been heard clear across the Mississippi river. 

 

Looking at the pins on a map I think the radio was East of Pittsburgh, PA but north of Baltimore, MD. There are just no local station in these presets except for WORK. If it was in a major city we might see local calls from those cities like WBAL or even WKBO if it was in Harrisburg. This really has to be in some reasonable distance from York, PA probably in a square between York, Hagerstown, Lancaster and Reading. Strangely I found this radio in Georgia. 

Koala vs. KSDT

KSDT is still on air today. But the about section of their website lists only current staff names, no history whatsoever. The 2008 website was the same way. But the station does have history. It goes back decades. The best secondary source on those early years is the UC Guardian. [SOURCE] It describes the earliest set up in 1968, an old military building made out of corrugated steel. They ran carrier current over the university’s electrical system on 540 AM. The Guardian cites the true start in 1967

"According to these accounts, KSDT originated in 1967 in a Pacific Beach garage, from where a group of students broadcasted tunes using a low power signal. With the help of then Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Robert Topolovac, KSDT founders Don Bright and Jon Collins were awarded funding to establish a college radio station on UCSD. "

I am pleased to report we have a print reference at least as early as 1971. The Underground Guide to the College of Your Choice describes KSDT as "dynamite like an FM rock station". 

KSDT is unusual in that there is a decent print record of their activity from at least the mid 1980s through today. Typically there are obvious gaps, or newspaper stories about re-starting the station. This one just has a short gap in the early 80s. It's also notable that the call letters never changed. 

In February of 1974, KSDT appears in the "What's Happening" section of Billboard as a College chart reporter. It reads "KSDT-CAFM U. of California, San Diego at La Jolla, Linda Clark."   No frequency is given.  The most evidence we have for continuous operation is in CMJ from the mid 1980s  through the 1990s. There are too many phone numbers. 

In a CMJ chart from April 1984 a very fake sounding MD name Taarson Homard accompanies a top 30 which lists it as CAFM but at 95.7 so they may have moved to a leaky PM operation in that era. 619-452-3673. 

In 1989 A top 30 submitted by Kicky Kia. The book Gigging also includes the station that year, but only with generic contact info still using the 3673 phone number.  

1994 a metal chart issue, Jerry Radcocg phone number is (619) 534-4225. 

1995 a Top 30 with two MDs: Michael Hu/Brent Turne, still 4225

In 1996 the MD is Brent Turner, solo this time, and he cranked out a few Top 30 charts.  

In 1997 KSDT appears again in reporting Loud rock chart and Beatbox but not Top 30. (Beatbox was a predecessor to the RPM chart) The metal director is still Jerry Radcocg. 

In 2002 MD Bryan Brick started reporting a top 30, and a new phone number shows up: 619-534-0479. 

In 2011 KSDT is listed in the CMJ directory

 

The late 1980s look very active. They even appear in Maximum Rock N Roll in 1989. Apparently they were selling a compilation cassette: "I hear College Puke."  It's very rare. [SOURCE] I want this tape so bad. It's actually one of 6 releases recorded at the station, the first and last of which both feature the punk band Sub Society. More here. 

 

In 1990 and 1992 they again in MRNR, plugs for the shows "Hardcore Punk Etc.," "Kids on Coffee" and "Energy Control" in scene reports. It makes the connection that Chris Valle in Sub Society hosted that program.  Also in 1992 they are references in Flipside magazine which is notable because it describes the broadcast situation for them and KSD. It's highly unusual but they may have been available on local CATV off campus. 

"...there [are]  two 24 hour alternative radio stations. KSDT on the campus of UCSD (95.7) and KCR onthe campus of SDSU (sorry, don't know the dial #). Unfortunately, both are on cable radio, so you must have a cable hookup on your stereo to receive these. Cox and Southwestern have recently changed their policy and do not charge any monthly fee to get your cable radio"

The 2000 version of the KSDT website confirms the usual local CATV arrangement. But it also lists both the AM and FM channels. It does appear all four were active at the same time.

• SRTV Triton Channel 18 - SAP channel 
• Cox Southwestern Cable Music Choice Channel 41

Another 1992 highlight for KSDT is their inclusion in the Book Your Own Fucking Life which every band should own. It instructs the band to call Adam Eisemberg. The 2000 edition names Daniel Najera. In 1999 the KSTD call letters appear in an issue of the USCD underground newspaper named Koala and I don't even know what to say about this. It is one of the stranger things I've ever found googling call letters. In 2001 Koala thanks Pete from KSDT. They also appear in the CMJ directory that year. It appears again in 2002 minus the Koala dildo thing. It is not the only time Koala deliberately misspelled the call sign. 

That is not a typo, that's personal - Koala March 2008

Around 2017 They are referred to in a poetry book Voices Bright Flags with the mention of a poetry podcast on KSDT radio. This is a frequent trajectory for carrier current stations. If they last into the 80s they usually attempt an FM conversion. If they survive that we usually see podcasts after 2010.  Jen at Radio Survivor visited the station in 2019. [SOURCE] That article mentions the stations 50+ year history, by my math their 60th anniversary is next year! 

Disambiguation: 

• From 1999 to 2006 there was a 1320 KSDT-AM in Hemet, California. It was owned by Lazer Broadcasting, and the format was "Pure Gold, rock and roll", which seemed tired at the time but I'd take it back today.  
• The call sign KSDT also appears in reports about the Ryukyu Islands. This is always 780 KSDT-AM in Okinawa. This is an interesting station, just not one in La Jolla. 

 

Rev. Jack L. Neville on KVOO

On the inside cover the copyright reads 1934 by Thoro Harris. That name is probably better known than  Rev. Jack L. Neville or W. Fred Henry. But in tiny print at the top it reads "compiled by Thoro Harris" making the connection somewhat more clear.  [SOURCE]  

Harris lived from 1874 to 1955 and has been described as one of the most prolific hymn writers of the early twentieth century. He wrote literally hundreds of hymns. He was born in Washington D.C. and lived most of his adult life in Boston, MA. He was a musician and theologian but not a radioman. His connection to radio was purely through other musicians performing his works, and the one hymnal which gives the impression that he may have had something do to with the publication of a radio hymnal. There may be others, but this is the first I've found.

When Jack L. Neville died in Rancho Cucamonga, CA at the age of 81 in 2005 his obituary said nothing about his time in radio, only that he was a pastor. But we can derive some dates from his birthday. "A Pastor for 50 years, he was born on August 10, 1923 in Tulsa, Oklahoma and was a Rancho Cucamonga resident for the past 11 years. He was a Veteran of the United States Army, serving in World War II."   He would have been 11 years old when that hymnal was published. So though it does not mention it, that hymnal documents a child preacher, something which was a novelty and even somewhat trendy in the 1930s. Today it'd be considered child abuse. 

Neville was later known as the "Flying Parson of the Panhandle Church of the Air" and broadcast many of his revivals on his radio program from Station KGRS. A March 1938 issue of Motion Picture Daily tells us that he  just left a news editor role at KVOO and "opened a series of broadcasts over KSO."  Neville was one of numerous preachers to use the nickname "Flying Parson."

What makes it odd is the connection to 1170 KVOO-AM, which is in Tulsa, OK; 1,500 miles away. KVOO was founded by E. H. Rollestone and first signed on the air on June 23, 1926. (Rollestone also founded KFRU in Bristow.) At the time, it operated at 1,000 watts transmitting from Bristow, OK. Rollestone also founded KFRU in Bristow. KVOO didn't move to Tulsa until 1927 following a partial buy out by William G. Skelly, who later bought the station outright. So as you think of 1934, KVOO was relatively new in town at the time and actually younger than Mr. Neville. 

W. Fred Henry at piano with (L-R) Etta, Virginia and Nevin Henry at KVOO

W. Fred Henry is a whole different character. The date on the image above is unknown, but assumed to be 1930s. The IPFHC has multiple images of him. the earliest is assumed to be from the 1920s here. There is another here with the note "a few months before Nevin was killed. The location given is in Florida. There is another image of him here from 1972. Other images are in Minnesota, Arkansas, Michigan, and Idaho. Only one image, from 1963 is in color. Mr. Henry appears to have been a traveling revivalist. He's often pictures with pianos and accordions and usually also a trombone indicating he's a multi instrumentalist. He appears in short references in a few regional periodicals, most referring to Tulsa or KVOO indicating some longer term connection. There are none mentions or images of him with Jack Neville, which indicate their connection was short-lived.

DJ DB Cooper

Valley Times Newspaper 12/24/64

If you spend enough time on radio boards you will encounter quiet questions about Jim Wood, of 870 KIEV-AM. The station was located in the Glenwood Hotel and only moved to 870 from 850 in 1934. Woods wasn't a big name. Really none of those names are. Calcote put out a couple country records. At KIEV the big names were Dick Whittinghill and Don Rickles but that was in the late 1940s. (More here) In their country music era reputedly KIEV shared staff and programming with KWOW in Pomona. References are hard to find. Jim Wood was there in 1964 for certain. Reputedly Jim Woods had two adopted sons, Frank and Michael. His father owned Woods Mortuary. Maybe that's the wrong Woods. There were at least six  identifiable Jim Woods' in radioland in the 1960s, and for the man in question, Jim Wood was only his on-air name. His real name was Ralph James Silkwood. 

He is not the more famous Jim Woods aka "Big" Jim Wood aka  "The Vanilla Gorilla", who's baritone voice hit big at KRLA and KROQ. That Jim Woods also spent time at WSPD, KILT, WIBG and even XPRS. [SOURCE] [SOURCE]. Ditto, this isn't the Jim Woods at KPOL and KZLA who later worked at Fan Club Management Services, nor the one at Midwest Broadcasting (KDMA etc) in 1960. I also doubt that he's the Jim Wood from WJR and WWJ in the late 1950s, nor the Jim Wood from KRAK-AM/FM in Stockton, CA. (That Jim Wood was the alias of Jim Smallwood.) There are actually even more Jim Woods' in the record. For some reason that name is very common in radioland in the late 1950s and it complicates the story.

Our Jim Wood is most notable for being a suspect in the hijacking of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 on on November 24, 1971 under the name D.B. Cooper. Without that chance intersection he would be far more obscure. It would be prudent to point out now that the FBI eliminated him as a suspect. But they also never caught anyone...

There were literally hundreds of suspects. But only one of them was a DJ: Ralph J. Silkwood. His best known show was on 870 KIEV-AM in Los Angeles. The conspiracy folks often report that he was also a DJ in Portland, OR but the call letters are never mentioned. It turns out he was much more than a DJ and there are several FCC dockets confirming the details. In 1960, Broadcasting magazine reported that Ralph J. Silkwood filed an application to operate on 900 kHz at 1,000 watts as Jefferson Country Broadcasting in Kalamath Falls. That application never went anywhere because of a man named Hansen.

In 1964, Ralph J. Silkwood tried to transfer his ownership share in Medford, Broadcasters, Inc. to W.H. Hansen. At the time Medford Broadcasting owned 1300 KDOV-AM Medford, OR; 570 KCNO-AM Alturas, CA; and a CP on 93.7, also in Medford. But the FCC had a problem with W.H. Hansen, and to a lesser extent his son Robert. For their part the Hansens' had some messy paperwork. It was unclear who owned what. Contracts had not been filed with the FCC and the paperwork they did file was not accurate. They also filed conflicting CPs for KDAD in Weed, CA under the ownership of Shasta Cascade Broadcasting; co-owner of KWSD. W.H. Hansen had not disclosed his ownership of KCNO, leaving Robert in hot water. The FCC did not like this at all. [SOURCE]  While Silkwood was innocent of the airline hijacking, there was something very shady about KDOV.

"The Shasta Petition supported by an affidavit of personal knowledge, alleges misrepresentations, undisclosed ownership, lack of candor and violations of our reporting rules at KDAD, Weed, Calif., by both the permittee of record, Jay C. Lemire, and W. H. Hansen, while he was a proposed assignee. Again, information before the Commission tends to support these allegations, not only against W. H. Hansen-Lemire at KDAD,, but also against W. H. Hansen at Stations KDOV, Medford, Oreg.,. and KCNO, Alturas, Calif."

Silkwood had only bought his 50% share of the station station from K.C. Laurence in 1958. It is not a coincidence that the tower collapsed in September of that year. The problem being that Laurance only owned 62.5 shares Hansen scammed everyone. Laurance only owned an option to buy the other 62.5 shares from Hansen.  In court documents Hansen refers to Silkwood as "Jim Silkwood. The same document discloses that Hansen also owned shares in KDAN and KBOY. Silkwood spent 8 years trying to be rid of the albatross he had only bought with $5,000 Hansen "gave" him. [SOURCE] 

The transfer of KDOV was dismissed as moot in 1972 by the commission indicating that something else had resolved the ownership question. The 1973 issue of the Broadcasting yearbook reveals that the station was deleted.  The KDOV call letters had reappeared on 1350 in Ashland, OR operated by Faith Tabernacle, that station still exists today, albeit from Phoenix, OR as a sports talker. In 1959 The Medford Mail Tribune tells us one more thing about Silkwood and KDOV:

"Buddy Knox, western and rock and roll artist, and the Rhythm Orchids will perform from 9 to 1 o'clock tonight at Dreamland ballroom. Knox, six-foot vocalist who was born in Happy, Texas, and the musical group began their recording career with "Party Doll." Jim Silkwood, of radio station KDOV, is promoting the local dance and program."

(Buddy Knox was a passable Buddy Holly clone. More here.) The Dreamland Ballroom was located on E. Main Street in Medford, upstairs from the Isis movie theater. More here. What's relevant about this is that it indicates KDOV was playing rock n' roll in 1959, and that Silkwood was playing an active part in operating the station, as a DJ and promoter. It also confirms Hansen's contention that Silkwood at least sometimes went by his middle name. But there the trail ends. While Hansen continued to get in legal trouble regularly, Silkwood becomes a ghost.

But there is one more, very strange Robert Silkwood incident to report. Reported in the San Rafael Daily Independent Journal of July 1963 a man by that name, with the alias E. Babeaux. He managed to have a series of fits, each at a bus station, and each time getting first aid, then being rushed to a hospital. He did this twice in San Francisco, and once in Santa Rosa. He may have had Munchausen syndrome, or maybe he just liked ambulance rides.