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From: jeh@dcs.simpact.com (Jamie Hanrahan)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Allied Radio / Radio Shack
Message-ID: <74371@bu.edu.bu.edu>
Date: 9 Feb 91 23:16:07 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 105, Message 3 of 7


Yet another nit or three, and more nostalgia:

The Moderator writes...

> [Moderator's Note: You are wrong on the 'Allied was mail order only'
> statement. See the message before this. They did have a mail order
> division but their big warehouse store on the west side of Chicago was
> a beehive of activity for hams, CB'ers, and lots of other early radio
> freaks for thirty years or more, circa 1930 through the mid-60's.

They were also a nationwide electronics distributor, with warehouse
facilities in several major cities.  Still are, actually.  The Chicago
store, though, may have been the only non-mail-order way for retail
customers to reach them.

> When they annouced that Tandy had bought them out [...]
> Then came the Allied Radio Shacks, the final closure of the
> west side warehouse store in Chicago, and the birth of the dozens
> of much smaller (Tandy merchandise only!) Radio Shack stores across
> Anerica. 

Actually there were Radio Shlock (RS merchandise only) stores across
America well before both RS's acquisition by Tandy and before Tandy's
acquisition of Allied.  I don't remember which of those acquisitions
came first (but I think it was in the aforementioned order).

All of this discussion brings back fond memories of a purely local
(San Diego) chain, Telrad Electronics.  Now, doesn't that just sound
like a name out of the fifties?  Like something from a Carl and Jerry
story, or from a Rick Brant book?  Anyway, I think their "bread and
butter" was the tv/radio repair parts business, but they also sold
parts (and not just radio and tv stuff) to hobbyists, and they did
repair work, AND they had both ham radio and hi-fi departments (this
was in the golden age of Marantz, Fisher, et al).

And, yes, the counter clerks knew enough to answer questions like what
style of capacitor to use for a bypass cap, or do you think I really
need to shield this tube...

Most of the new parts for my early electronics projects came from
Telrad.  I remember buying my very first microphone there (a one-inch
or so dia. ceramic -- brand named "Calrad" (no connection) -- in a
clip-on lapel style, $1.99). It was a point of pride among all
experimenters that Radio Schlock was NOT patronized except in dire
emergency.  

A toggle switch from Telrad looked and felt just like one from a piece
of army surplus electronics gear (only newer), while RS's seemed to be
(and were) Japanese imitations.  And who wanted to use Radio Schlock
solder on a project, when Telrad would sell you genuine Kester???  At
Telrad there was an ambiance of "real electronics is done here!" that
was, and still is, completely missing from the glitzy Radio Shlock
stores.

RS's acquisition of Allied Radio sent a horrible shock through the
ranks of experimenters everywhere.  We expected the worst, and got
worse than that. The 6x9xthick catalog with everybody's brand names in
it (alongside, to be sure, Allied's house brands for tubes, hi-fi, and
the like) became an 8-1/2x11x-very- thin thing.  There was a lot of
merchandise other than RS's, but listed without brand names!!!
Allied's good (sometimes excellent) hi-fi, ham, and test equipment
kits (Knight-Kits) were phased out in favor of RS's "Realistic",
"Micronta", and similar phony-named lines.

Truly the end of an era.  


Jamie Hanrahan, Simpact Associates, San Diego CA
Internet:  jeh@dcs.simpact.com, or if that fails, jeh@crash.cts.com
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