The AM Forum

The only Radio Row related photos I've been able to find on the web are a few relatively low-res pics of some of the store fronts and street scenes.

Anyone have any links to any collections of Radio Row photos ?  Anyone have any Radio Row pics of their own that they care to post here ?

Here's a couple:

Cortlandt Street, 1936 with the 9th Avenue el in the background:

(https://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=482561&t=w)


A beautiful pic from the same location but taken way back in 1908, pre-Radio Row.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/10542?size=_original (http://www.shorpy.com/node/10542?size=_original)

Sam / KS2AM

Clicking the link gives this: "Page not found"

I modified the link.  The earlier one only seems to work if the image is in in already your browser cache.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/10542?size=_original (http://www.shorpy.com/node/10542?size=_original)

Great pictures....Thanks !!!!

http://nyc-architecture.com/GON/GON031.htm

It's been a while since this was listed.  Various photos from the mid 50's and earlie, from New York Architecture Images article.

A few years back on NPR there was a very interesting program about Radio Row, complete with interviews of some of the early store owners.
Wonderful story, saved the audio file somewhere, you might be able to find it on the web.
No photos, just radio audio, but very well done!

http://www.sonicmemorial.org/sonic/public/radiorow/radiorow.html

Hi Bruce, I posted a link to that radio row program in the other thread. Here it is.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3052004 (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3052004)

Thank you for the post

Those photos claiming to be 1960 or late 50's are actually very early 50's.

Carl

Thanks Mike, I had recorded that at one point, but after switching homes, computers, etc. I seemed to have lost it, thanks for the link!

Another Radio Row pic for September 11.

Opposite view of Cortlandt Street (looking west) with "Short Wave Radio" in the foreground and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Hudson River RR Pier Station in the background.
You can also get your car radio installed on the street at the place on the corner and get it stolen again on another NYC street.

(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/46/bc/f0/46bcf07b72fb300592a97d596b1c9afa.jpg)

Radio Row and the surrounding area that was razed to make way for the WTC.

(https://imgs.6sqft.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/21032408/Radio-Row-World-Trade-Center-NYC-7.jpg)

People would kill for that 32 Ford today :o

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/305495_250021538363549_104119396287098_828735_1845961_n.jpg

Shot from the platform of the 9th Avenue El at Cortlandt Street.  Perhaps the view that you would have had while waiting for your train after you had just picked up your brand spankin' new Hallicrafters S-20 "Champion of the Skies".

If you look real close in the following link you'll see a Bromo-Seltzer ad on the platform featuring what looks like a baseball player. But who is it ?

http://lh3.ggpht.com/-R5D5wT3RhQI/RhKq-hoWOqI/AAAAAAAAANo/KbpkVXyPV5U/ph10016.jpg (http://lh3.ggpht.com/-R5D5wT3RhQI/RhKq-hoWOqI/AAAAAAAAANo/KbpkVXyPV5U/ph10016.jpg)

(http://lh3.ggpht.com/-R5D5wT3RhQI/RhKq-hoWOqI/AAAAAAAAANo/KbpkVXyPV5U/ph10016.jpg)

Joe McCarthy, the Yankees manager who did Bromo ads in 1938

http://www.amazon.com/McCarthy-Yankees-Bromo-Seltzer-Advertisement-Bulletin/dp/B001HY4UYK

Reportedly, a  lot of the store owners simply padlocked their shops and accepted the Port Authority's measly compensation, before the building was bulldozed down, contents and all. A well-known ham who occasionally frequents this board once told me he and some friends sneaked in at night and broke into one of the padlocked stores and pulled out some transmitting tubes just before the building was to be demolished.

Of course, some jobsworth types (who also frequent this board) would whine that the owners were merely exercising their legal rights in leaving the stuff to be destroyed, and that the AMers who grabbed the tubes ahead of the bulldozers were guilty of theft.  ::)

Thanks. I scanned several Life magazine issues from the 30's .. (there were lots of well known people that did Bromo-Seltzer ads) hoping to find the same ad photo as on the train platform. I saw the Joe McCarthy ad in Life but the face didn't look like the face in the train platform ad ... but then again its hard to tell.

"Boston Tea Party Fought Taxation Against Representation. We Fight Port Authority Against Condemdation Without Compensation"!


Protesters in front of Oscar's at 176 Greenwich.

(https://tribecacitizen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Shop-owners-protesting-the-proposed-demolition-of-Radio-Row-July-13-1962-Getty-Bettleman.jpg)

 
Its him. Use a graphics program to partially rotate and fill in.

As a kid before and after getting a ham ticket I rode every line in the NYC system many times just for enjoyment, the EL's where my favorites and the open platform wooden cars of the Myrtle Ave line was my #1 favorite.

You had to live in the NYC area of those days to appreciate the massive elevated network. The photos in the link belw really bring back the memories.

http://www.nycsubway.org/articles/theymovedthemillions1.html

Carl

I used to live in Manhattan but the elevated railway was long gone before my arrival.  I would have loved to have traveled through the city on the el.

Here's a short color film called "3rd Avenue El" here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEG4re43ub8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEG4re43ub8)

... and some other cool footage of the El's here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85SoH6cjiOc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85SoH6cjiOc)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtE2gC_fJ7Y (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtE2gC_fJ7Y)


Clip of the El from the 1949 film "Port of New York"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLM23mWRs8U (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLM23mWRs8U)

Oscar Nadel and wife in front of Oscar's Radio during the WTC protests on Radio Row.

(https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.coL-_UtHJxxeXOGX8m8TLwHaF0?pid=Api&rs=1)

I spent hours yesterday watching those El videos, didnt realize there were so many.

Radio Row aerial view then and "now".

1954 aerial (upper photo) vs 2009 aerial (lower photo) of the same area.

If you use the 2009 photo as a reference the new WTC construction area in the center shows you where Radio Row used to be in a low-rise neighborhood.
In the 1954 photo you see Hudson (North) river Piers 1 thorugh 21. These were replaced with landfill to support the World Finanacial Center / Battery Park City.    

Time marches on.

http://www.alamy.com/thumbs/6/%7B19E3B7EE-9238-4174-AACE-3EA3C0401FB5%7D/C49K3M.jpg (http://www.alamy.com/thumbs/6/%7B19E3B7EE-9238-4174-AACE-3EA3C0401FB5%7D/C49K3M.jpg)


(http://www.alamy.com/thumbs/6/%7B19E3B7EE-9238-4174-AACE-3EA3C0401FB5%7D/C49K3M.jpg)

And most of it used to be under water. It's reclaimed land previously in the Hudson river.

Various references list the source of the Battery Park City / WFC landfill as the material excavated from the World Trade Center construction, other construction projects, sand dredged from NY harbor off Staten Island, garbage, dirt, debris.  

Newly created Battery Park City / WFC site with West Side Highway and WTC in the background:

(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4465/38033412322_69976286f5_z.jpg)

The "beach" at Battery Park City.

(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2011/09/04/sunday-review/04ZARINSUB/04ZARINSUB-popup.jpg)

Hi Sam,

Cool pic, I like Tampa's Beeches women all look the same though...LOL :D


73
Jack
KA3ZLR

The Bull on Wall Street.

(http://getfreshdaily.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54f900c3888330120a56fdc32970b-800wi)

(http://sammyandthecity.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Bull-on-Wall-Street-e1314291607324.jpg)

Merchant peddling his wares at the corner of Cortlandt and Washington.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/147/384712434_912701051a_z.jpg (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/147/384712434_912701051a_z.jpg)

(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/147/384712434_912701051a_z.jpg)

Anyone remember Arrow ?

Interior of Arrow Electronics at 82 Cortlandt Street:

Hi Sam

You find good Pics man  :)

73
Jack
KA3ZLR

Of course, it was a regular place to visit for good prices on bit pieces new stuff. I followed them to Mineola and then they grew huge as a major catalog distributor and are still at it.
I still have Ameco VHF converters I got at the used equipment counter on LI.

Standing in front of Morel's at 185 Washington listening for news on the JFK assassination.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Crowds_listening_for_news_on_Kennedy_NYWTS.jpg (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Crowds_listening_for_news_on_Kennedy_NYWTS.jpg)


(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0b/Crowds_listening_for_news_on_Kennedy_NYWTS.jpg/461px-Crowds_listening_for_news_on_Kennedy_NYWTS.jpg)

I was standing on the 3rd floor fire escape having a cigarette (finally quit for good in 85) at the Malden National plant on break when the announcement was made.

Emotions varied from crying to cheering.

Radio Row leveled, WTC excavation starts.

Looking north with the West Side highway on the left.

(https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ILS-CSLUmZI/V6yK3EQnRuI/AAAAAAAACpA/AQjKrXxjsqc0JCNQihckTpAvY2BiuL6sgCLcB/s1600/WTC%2BRadio%2BRow.jpg)

Great thread Sam.  Enjoy seeing the pics.  Hope more turn up.  I can remember being in some of the shops back in the mid 60's.  Tons of stuff.  Figured one could always come back anytime and pick up some goodies.   Who knew that in a few short years it would all be gone.

The irony is that in just a short 30 years the WTC would be gone.  Strange

Radio Row area in the 60's as viewed from the Hudson River.   Its the group of low-rise buildings in the middle of the pic with the West Side highway cutting in front of it.

Also of note is the Singer building, the domed skyscraper to the right of center.  It was the tallest building in the world for about a year after its completion in 1908.  It was demolished in 1967.

To the left of center is the Woolworth building. Tallest bulding in the world from 1913 to 1930.  Its still there.


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3239/2927900056_0a19fe5b22_o.jpg (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3239/2927900056_0a19fe5b22_o.jpg)

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3239/2927900056_0a19fe5b22_o.jpg)

IIRC, wasn't NYC refered to as "Radio City" in the past.

Kool pics and histories! ! ! But very sad as another big chunk of history dissapears into the memories of those who were there.

How many of us now would cut off the left one to be able to go shopping in those stores! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !     



 

Nope, youre thinking of the Radio City Music Hall which refers to RCA being the buildings original tenant.

All well and good, but how did it get the "Radio City" name.  ???
Or was that just something that Sarnoff dreamed up??

Easy to find, go here: http://www.radiocity.com/about/history.html

I cant even begin to list the number of times Ive been there from the late 40's with my parents to the 70's with friends (male and female), and both wives ::)

Carl

Another shot of Radio Row from the Hudson river.

The Radio Row / WTC area is on the extreme left.  Cortlandt Street is the first street on the left.

A nice view of the ferry, railroad and other piers that were replaced by Battery Park City.

http://www.radiodiaries.org/radio-row/ (http://www.radiodiaries.org/radio-row/)

A couple more great links on that page including a podcast with interviews and a 1929 Fox Movietone film of Cortlandt Street! :

https://vimeo.com/109197452 (https://vimeo.com/109197452)

Sam,  thanks for posting the video.  Really cool seeing all the radio stores.  Interestingly the business that I bought back in 1969 originally started in NYC in 1921.  It was called Village Radio.  Let me know if you even find any info about it or maybe any pictures.

Fred

Great stuff.  Remember going to G&G Radio down there around 1968.  In 1971, I had a summer job working for Raway Bearing, when they were relocating from down on or near Radio Row to Monsey, NY.  Boy did they have a lot of stuff, from tiny precision bearings that they kept in a safe, to crates and crates of B-29 landing gear wheel bearings.  I was always on the receiving end of stuff coming up from the city.  Usually it came by truck, but I remember on at least one afternoon, one of the owners pulled up in his 65 TBird loaded out with bearings to the point that the rear bumper was almost dragging on the road, a la Timmy heading home from Hosstraders in the Pinto Valdeez.

My only memory of Radio Row was a great disappointment in the late '60s. I grew up around radio. My dad started out as a hobbyist as a kid, went on to be a Signal Corps radioman in WW2 and then had a career with Allen B. Dumont Labs. Dad grew up in Hoboken and used to frequent Radio Row before and after the war. He decided to take me there just before I got my ham ticket. After hearing about what a wonderland the place was, you can imagine my disappointment on that Saturday morning when we drove to Cortlandt Street only to find a huge crater where Radio Row was!

Several friends and myself  took our General test at the Federal Building on Washington St., which was adjacent to Radio Row. We spent the rest of the day wandering the Radio Row stores. Sidewalks in front of some of the stores was stacked with surplus stuff. Came home with a bunch of stuff.  There was also a smaller collection of radio surplus-type stores that appeared on Canal St., which was North of Radio Row. By the late 60's/early 70's, most of them were gone too. Obviously, if you built a lot of stuff, which a lot of amateurs did back in the day, these places were a great place to go to find the stuff you needed.

First time in NYC. My dad had a meeting in NYC in 1973 and we drove down and I was probably 16 because he let me drive down 89. Anyway he let me loose in Manhattan (pretty stupid actually on his part) and I found what was left of Radio Row reduced to just a couple of shops with some surplus leftovers like radio control panels from avionics sets and some electronics. Later that afternoon we met up and he asked me if I wanted to go up the Empire State Building. I said nope I want to go up the world trade, so we flew up Tower A on the fastest elevator I have ever been on. Then right in the middle of Times Square we saw Midway the movie in SENSURROUND!

As far as I know the only remaining piece of Radio Row is Leeds Radio. For some time the infamous subway gunman, Bernie Goetz, worked there calibrating test equipment. It looks like they may still be in business, and selling on line. I included a few links
http://leedsradio.com/

Leeds Radio on Etsy
https://www.etsy.com/shop/LeedsRadio

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/nyregion/leeds-radio-is-a-haven-for-lovers-of-all-things-analog.html

BTW, www.shorpy.com has a lot of photos of Radio Row, just do some searches!

There was a place on Canal Street called "Sylvan" that sold parts well into the 90's but I think they are gone now.

There's another place on Canal pictured below that is still there but most everything I saw during my last visit looked like a bad hamfest,

(http://68.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6ssuqNRBT1qgbld8.jpg)

Wish that confiscation of history had never happened.  What a travesty.

I received my first lesson in buying surplus parts over in Radio Row in the late sixties.

To me, it looked like every store had pretty much the same thing? I never asked about any thing that may have been in a back room as far as goodies go? I should have!

Back to the lesson I learned.  I needed a squirrel cage blower and I found one for cheap. They had piles of them so I went through the lot and picked out one that looked like NOS and brought it home, plugged it it and it would not turn even though you could spin it by hand and it would also get very hot after just a few minutes. So this time I carefully read the label and it turns out that the motor was designed for 400 cps. 400 cps motors do not like 60 cps! Maybe there was a way to run it on 60 cps but in those days an inverter was usually a dynamotor and would be way over the top to use.  Nowadays I read the labels and won't buy anything without one.

Film of Cortlandt Street, Radio Row, 1929.

9th Avenue El in the background.


https://player.vimeo.com/video/109197452 (https://player.vimeo.com/video/109197452)

Neat...... Radios, automobiles and horse drawn wagons!

Bought my first piece of mil surplus electronics at G&G Radio diwn there in 1967. A little AN/AIC-2 aircraft interphone about the same size a a command set receiver, complete with dynamotor.  My first, but certainly not last...

Peering down Cortlandt Street at night

(https://th.bing.com/th/id/Rd86cd16a506898795b750bbe5dfb5a08?rik=%2f3QIixcuvq8RUA&riu=http%3a%2f%2fi.kinja-img.com%2fgawker-media%2fimage%2fupload%2fs--Ihw9S5n3--%2f771196733181326886.jpg&ehk=ID4dOgVmOaPsE%2fHCj7%2bnKNYHUwKb2KhS5wYE6IvxjMQ%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw)

DaVega City Radio and friends. Maybe 1930s.

(https://tribecacitizen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Men-gathered-along-Cortlandt-Street-Radio-Row-circa-1940.jpg)

Wading through Radio Row.

Flooding on West and Cortlandt Streets, brought by Hurricane Donna 1960

(https://66.media.tumblr.com/f7e55c3031589a1074ed8a7af92bd22a/tumblr_n3h4e3tw6w1r5568mo1_1280.jpg)

https://66.media.tumblr.com/f7e55c3031589a1074ed8a7af92bd22a/tumblr_n3h4e3tw6w1r5568mo1_1280.jpg

The man in the trench coat clearly ignored the warning sign to his right that the water was up to his nuts? He must be a NYC detective making his way through that water to get to the donuts shop?  The things that people do???

I don't know, maybe I just see things all wrong?

That it is a great picture! I didn't know the water got that high in lower NYC? I missed that action as I was in my first year of service in the US Army back then...

This guy is not thinking too clearly.  No World Financial Center landfill at that time means he's not far from the Hudson river after a hurricane so anything you can imagine could be lurking in that water including missing people.   Yeeech.

Maybe just one of those hams that saw this as a opportunity to negotiate a bargain on water-damaged radio gear ?  ;)

Roughly the same view today. WTC2 memorial pool under the trees and WTC4 in the background.  https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7113128,-74.0146053,3a,75y,87.44h,90.36t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6lSiwAFi99NzJIfdm2NpfQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 (https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7113128,-74.0146053,3a,75y,87.44h,90.36t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6lSiwAFi99NzJIfdm2NpfQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)

The sad part is that we all had a camera, and few of us took photos. Just imagine that 10-20 years from now someone will be reminiscing about Radio Shack stores. I vividly remember going to Cortland St with my uncle, going to G&G Radio which was run by Murray Baum and even the old Harrison Radio. G&G had new ART-13's, still crated! When we are gone, those memories go with us. Its too bad someone didn't write a book about the good old days on Radio Row!

An ebay seller has some color 8X10s of Radio Row circa mid-60s that I've never seen before.


https://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_ssn=bk.sales&_armrs=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=bk.sales+radio+row&_sacat=0 (https://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_ssn=bk.sales&_armrs=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=bk.sales+radio+row&_sacat=0)

Sale is now over...Was it this picture?

Its the 4 color pics in this link that I have not seen before.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_ssn=bk.sales&_armrs=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=bk.sales+radio+row&_sacat=0 (https://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_ssn=bk.sales&_armrs=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=bk.sales+radio+row&_sacat=0)

The Heins & Bolet pic shows up in most any Radio Row search,

Must have been a helluva drop off from there to the next block up; I can see the tires on the cars parked there. Incredible picture!

It looks like the sign painters, hat and suit salesmen did well there.

Harrison Radio early 1960's

(https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?attachments/harrison-radio-jpg.419234/)

On the right, under the sign, Gonset G50's?

Which picture are you referring too with the tires up high?

Thanks Terry

Unusual view of Radio Row's Cortlandt street around 1925.

Building on the upper right was the Singer building which existed from 1900-1968 and was the tallest building in the world from 1908-1909. 


(https://forgotten-ny.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/greenwich-cortlandt.jpg)

Took the liberty of a pass through GIMP image processing software...

I dunno Bear...

That white 4-wheel Hummer/SUV on the left proves time travel.  And the people seem to be ignoring it which proves an alien conspiracy.  And 15 years after that picture was taken transistors appeared. Very suspicious.

T

Maybe a little color? Bears rendition may look better than my hand painted colorizing of the photo. It took me about 1000 hours to color it. Now I can go back to bed!

I think I have that postcard. Terry, you sent it to me in the early '50's, remember?

I can not believe you remember the postcard! You were only ten years old at the time and I was 15. Do you remember 42nd. street back then? Pretty wild! Strange how we were both there without our parents?

Once again I wuz up all night with my crayolas colorizing this shot of Radio Row.

Fascinating stuff!  Beautiful colorized shot, Terry.

I find it amazing that in these NYC  1930's videos of hundreds of men wearing suits, ties and hats (like G men) I counted only six women and no kids at all. But it was a relatively safe place to be.

Men certainly ruled the whirl back then and had a keen interest in radio.  

Yep, I can remember riding the bus to Harford in 1961, walking the streets alone when I was only 11 years old and going thru the ham radio store.

Things can certainly change in 80 years. It's not that people's brains and urges have changed, rather, the culture has changed and is far more dangerous.  Why are so many people more violent and crazy and willing to act out their impulses?   I just dunno.  


T

https://vimeo.com/109197452    (Sam posted)

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/nyregion/leeds-radio-is-a-haven-for-lovers-of-all-things-analog.html

1935 radios are on sale.   Wonder if they have that newfangled Breting 12 ?

(https://www.psaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Radio-Row-2.jpg)


(https://www.radioblvd.com/hamgear/Breting12lateVerENHCD.jpg)

Wow! That's a beautiful radio.

Agree and Real Radio Men intuitively know what the knobs do without kiddie reminders.  ;D
 - The big one controls the Year.

I agree and that 12 on the dial face probably is for December of some year. The year indicator was probably in a small font as a marketing ploy!

Here's another pic from the corner of Cortlandt & West streets except we're looking south on West street instead of west on Cortlandt in the black and white pic. Also the street is not underwater so its safe to take a donut break from your radio shopping.
Interesting billboard for Delta flights on the short-lived Convair 880 jet which is supposedly still one of the fastest jet airliners ever produced.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhTcknU9-D8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhTcknU9-D8)

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7BMrtv5z6lw/XpGg-_GY_nI/AAAAAAACVJA/OaktVGi1HbUvBt_9NASoBK43X5esGJSxgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1960s-new-york-12.jpg)
(https://66.media.tumblr.com/f7e55c3031589a1074ed8a7af92bd22a/tumblr_n3h4e3tw6w1r5568mo1_1280.jpg)

More Radio Row flooding on Cortlandt street, November 25, 1950.

Click on the link below for lots of detail.  Are those loop antennas on top of the buildings at the right or something else?

https://vip.nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/07/flood.jpg?quality=90&strip=all (https://vip.nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/07/flood.jpg?quality=90&strip=all)
(https://vip.nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/07/flood.jpg?quality=90&strip=all)

There is another one of those loop things on the roof straight ahead in the photo.  Go to the Terminal Radio sign and then up from there.  I think Alford was running an FM station somewhere in the NYC area about that time.  Perhaps the avant guard radio shops had to have something on the roof to pull in the microvolts.

73 de Norm W1ITT

Interesting looking antennas. I have never seen something like this before.

Yeah, both buildings have the same loop but pointed 90 degrees or so in diff. directions.
Had to go to double mag. to see them clearly.  They both seem to have rotators too.  And both buildings have similar double dipoles, maybe two element yagis.

Neat detailed pix fer sure.

My guess is because it's 1950, some of the antennas are an effort to introduce ham radio to the public.  The WWII ban was lifted, the military surplus was hitting the market and the 11 year solar cycle had just peaked so that the higher bands were still hot.

Notice the antennas that look like aluminum tubing 5M/10/11M Yagis with rotators.   Yagis were invented in 1926.  

The wire loops could be for receiving, but could also be  for 10-20M as the equivalent of transmitting quad loops, I dunno.   Getting out with all those tall building must have been a bitch.

"Terminal Radio"  -  I don't think I'd leave my beloved radio there for repair.

The guy caught in the water - Nobody told him that ignition wiring and spark plugs don't like getting splashed on when doing a frantic dash across of the flooded Hudson River.   ;D

What I find interesting about cars of that era... If a car is 20 years old it looks like an antique. IE, compare a 1930 to a 1950 car and it is night and day. The difference between a 1950 and 1970 car was also dramatic.  But I have trouble seeing much difference between a 2000 and 2020 these days. Same with boats and airplanes. Must be technological saturation - point of diminishing returns when it comes to appearance.


* Is it my imagination or is that stuck car and the billboard above it the same year Packard car?   (Marketing nightmare)

T

Tom -JJ         Cars used to be designed by artists drawing on paper, then transferred to guys who carved clay and/or wood models.  And yes, they all wanted to have a signature vision of their Company's concept.  Now, cars seem to have been designed with software that simulates a wind tunnel environment so they can squeeze the last tenth of a mile-per-gallon to get their corporate average fuel numbers (CAFE) where they need to be to avoid government penalties.
When we were kids, one used to be able to see a car in peripheral vision and know what make it was.  Now they do all look the same, or nearly so.  But I don't know why so many of the rice box radios look so similar.  All the boat anchor ham rigs pretty much had their own certain style.  One didn't need to wear eyeglasses to know what they were from a distance.
73 de Norm W1ITT

You used to be able to read the make and model letters too, big chrome.   Today on a lot of cars one is hard-pressed to spot the make and model words                               

I doubt the antennas or anything else there was to introduce ham radio to the public. The only real ham store that I can remember from when I was there was Harrison Radio. The majority of the stores sold every conceivable type of radio and TV and radio/tv accessories that were on the market. Most of the stores had a large gaggle of military stuff inside and on the sidewalks and the majority of them also carried lots of parts inside and outside their store fronts. Bell Telephone Laboratories was at one end of radio row on West St. and many of the engineers would shop for work related projects and also home/experimentation type projects in those stores. Many of the shoppers were suit/tie men. Several large electronic related engineering and development organizations were also located within walking or subway distance of Radio Row.

Back when I started delivering newspapers, first in PA and then then in NJ, I remembered seeing these round types of antennas occasionally on rooftops but I don't remember which location. My PA location was all UHF for TV broadcasting. NJ was a combination of both. However, Hi-Fi sales and listening were also starting to make inroads with the public so it could also be a FM antenna. With the high buildings in that downtown NY location, signal ghosting probably was a high problem for both TV(VHF & UHF) and FM reception so rotators on buildings probably was the norm.

Somewhere I seem to remember seeing ads for this type of antenna but can't remember where. Maybe Radio & TV News magazine.

OR, maybe it was all a dream - when you get old sometimes you can't tell  :D

Bingo.

Looks like the "Welin Circle X" TV antenna on page 156 of the September 1949 Radio & Television News. That antenna was manufactured in your neighborhood.   :-)
If it "eliminates ghosts" as advertised it would have been a good choice to help sell TV sets to the growing NYC market.

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-News/40s/Radio-News-1949-09-R.pdf (https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-News/40s/Radio-News-1949-09-R.pdf)

Yay! They can't send me off to a home yet. I knew It was real because the people who had them talked to people flying over with the strange lights.

When I lived in Rahway, NJ, I use to drive my Mom to work several days a week to a shop on Market Street in Perth Amboy a few blocks down from where this place was located.

Anyway, need the design info to build one; here's the patent filing:
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/4a/ad/87/7298d393ff219a/US2665380.pdf

Damn! we're good  ;D

Great sleuthing gentlemen.  Makes you want to go back in time for all the fun.

Wow, from the looks of the patent, it could be variably impedance fed, elements rearranged, conical deepened in a myriad of ways.   All the guys in the area probably had favorite arrangements that they passed around for the regional channels and building impediments/ shadowing, ghosting, etc.

Love the emphasis on 3/4 and 1/2 wavelength lingo without one reference to calibrated gain vs. a simple on-freq. dipole or a two element yagi, etc.

Looks to me like a lot of magic and setting-up variations were tough for the first installer in an area.  The more successful and not necessarily in real performance but as sales pitch construction settings were then taken as gospel.

  

Hi All..great pics interesting storyline!..Tom JJ that car I believe is a '49 Buick stuck with the hood up..either a Roadmaster or a Super..next door neighbor had one growing up in So Portland..best feature is the 3 "portholes" in back of front wheels but they're not visible there..that same Packard was 4 or 5 houses down..we're talking 1959 Cycle 19..
                                 Gud job with this Sam!!  73 de DAVE WB1EAD

Another thing that jumps out is the $25 price tag.  I'm not sure if there was a legislated minimum wage back then, but one dollar an hour was not uncommon.  Twenty-five bucks would be three days wages for the regular working stiff..  Television was clearly not for the masses.
I too had to dig into the patent to see what magic would allow matching with 72, 150 and 300 ohms.  That seemed too good to be true, but they describe an adjustable stub, which is fine and dandy.

73 de Norm W1ITT

I think QIX owned a '58? Buick in the 70's that looked similar, but newer. It had the fake header ports on the side. I gave him a picture I took of him and the car.

A car like that '49 would have made a great hot rod with a built engine back in the 60's. We could not appreciate it then, but it looks so cool now.   409,000 made,  all steel at 3800 pounds.

I also like the look of a '50 Ford as a "racecar."

Imagine going back in time to Radio Row in the 20's > 60's and being able to walk around there for a day.

T

I love looking at the detail in old black and white pics of NYC.  I always think the same two things 1) I'd love to walk around there for a while  2) Those people are all dead.


Death Avenue (11th Avenue) NYC 1910.
https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/eleventh_ave.jpg (https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/eleventh_ave.jpg) (click on the pic when it opens for hi-res)

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZEA0JLSPXPU/U01VM5vfxSI/AAAAAAAAAlM/N5Tfo4NAtkk/s1600/1930s.jpg)

Right click over image - CLICK Open image in new tab

(https://www.junipergallery.com/sites/default/files/styles/jumbo/public/02882u1.jpg)

Those are two different images. The https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/eleventh_ave.jpg (https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/eleventh_ave.jpg) link is 5341 x 3705 pixels with lots of detail.  The other one is relatively low-res.

For whatever reason that link does not work until you have opened it the original page:

https://www.shorpy.com/node/1782 (https://www.shorpy.com/node/1782)
https://www.shorpy.com/node/1789 (https://www.shorpy.com/node/1789)

I get a 403 not found on that link. Pete on your copy, it is plainly seen, horse exhaust on the street.The guy in the white work clothes is scooping horse exhaust to put in the cart.With thousands of horses on the street in those days, it must have been a real problem? The horse exhaust products were probably just thrown into the Hudson or East Rivers.

I also found it interesting that there is a freight train however small, right in the middle of the city? It's also a steam engine, I just noticed that. I wuz looking for overhead wires to power it.  It must have been late in the day with those long shadows and perhaps late summer?

I once again took out my crayolas and colorized this picture.  

That horse-drawn wagon needs to get out of the way of the tram engine coming up.

OK. I've had a similar issues displaying images from this site when you have not loaded the images from the original post - strange. Anyways this should make thing clear...

This is from a two-part "Death Avenue" post from shorpy.com. Be forewarned, you may spend endless hours here looking at some of these images.

There are explanations here of the trains and the other stuff that your seeing in this pic.  Some discrepancies on whether this is 1910 or 1911, or 10th Ave or 11th Ave

https://www.shorpy.com/node/1782 (https://www.shorpy.com/node/1782)
https://www.shorpy.com/node/1789 (https://www.shorpy.com/node/1789)

You should be able to open the very high-res versions of these images from these pages.  Good luck and don't forget to come up for air.

Extra points for finding out "Who is Shorpy?"

Yes those are some good pictures & resolution. I guess considering the era, I should have known that cobble stones would be in use but it looked more like dirt in earlier posts! Thanks again.......

The site is named after Shorpy Higginbothem, a teen-aged coal miner who lived 100 years ago.

1908

Always looming over Radio Row was the Singer building which was the tallest building on earth from 1908-1909. It was demolished around 1968 making it also the tallest building ever to be demolished at that time.

If you're interested in skyscrapers you might want to check out this beautifully illustrated book on the construction of the Singer building. There is enough info here to build your own. :-)  https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=gri.ark:/13960/t3sv0525r&view=1up&seq=5 (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=gri.ark:/13960/t3sv0525r&view=1up&seq=5)  

The book has a great tip on how to fix a building foundation that's not deep enough.  

(https://i.pinimg.com/736x/93/d8/42/93d842b7334d76febb2703bf7b8a240b.jpg)

Hey kid, yeah you.  I got a radio that will make you the biggest strapper on any band.  No money down.  Doesn't hurt to look. C'mon in sport.

(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d5/4f/2c/d54f2c957af5cec2983151c613875e47.jpg)

 ^^^

ahh those seem to be far better more civilzed days, though life was not so easy or safe.

Like the bin full of tubes in the front window. Going to assume that they are bad tubes but looking at them see what appears to be a scoop in the top of the bin. Perhaps Blan was selling radio tubes in bulk? Something like a scoop full of 01A for a buck?

Hi All..love seeing these pics Sam..in the Blan Radio Man pic is that a young Edward G Robinson on the left going in for an audition for another "gangsta" movie.?.maybe that's an acting academy next door..what is Blan holding.?.perhaps a defunct chunk of hook up wire.?.yes that stash of tubes is most interesting because of the scoop..
                    TNX again for the pics Sam and the rest of the guys with theirs..73 de DAVE WB1EAD

Edward G. may be a graduate of the Billiards "Academy" upstairs.  C'mon up kid, I'm not very good at the game with my bum leg and all, but I'll spot you a couple of balls, maybe a friendly wager to make it interesting ?

BLAN was still around when I was a young teen going down to Canal Street, iirc.

Obviously not in the original location.

Yeah.  No twin towers even in the imagination.
I've never seen them in person.  They weren't there the last time I was in the city in the late fifties / early sixties, and intending to go back some day - now will never be.

But oh the memories.  I bought a telescope in radio row for $50, my whole trip allotment.
Had to borrow stay-on money from sisters.  Both lived in the village, oldest one a public RN for the city, youngest worked for Atlantic Mutual Life.    Best man to be lived in Jackson Heights and commuted into Brooks Brothers where he was in
"samples hats and shoes."   BMOC fer sure. I was impressed.  We'd get up in the morning and his girlfriend Aggie Bighter (I kid you not) would shove an orange juice and gin into your hand and say 'good morning.'  

- yeah,  Several trips to NYC in those days, felt like a native.
First trip was HS teacher sponsored for a long weekend including all the tours, Empire State bldg., bowery, statue of liberty, show and Jack Silverman's night club where we were all assumed to be 18 and bought real drinks.  Still have the group photo.
Later trips including younger sister's wedding, some a lot more serious. ..first love stuff..

But life moved on.

nuf of that,- bore you to death.  I sure like the pictures and sites that you guys have put up.  It'd kill me to have to look at same city area in the '60's.  - "you can't go back."

A bit off topic, but the Shorpy site has some great photos of the Atwater Kent factory outside Philadelphia. I’ve downloaded and printer several. You can even do a search for your city or state and discover some incredible photos.

Wouldn’t it be cool to picture yourself driving in midtown Manhattan on your way down to “Arrow” for some 40’s ham gear?

Maybe you can:

https://youtu.be/yHe_d2hUVnA

Thanks Jeff. Lots of jaywalkers, no painted crosswalks, must have been a lot of pedestrian hits. NO MOBILE ANTENNAS SEEN!

Enough of the rosy picture already! No TV, No Internet, Air Conditioning was almost unheard of and minimum wage was like forty cents an hour for the entire decade.
I was to Canal street or what ever “radio row” or what it was called back in the late seventies and all I remember was a lot of over priced stores selling junk like consumer radios that were returns.
If we are all going to go down memory lane let do it with something that’s way better like talking about how wonderful the old Hara complex was at Dayton.
But wait, I think I trashed the Hara arena in another thread with the Great 2011 septic Eruption.
I know it often appears that maybe I am off my meds, but somehow think its too easy to think things were so good in the past and somehow forget that things are not all that bad today. After all with modern Mosfets and technology we can build a two-thousand-watt transmitter that you can carry on your back. Try that back in 1948

Dayton in 2011

Radio Row in NYC was really only the area of the current WTC and existed from the 1920's to the 1960s.  After they were expropriated, the stores that decided to stay in business scattered to different areas that are not "Radio Row". Canal Street is many blocks away from the WTC area and as for a major radio presence, as someone once said "Forget it Jake, its Chinatown"  

Some street maps of the Radio Row area before and after:

(https://stevenjohnson.com/radiorow/pics/rr-wtc-map.gif)

(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R89050c15d8dad7e5bc781cb703a7e17e?rik=mYmPfNVy7ozqtQ&riu=http%3a%2f%2fwww.antiqueradio.com%2fimages%2fcortlandtf1.jpg&ehk=amTuG6CUs8CZgxMeOHcFelJKtETToKEFbIvlpGmIw30%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw)

(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R5df633c87bba127d43eee6372930f220?rik=qdPtBn%2bbXmtprg&riu=http%3a%2f%2f2.bp.blogspot.com%2f-s9iA96Cpau4%2fTpM90H59vRI%2fAAAAAAAAMyw%2fLqemtQ_zyVo%2fs640%2fradio%2brow%2b01.JPG&ehk=WeuZdTXqZ71L3IDfEVBXsavLZ8wxLfMIqTPLSfxE8R8%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw)

You missed it.
Ur too young.
Which is good for you, since you still get to live a bit... probably.

Canal Street and surrounding area had a few of the remaining surplus places, by the
mid 70's the supplies had run out...in the late 60's it was still really good for buying electronics "stuff".

                 _-_-bear

Source for that date vs. aerial map??

                     _-_-bear

Well it's just my opinion that some of the best radio row days were just after WW2 with all the military surplus that probably was sold there. I don't know if in fact that WW2 stuff was sold there but it was sold everywhere else? I remember a bunch of large stores selling surplus stuff on RT 22 in NJ near Kenelworth probably as a result of radio row being run out of the area they occupied. That was in the early seventies.

Before WW2 it was probably a large outlet for  home radios and later TV sets.

Maybe I should stop guessing at what was there and read some history on the subject?

That's a link to a pic on some website.  Dont know where they got it from but I suspect it was here.  https://maps.nyc.gov/then&now/ (https://maps.nyc.gov/then&now/)

Looks like I am just a angry young (Old) man. Its always about being at the right place at the right time, just like back in the eighties at the old Gaithersburg Ham Fest the year someone was selling a truck load of military KWM-2A transceivers for $200 each or times at Dayton when someone just opens up and is selling at a great price and all the usual Hacks that hound you when your setting up to sell and try to get stuff cheap are elsewhere. Always somehow get the most bargains at fest, but did score a 75A4 for $75.00 back around 79 at a Ham Radio store being nobody wanted that sort of stuff back then.
Its just that I remember being told all the stories of how great the stores up in NYC were and the couple times I was up in the city the reality never matched the hype, but as you say I must have missed the boat.

Very cool video, Jeff!  Amazing sample of what it was like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHe_d2hUVnA

At  1:56 see the policeman standing on the white line in the center of the busy street. Cars keep crossing over the line like drunks. These guys were erratic drivers back then.  Question:  How could that cop possibly stand there for hours at a time and not get hit?  He doesn't even have on any florescent orange clothing.


Here is a video taken from the streets of Bangladesh.   There are about 300 pedestrians, bicycle riders and motorbike riders hit and injured by vehicles every day in Bangladesh. The hospitals are filled with them.   People sure put little value on what will happen to your life style after getting rammed by a 3000 pound death trap driven by a human.  (Plug for Tesla auto-drive)


Wanna see a real demolition derby?   How fortunate we are here in the USA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnYsa_c4GxU

T

The person or people that make these videos do a great job sharpening and stabilizing the image but I could do without the fake colorization and audio.  After you've seen a couple of these the colors just look bizarre and the audio is predictable, "hey, there goes a horse <clippety-clop> <clippety-clop>" , "hey, look out for that car <honk> <honk>"  .

The original is here https://archive.org/details/IA35000011001_201710 (https://archive.org/details/IA35000011001_201710)

There's another jazzed up one here from 1911 that's very cool and the closest we'll ever get to time travel I suppose https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ1OgQL9_Cw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ1OgQL9_Cw)

In and around Bayonne, NJ and Jersey City, NJ there were several military storage warehouses and armories in the 50's and early 60's.

When I was a Junior/Senior(?) in high school, our Physics instructor was invited to attend an open house, "free-take what you want" at one of these places. He gathered up several of us, rented a panel truck (definitely wasn't big enough) and off we went  for a day of grab, drag, and stuff in the truck. The place was jammed with pickers from many schools. I remember on one table there were several large cartons full of rotary switches. People were sort of picking handfuls of switches. I muscled my way to the table, lifted one of the boxes full of switches with both arms and walked off to the staging area where each school's stuff was being gathered.

So it went from roughly 9AM to roughly 3 in the afternoon.
We loaded the panel truck with several rack panels full of equipment, some radar piece of equipment (less the antenna), bunch of test equipment, some non-descriptive pieces of equipment, and numerous cartons full of brand new parts.

We actually had trouble getting everyone back in the panel truck. I believe at least two of them had to sit on the equipment. I remember my instructor saying that he was told that there was a lot of under the table movement of stuff from these places to stores in Radio Row which was a NO-NO. That's why they started the free offers to schools.

Don't know what happened to all of that stuff after I graduated. Haven't been back to the building since then.

I shopped and wandered Radio Row and Hamvention. Both places had their unusual smells, unusual vendors, and even stranger wandering shoppers. Personally, today, I don't miss either place.

early August '77 I went looking for Radio Row, I was thirteen and nobody had told me the WTC had wiped it out. I found a store and bought parts for the xmtr on page 172 of the 1975 ARRL handbook given to me the year before by the radio op on my dad's ship.

A week or so later Elvis died and it took me some time to recover from that loss.

I’m just returning from Orlando, and decided this trip to visit Skycraft Surplus. Its two blocks off of I4 in Orlando. It’s not Radio Row, but I was amazed at how much they have to offer. Items are sorted aisle by aisle, with tens of thousands of parts, and items to choose from. The aisle with meters had probably two hundred different styles and sizes. A huge wire and cable area and just about anything you could want. I went in with a large shopping list and got everything I was looking for.Prices we’re very reasonable. Spoke to the owner who told me that their web site only has a small portion of what he’s has in inventory.E mail them and they will get back to you. I may have found my new one stop shopping source.

Nice radio broadcast about the history of Radio Row with 1960s interviews with the original owners including Blan ( you know, the Radio Man ).

Some real old-time New York accents here.

https://knickerbockervillage.blogspot.com/2007/12/radio-row.html (https://knickerbockervillage.blogspot.com/2007/12/radio-row.html)