The Pleasure of Pushbuttons

The pleasure of push buttons no longer lies within their convenience but in the story they tell.  Unless their cardboard tabs have been devoured by silverfish or shrunk and displaced by time, they leave behind an accurate accounting of the original habitat of a vintage radio.

In the late 1930s, the Federal Communications Commission had a very firm, paternal grip on the airwaves.  They ruled that the ether was public domain, therefore what was broadcast through it was to be ultimately for the public good.  In order for the 'good' to come through clearly, there had to be minimal interference between broadcasters.  Therefore, three types of frequency allotments were set aside: Clear for high powered stations meant to be heard a thousand miles or more at night, regional for stations meant to cover several hundred miles and locals---which operated at very low wattage at night or not at all.  This regulation particularly favored rural residents, whose news and entertainment could otherwise be limited to going to town Saturday night and church on Sunday morning.

The push buttons on this 1939 Montgomery Wards Airline radio features most of the clear stations of the West, south to north.  That the stations aren't arranged 'professionally' in progressive frequency fashion suggests that the buttons could have been set by a mail order customer, another indication of rural residency.  Perhaps this person simply started with the station they most listened to on the left and progressed downward along their own scale of interest:  1160 kc, 680 kc, 590 kc, 1050 kc, 860 kc and 1110 kc.  On a map this would be represented left to right by Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Spokane, Los Angeles, Tijuana, Tijuana.

1939 Airline Radio Reception Map

Plotted out thus, the cross hairs come together somewhere in Nevada.  Since the sole radio station in Nevada at the time was in Reno and is not represented on the push buttons, the set was likely located well east or perhaps north or south of there.  The Elko area is as good a guess as any, since KSL Salt Lake City seems to be favored.


A precursor of push button tuning was telephone dial tuning, as featured on this 1937 Troy---a radio manufacturer in Los Angeles.  From left to right we have the frequencies of 750kc (KXL), 1190kc (KEX), 1080kc (KWJJ), 970kc and 620kc (KGW). All these being Portland, Oregon stations assures us this radio was originally resided in the Portland/Vancouver area.

Mammoth radio manufacturer Philco had a similar idea with their 1938 Cone-Centric automatic tuning.  However, the selections on the dial were not simply those deemed interesting by the new owner but printed at the factory for the 'radio market' the set was to be sold in.  The dial would be installed by the shop and the stations set---the latter being a more complicated procedure than most.  Still it is interesting in what Philco decided what was to be received locally---especially in the rural Far West, where stations were few and far between.  How this information was verified is a mystery, but Philco wasn't the only radio manufacturer that did it.

This Philco was sold in Reno, Nevada market, for the one local station is KOH Reno---the only radio station in Nevada at the time.  Perhaps they had a different dial for Las Vegas, but it would be harder to discern that market now for the lack of local stations.  At the most there would been a third dial for Eastern Nevada.  California could have had a couple dozen different dials.

The stations represented left to right broadcasted from: San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Reno.  On a map, we get a nice 'X' marks the spot over Reno from the various points of reception.

Reception map for 1938 Philco for Reno

Gilfillan, a Los Angeles radio manufacturer, also marketed their little Plastikon radios with regional dials.  Since no automatic tuning was involved, it was likely they were shipped directly from the factory equipped for broader markets.  The 'S' in the lower left hand corner and the stations listed suggest Seattle---but it appears the dial stood in for all of the Washington and Idaho market.

From left to right, stations represented are: Wenatchee, Spokane, Portland, Los Angeles, San Francsico, Seattle, Portland, Spokane, Seattle, Seattle, Calgary, Los Angeles, Vancouver BC, Salt Lake City, Portland, Seattle, Tacoma, Boise, Los Angeles and Spokane.  The resulting lines of travel crisscross Washington state.

Reception map for 1938 Gilfillan

Today the FCC appears to equate the public good with cramming 'choice' in our ear, with no concern if it's actually discernible or unduly repetitive---such as the same chattering Pez head at eight points across the AM dial.  Most of the clear channel allocations are now in name only, a jumble of language and music every night due to multiple stations allowed to broadcast at low power under the high powered stations.  There are exceptions, but it's no wonder radio's audience grows older by the day.

It is interesting that CFCN 1010 Calgary is on the Gilfillan dial above.  It is still under a Canadian Clear allocation, and we listen to it quite often way down here in Northern California while driving back to the ranch on winter nights.  A few years ago I noticed that the FCC had allowed a Salt Lake City NPR station to use the frequency at considerable power---perhaps 50,000 watts daytime, since we could receive it during some winter days.  Surely directional antennas were supposed to control the signal into an east west pattern, but obviously there were problems---and not just a personal annoyance over a jumble where there used to be something to listen to.  The fact that CFCN is part of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation network---a government entity---made sure there would be swift diplomacy in the matter, and now Mother Nature is once again the only true arbitrator of that frequency.

Although I was born way after the Golden Age of Radio, I still have great respect for its potential.  One good reason is that most of my childhood was without television, and although greatly diminished, radio was still more varied and entertaining then than now.  From repeats of classic radio dramas and mysteries on KNX to Dr. Demento on KMET, from the San Francisco news on KGO to some South Carolina station caught at four in the morning---it all seemed somehow magical, that dial in the dark.  That ghostly sense of space, so close and yet so far---the voices carrying over the deserts and mountains.

There are still places in this world where radio is an honest form of news and entertainment.  In Great Britain, it's still big enough to demand a weekly glossy magazine, Radio Times.  Most of the programming is provided by the BBC---and so I ask, if we can have BBC America on cable television, why can't we have the apparently more lively BBC radio over the air?  With an allowance for advertising, it seems the perfect alternative feed for our stolidly automated American broadcasting system, barking its way into oblivion.