“It was a dark and stormy night…..” Actually, it was later in the day on Saturday January 22nd when this became true. In the early hours of that day it wasn’t dark at all, but it sure was cold; 15 degrees below zero at our house. But since that was the day of the antique radio show we ventured forth anyway. John Warner, now a full-fledged antique radio addict, joined us for the trip. We listened to Wolfeboro’s radio station, WASR, to catch their weather prediction for the upcoming snowstorm; they predicted 5” to 11”. The “official” snowfall in Wolfeboro turned out to be 10.9”.

Having heard the weather we turned off the radio and resorted to the usual foolishness and merriment that has become a trademark of the Warner-Fuller outings. Aside from a new modern battery pack for Zenith Trans-Oceanics, I brought nothing to sell. Of the three of us, I was the only one on board who was not celebrating a birthday!

When we got to St. Stan’s hall in Nashua, the parking lot was full and overflowing onto Blue Hill Avenue. Apparently, the cold weather doesn’t keep the radio crowd at home. Inside, a few of the vendor’s tables were vacant, no doubt they were casualties of the cold as well as the storm in the forecast.

As is the case at each of these radio meets the New England Antique Radio Club (NEARC) holds a radio competition. Anyone may enter a radio fitting a designated contest category. Attendees can vote for their favorite contest entry. At least they can if they are able to climb the stairs from the floor level to the stage where the contest entries have been located for the last two meets. Young Mal, who is confined to a wheelchair, can no longer enjoy this facet of the meet since the NEARC has “elevated” this contest above the main floor. Young Mal has loyally attended these meets over 24 successive times and even won a first place in a previous contest. It is inconsiderate of the NEARC to no longer hold this contest on the same level as the rest of the meet, especially since I registered a complaint with two club directors after the first time this was done. There was no shortage of available room for the contest at main floor level.
One of the categories this time was for Zenith Trans-Oceanics and their clones. Clones follow the general concept of the Trans-Oceanics but were made by other radio companies. Three of the entries were clones, an RCA, a Stromberg-Carlson and a Hallicrafters TW500. The Hallicrafters TW500 belonged to our friend Bob Fuerderer, who always has a table of radios to sell at the NEARC meets. About two years ago young Mal had asked Bob to keep an eye out for just such a Hallicrafters. After Bob’s Hallicrafters had won 2nd prize and Bob had brought the Hallicrafters back to his table. Mal reminded Bob about his previous request.

I think Bob had planned to keep his beautiful, like new Hallicrafters TW500 for his own radio collection. But when Bob learned it was young Mal’s birthday he suddenly offered Mal the radio for about 1/2 the set’s fair market value. How’s that for a nice guy! Young Mal, knowing it was his birthday, had shrewdly left his money at home. Dad wasn’t as shrewd and it was young Mal’s birthday after all! I’m sure you’ve guessed by now that good old dad sprung for the radio!

While my articles have certainly never been noted for short subject introductions, the preceding has to be my longest introduction yet! This article’s subject is the Hallicrafters Company. The company was founded in 1932 by Tufts educated William Halligan. “Bill” as he was known, came up with the catchy name Hallicrafters for his new company. The name stuck in people’s minds, as evidenced by the fact that even today it’s hard to find someone who has not heard of the now defunct company.

In the 1930s and even well before, people didn’t just “pop” into the radio business. David Sarnoff, ruthless head of RCA (Radio Corporation of America) had gobbled up almost all significant radio patents. Patent licenses from RCA were hard to come by and very expensive. At first Bill just built some ham radio oriented receivers and apparently prayed that Hallicrafters would escape RCA’s notice. Old Bill was quite a dreamer! He was quickly noticed of course!

One way to obtain a license without paying the full price was to buy an existing licensed radio manufacturer. Bill bought the licensed Silver-Marshall Company, which was in bankruptcy. He was soon over his head financially.

Echophone Radio Company’s customer credit manager Ray Durst orchestrated a way for Bill Halligan to bail out from under the Silver-Marshall mess. Not by coincidence, Echophone, which itself was “circling the drain”, was for sale. Ray Durst put a deal together with the owners of Echophone and Bill, enabling Bill to buy Echophone. Since Echophone also held an RCA license, this put Bill in the radio business. Not surprisingly, Ray Durst became Hallicrafters’ vice-president!

In addition to radios geared to ham operators Hallicrafters built household receivers using the Echophone brand name. They also became a manufacturer’s manufacturer, building sets under contract for many well known large manufacturers. They were successful in doing this because Hallicrafters maintained a well-deserved reputation for excellent build quality. They also introduced a line of successful transmitters during the late 1930s. They continued this successful formula both before and after World War II.

During the war the company enjoyed many lucrative wartime contracts for radio and other electronic equipment. With the dwindling of government contracts at war’s end Hallicrafters plunged rather successfully into all kinds of consumer electronics including phonographs, AM-FM radios, sets like young Mal’s TW500 and televisions. I remember servicing Hallicrafters televisions, they were well made and performed superbly.

After at least one aborted attempt to sell Hallicrafters, the Halligans finally sold the company to the Northrup Corporation in 1966. The company then went through a succession of owners while the products and company reputation deteriorated. All remnants of the company had vanished in mid-1988, but the “patient” had really been long dead by that time.

Young Mal’s Hallicrafters TW (for trans-world) 500 was intended to compete in the small but profitable and high priced multiband portable market, pioneered by Zenith. The TW500 covers in 4 bands the long wave frequencies from 180Kc-400Kc, the medium wave (a/k/a AM) frequencies covering 540Kc-1600Kc, and shortwave from 2Mc-4Mc and 6Mc-18Mc. (AM actually describes a system of transmitting and is not limited to the frequencies mistakenly thought of as the “AM band.”)

Mal’s set is a really attractive shade of green as were all Hallicrafters TW500s. Hallicrafters TW600s were a rich dark red and Hallicrafters TW2000s were black. TW500s were introduced during 1952 and remained in production into 1954. While his set is proportioned like a Zenith Trans-Oceanic Model H500, it is smaller in all dimensions. It also used a more compact battery than did the Zenith Trans-Oceanics, but may be plugged in also. It uses the same tube complement as does the Zenith that was built during the same years. It has as good a sound as the Zenith, even though there is no provision for adjusting the tone. We intend to keep this beauty Rambling Through History for a long while to come.

Note: The author, Mal Fuller, is now available to provide the electrical restoration of your vintage tube-type radio. Mal’s phone number is (603) 569-1946. Mal’s E-mail address is radiodoc@localnet.com.