- This is my radio room and this is where I accumulate my collection.

And it starts out with the very earliest in November of 1955, the early owls, - They do look like an owl, don't they?

Yeah.

- Yeah, they do.

And then 57, 59, 61.

Then, then in 61 they issued the pocket radios good enough to fit in the pocket.

You got a pocket?

- I do.

Let's try it.

Yeah.

- Okay.

So there now, now you can take it anywhere with you hands free.

I'm - Going to the beach, taking a walk.

Going to the park.

- Yeah.

- I have my radio right here.

- Now, if you're going to the beach, you might wanna take a portable radio.

And these were the ones up here.

So these are like from 19 57, 56, 57 up to 63 and a they, they require a few more batteries but produce more power.

This is a favorite of mine.

It's called the 4 75.

And this is something like, my wife has one of these in her bathroom and it's just the perfect size for that.

But it's fairly heavy 'cause it's got a good power pack.

- I think we're going a little - And has really good sound output.

It's got some weight to it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

- Red zone.

- Oh, I'm picking up Mexico.

- It's got short wave capability.

I - Know.

- How about this little gizmo here?

- Yeah.

Well this guy, this is a m and fm and this is a popular series that came out in the late seventies called the Circle of Sound.

The speaker's actually down here and this cone projects it out throughout the room.

And that's compared to something like this is very directional, you know, depending on where the antenna lined up by himself or where you were sitting, he - Smiled back.

However, I noticed a sad look in his eyes like he needed a friend.

- What?

So you have three speakers for - Me to ask one speaker.

I wish I had, thank - You.

Jammed and a clock.

What would that radio have gone for when it was sold?

50 bucks?

Well, - Well over a hundred dollars in 1959.

So you know, that equates to almost, almost a thousand dollars, a very high end piece.

- The stereo of its time.

- One of the challenges in collecting is finding radios in their original packaging.

And this one is an example of the Royal 500 H, which is this radio here.

But this has never been opened.

So I'm assuming the radio's in there and it feels like the radio's in there, but, but that's, that's about as good as it gets right there, finding something that's never been opened.

- How did you find this?

- You know, to be honest, Doug, I don't remember where I got that from.

Well, let's open it up.

Yeah, okay.

We'll do that in another segment.

Okay.

This is a synth royal 500 gift box.

Many of these radios were given as high-end gifts to doctors, lawyers, and everything.

It looks like a jewelry box and it's, it's actually leather and it's called a jewelry box.

Jewelers box.

Oh yeah.

And you open it up and you've got satin and then you've got all the components that come with this purchase.

The carrying case with a shoulder strap, the operating guide, the earphone still in its plastic for private listening, a set of batteries to get you started and the radio and an unused condition.

That - Is really cool.

What year is this?

- 1961.

- I was a year old.

- Think about that.

- This could have been my birthday gift.

- Your first, that'd be a great first birthday gift for you.

So here's the shirt pocket version of a gift set and you open it up and you've got the radio again, the batteries in the box, the earphone, the the case, which in this case it's not leather, it's leatherette.

And then the operating guide.

- Yeah, you got the guide in there too.

That would be valuable just itself, - Wouldn't it?

The documentation's hard to find on these.

Yes, I - Bet it is.

Yeah.

And what would this have gone for?

- This was issued after the price of transistors had started to come down and this was $26 and 95 cents.

What a bargain.

- Are there others in Minnesota that collect transistor radios?

- Yeah, we got, we got a, a great group of guys in the Northland Antique Radio Club that collect radios and every one of 'em has a few transistor radios.

Yeah, I'm sure of it.

But their collection focuses on the tube radios from the late thirties, forties, fifties.

So just as a transistor radio collector only.

I think I'm unique in this area in that.

And I thought I was unique in the country about, until I started getting my feelers out there.

And there's, there's, there's some really great collections out there.