Sears/Silvertone Stereo Record Player with a Built-in AM only tuner

[vortalexfan]

Hello everyone the other day a friend of mine bought for me at a garage sale a late 1950s (I think) Sears/Silvertone Console Record Player that the Record Player part is Stereo but then it has an AM Only tuner built into it which I've never seen that before on a Console Record Player, it could also have a remote control hooked up to it to function the radio.

Has anyone else here seen anything like that before and was there any other companies bersides Sears that sold something like that?

Pictures of the unit in question posted below.

[Electronic M]

It is definitely an interesting combination of features. Throughout the 50s a number of companies made 3-4 speed changer Am only table radio Phono combos, and I've seen a number of phonos designed for add on stereo speakers, once in a blue moon you will see provisions for a wired remote, but the three together is fairly unusual. Lack of FM is the thing that makes it odd because if it had FM it would be a solidly up market set.... the mail order companies like Sears are the only ones I could see making such a set...In a rural community far far away from the big cities ( where FM stations were primarily located back then) that could not get any FM stations the reduction in cost of ohmitting FM would have been a selling point. The cheap wired remote probably helped it further.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

It is definitely an interesting combination of features. Throughout the 50s a number of companies made 3-4 speed changer Am only table radio Phono combos, and I've seen a number of phonos designed for add on stereo speakers, once in a blue moon you will see provisions for a wired remote, but the three together is fairly unusual. Lack of FM is the thing that makes it odd because if it had FM it would be a solidly up market set.... the mail order companies like Sears are the only ones I could see making such a set...In a rural community far far away from the big cities ( where FM stations were primarily located back then) that could not get any FM stations the reduction in cost of ohmitting FM would have been a selling point. The cheap wired remote probably helped it further.

That's what I was thinking, it spent most of, if not its entire life in a small town just west of me called South Bend, Indiana.

If you never heard of the town well it was home of the Studebaker Company for many years, it was also home of the South Bend Watch Company (who actually supplied Pocket Watches to Studebaker Company for many years), and it was also home to the College Football Hall of Fame for years and its also home to Notre Dame University (Home of the Fighting Irish).

From what I read South Bend didn't get its first FM Station until the late 1960s, so it would make sense that a record player/radio like this would of been sold there.

[fixmeplease]

I have a Wards Airline, I think its a 1957 or 58 model with record player and AM only, a consolette I think its called. It was sold in the Twin Cities which is a big town. Im betting there are other models.

People were likely more interested in being able to play 33 speed records than the radio in that time period, so FM was not important.

[Jeffhs]

Admiral, Zenith and a few others made this type of AM-only radio-phono combination in the 1950s. The radio was the standard (for the period) AA5 design, with the phonograph being a 4-speed single-play one (although some more expensive combos had changers). These combos were AM only because in the '50s, FM radio in the US was in its infancy at the time; many if not most areas outside major cities did not have their own local FM stations until the 1960s or later. FM stations of the time were generally low-power mono operations with limited range, so most folks any distance from major cities received little or nothing on the FM dial if their radios had FM in the first place.

I live near Cleveland, which did not get its first FM radio station until the late '40s; that station was operated by a local university, operating in the old 44-MHz FM band. The first station to operate in the current FM broadcast band was a religious broadcaster on 103.3 MHz; the station signed on in 1950. The university station on 44 MHz moved to its present dial position, 90.3 MHz, shortly after the current FM broadcast band was commissioned. The first commercial FM in Cleveland also signed on the same year, and is still on the air in northeastern Ohio to this day. The old FM broadcast band eventually (in the late forties) became TV channel 1; by 1950 this range (44-50 MHz) had been reallocated (a realignment of the RF spectrum by the FCC) and is now the the six-meter amateur band.

[dishdude]

Is it as small as it looks in the pictures? It looks like it's only 2 feet tall.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by dishdude

Is it as small as it looks in the pictures? It looks like it's only 2 feet tall.

Yep, it's not a very big unit.