Find That Radio Dial (Part 5)

 

This is an interesting Superhet table radio made by Silvertone. They were a Sears & Roebuck company, and are still based in Chicago today. It's a Silvertone model 4769 made in 1937. This particular model could tune both AM and two shortwave bands. The preset buttons are laid out in a ring, like an old phone with the tuner dial in the center. They called it a "Teledial."  [SOURCE]  I did fine a thread where someone tried to restore one. That quirky mechanism appears to be a challenge to disassemble and reassemble, with different pulleys turning clockwise and counterclockwise. [SOURCE] 

This dial has WEEI, WHDH, WORL, WCOP , WNAC, and WAAB; all metro-area Boston stations, so there's little mystery about location. This is set also closely matches an ad in the 1937 Radio Yearbook for the most popular Boston radio stations. (below) It lists WNAC, WEEI, WBZ, WAAB, WHDH, WMEX, WCOP, and WORL in that order. (Of course, that's a list of only local stations. )  But the omission of WMEX and WBZ from the pre-sets is at the least, interesting. Perhaps a reception issue, or just personal taste. These sets usually came from the dealer with some buttons already set for demonstration purposes. Then there were perforated tags the owner might add. This owner may not have bothered. This radio has 4 unlabeled.

Broadcasting Yearbook 1937

 WEEI is a well known Boston station, operating today on 850, but were on 830 kHz from 1929 to 1941, when this radio was new. However, the station today that broadcasts as WEEI broadcast as WHDH from 1929 until 1994; so this is a actually different button on that same dial. That WEEI, a Hubbard station and CBS affiliate, broadcast at 5,000 watts daytime, and 1,000 at night from 590 kHz.  590 in Boston today is WEZE; a religious talker. More here.

 WHDH broadcast from 850 kHz, and was owned by Matheson Radio Co. I know I wrote 830 above but 850 is what's in the Radio yearbook. It broadcast out of the Hotel Touraine from 1933 to at least 1939. The building was on the corner of Boylston St. and Tremont near the Boston Common. Built in 1897, the Jacobethan building even contained a library and in the 1950s, was the HQ of the local Communist party. It is still standing today but was converted to apartments in 1966. 

WORL broadcast from the Myles Standish Hotel. That building is also called Myles Standish Hall, and is located at 610 Beacon St. In 1949, Boston University bought the building and converted it into a dorms. They renovated again in 2018 and re-named it Wituwamat Memorial Hall. 

WCOP broadcast on 1120 from the Copley Plaza Hotel. The station changed calls from WMFH in 1935. Owned by the Massachusetts Broadcasting Corp on paper it was operated by it's founder, Joseph Kirby. He died in 11937 and it was sold by his estate to Arde Bulova. Under NARBA it moved to 1150 kHz in 1941. I think they began broadcasting the Hayloft Jamboree in 1948. Today this is WWDJ still on that frequency but broadcasting religious blather.

WNAC was a member of both NBC-Red and the Yankee network. Their studios were at 21 Brookline ave. But it shared a transmitter site with WAAB in Quincy, MA. A year later Congress began an investigation of "duopoly" stations and John Shepard had to divest. Seems quaint with the crazy monopolies allowed to run wild today. 

 WAAB was both a member of both the Mutual and Colonial networks. It broadcast on 1410 at 500 watts; another occupant of 21 Brookline Ave. It was the home of the Colonial network, which itself carried some Mutual programming. Owner John Shepard operated the Yankee network out of WNAC. Shepard had bought the station in 1931 and changed it's calls from WLEX. Mayflower Broadcasting made an attempt in 1938 to take WAAB from Shepard, but in 1941 he won in a re-hearing with the FCC.

But back to the Silvertone model 4769. It appears to have been popular in the 1930s, or maybe that's survivorship bias. Maybe they're just popular with collectors. A quick web search finds dozens of mostly non-working dust collectors.  

 

This one (above) has WJR, WLW, WKJR, KDKA, WWJ, WJAS, WWSW?, and WKBN? This is a mix of Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Detroit stations. This has to be someone in a rural area of Ohio, but that's hard to narrow down without a local station. 

WABC, WCAP, WBRB, WMCA, WIP, WEAB, WOR, WJZ, and KYW. This one is certainly in New Jersey, receiveing both New York and Philadelphia metro stations. WBRB, being the only local one of the bunch.