The Northland Antique Radio Club

Radio Daze 2021 Report

It was a success! The efforts of the Radio Daze committee to hold the Radio Daze event this year were rewarded with reasonably good attendance even during the uncertainties of the pandemic. Attendance was down about 20% compared to the previous Radio Daze in 2019, with most of the local regular attendees being there and those who decided to stay home mostly being from out of the state. But those who attended enjoyed a great auction, swap meet, contest, and program, along with great weather!

The Friday evening auction at the Comfort Inn Plymouth offered 205 lots for sale, including a group of 30 that were donated to the club. Tables all around the room were filled with radios to sell. Frank Rasada was the auctioneer again and Bill Fanum supplied and ran his fantastic sound system both for the auction and for the Saturday program. The spotters, haulers, security, and the accounting people all did a great job making this the smooth-running auction that we all enjoy every year. Total sales were up from 2019.

The highlight of the auction was a beautiful high-end EH Scott Philharmonic AM/FM radio in excellent condition! A few of the 30 donated radios were a Federal 142, Federal 110, Blaupunkt Sultan 2320, a restored Hammarlund HQ-140X with speaker, a Crosley 148 tombstone, Signal Corps U.S. Army model AN/GRR-5, Western Coil RadioDyne WC-11, and a Precision Equipment Co. Ace Type V, with the proceeds from these being very helpful with covering the cost of the event. A few highlights of the other 170+ auctioned radios included a Crosley grandfather clock radio, a Fisher 500C receiver, two Hickok 600A tube testers, an RCA 7910, a Brunswick model 11, an Acme K-1A double cone speaker, a Northland 6-tube cathedral radio, a Zenith 6S239 chairside, an Atwater Kent 82Q cathedral, several Minnesota-made radios from the 1920s, an Arvin Phantom Baby 518, a 1940 Zenith 7J149 export model, a 12 tube Grunow Teledial, a rebuilt 1936 Zenith 6S27, and a Kennedy XV battery set.

The weather was great on Saturday for the swap meet!

The contest brought out some great items for us all to view again this year. A Remler Superheterodyne Eight radio received the People's Choice award and a vintage Crosley neon sign received the Best of Show award. These were considered the best of the entries this year by the attendees and by the contest judges. We all enjoy seeing items from people's collections whether they win an award or not, so Thank You to everyone who entered something in the contest.
Finally, thanks go to everyone who helped with making Radio Daze possible again after not being able to hold it in 2020. This includes those who helped with the printing, mailing, the hospitality room, registration, advertising, the auction, arranging the program, door prizes, and all the other work that resulted in another very successful RadioDaze, and especially to Jim Thompson and Kip Wallace who coordinated the entire event.

See you next May 20-21 at Radio Daze 2022!