This Neighborhood Never Ceases to Amaze Me

A long time ago I found an antique wooden radio in the attic of my Grandparents on my mother’s side. I really appreciated the radio’s design: simple, compact, and rectangular with smoothed angles. The size and shape just felt right. It was and is in great condition. My parents had stored it for a number of years and when they recent moved the radio finally found its way to our apartment. I took it from the floor of my office and put it on prominent, although not domineering, display in our living room. It looks great and brings a connection to the past to an otherwise pretty modern living space.

The more it was in view and the more I looked at it, the more I found myself wanting to restore it. This goes back to a long time ago, when I used to find electronics in our house that were seldom used and proceeded to disassemble them. I always had the intention of putting them back together, to either their original purpose or a different one. In practice, I don’t remember this happening often, if ever.

So this radio is my chance to not just take something apart. After looking through the open back of the radio, I’m pretty sure I can put it back together! I also have the benefit of an electrical engineering degree now that I didn’t have way back then.

I started to do some research and discovered that the radio is a Radiola model 61-3 from the mid to late 1940's. I plugged it in and played with some knobs. No sound, however at least one of the tubes started to glow. Schematics are available online. Cool. We’re in business here. I’m thinking that with a little clean up, the inside’s going to be looking pretty nice. Replacing some components, a light bulb, and maybe repairing some connections and it’s going to be working for the first time in many, many years. Listening to the Mets on opening day and hearing the sound through the warm analog vacuum tubes and resonant wooden enclosure is the goal now.

Alright, now where do I get parts for this?

For some reason, I start envisioning some not very fancy website or two for a speciality business based somewhere in the midwest as the most likely source for old, original parts. I really want original parts for this, right down to the single wire antenna that’s still intact and connected, although in an early state of decay. I’m thinking at this point that restoring this thing is going to be a long research process, to make sure I’m ordering exactly the right parts from a dusty warehouse in Illinois or somewhere like that.

I asked my assistants at FancyHands to take a pass at some quick research and they, as always, found some good sources for restoration instructions and parts. On a whim, I decided to take it one step further and started searching online for antique radio parts in or close to NYC. The initial searches turned up places upstate and a few out on Long Island.

Then I tried the search closer to home in Brooklyn. BAM! What’s this? Leeds Radio, since 1923, on North 7th Street? No way, that can’t be the same North 7th street just a few blocks from where I live. Same zip, 11249, get out of here, it is!

So, sure enough, one of the few remaining places to buy antique radio parts is in an old garage just a short walk away from me. Since I’ve walked by countless times and never noticed, FancyHands called to make sure they’re still open and they are! 10A-4P Tuesdays through Friday, however “It’s best to call ahead just in case.”

I can’t wait to make it over there very soon. Something about restoring this radio just feels like the right thing to do and thanks to Leeds Radio, located right in the neighborhood where I live, I think that restoring it just got a lot easier and is going to happen a whole lot sooner than I originally thought it would!