I cant put a finger on it really but when I was driving to work tonight I had the pleasure of listening to 2CA which plays the classics . Of all things I was listening to at that moment it was Wolf Man Jack. Omg if only my kids could get get the sort of enjoyment out of their music as we did. Maybe they do?. . So what is it guys that gets your enjoyment levels up with these old radios ?. It to me is just a perfect mix of ingredients.

I just like seeing old things continue to do their jobs, especially when it is decades after they were supposed to be defunct, obsolete or just simply no longer operable. Also, when I started collecting more than 25 years ago it wasn't an issue but today I'd add using Australian manufactured goods to the list as future generations of people will not get that opportunity.

As for collecting itself, I've always leaned towards collecting radios I like looking at rather than simply trying to build a collection that is overwhelmingly large.

For me, it's purely nostalgia.

The sets in my own small collection are those models that I grew up with in my family and extended family. The only models missing are a Kriesler portable stereogram, and a large 1920s console radiogram (whose brand I cannot recall) -- if I did come across one I'd consider it for my daily radio in the workshop, as it's far too big for the house..

I do have a Little General in the workshop that needs recapping and some TLC on the leatherette cabinet. I got that because it's sort of an iconic kit radio of its day.

I also own two Hammond organs and Leslie speaker (all valve models).

Add to that a stack of tube-based American bakelite office intercoms.

And I do have a two valve mini transmitter, built from a modern kit.

As with any valve gear I own, it has to work (or be repairable) or I don't consider it a useful acquisition.

As for Wolfman Jack, I like to spin up my DVD of American Graffiti at least once a year.

This discussion reminds me ... back in the 1908s I was in Melbourne on business and the small group I was with grabbed a cab between meetings. The cabbie's radio was playing what struck me as a recorded American Top 40 radio program from the 1950s or early 1960s, with back announcements and all. I dearly wanted to ask the cabbie what he was listening to but my boss kept rabbiting on about business and I never got the chance. I've wondered about that radio program ever since. It wasn't Casey Kasem's American Top 40, unless he did a retrospective on 50s music.

I think Tallar is responding to the particular sound that the valve radios of the 50s-60s produced. The speakers were generally fairly small and with limited travel compared to modern rubber-flanged types. The amps were not high-powered - I remember when the Beatles toured here people were amazed that the amps they used on stage were a whole 30 watts! And no giant PA stacks either.

The recording engineers generally compressed both the frequency range and the dynamic range so that everything from the acoustic slap bass to the high-hat could be heard. It led to a concentration in the mid-ranges that is easy on the ear, especially when listening in a car with very high ambient noise around you. Most popular music today is, to my taste, over-produced and over-distorted in various ways. It's gratifying to play the old tracks and notice what great rhythm, harmony and feeling the good artists could produce, without losing touch with the human quality. Of course, some of them were also derivative rubbish, but as teenagers who were we to know that!

Maven

Its actually a bit of a phenomenen . the classic stations arent actually there to just let us reminisce . it was realised years ago that the baby boomers were going to be the generation with a bit of cash to spend . This is one of the main reasons why the stations that play the classics do so well . pander to the baby boomers and they get the advertising dollars for the products of interest for that group. have any of you noticed that APIA now advertises a fair bit on these stations lol.. hey I really get a lot of enjoyment out of listening to 2ca in canberra . it really packs the classics in.

My musical tastes are of cause around the 70s and 80s with a lot of 60s thrown in. OH and GTC I think the programme you were listening to in that melbourne cab would have been a replay of Casey Kasems earlier top 40s as I think he actually went back a long way. I used to enjoy listening to his top 40 in the early 70s in tamworth. because it was the only modern music you had the opportunity to listen to in the COUNTRY MUSIC CAPITAL at that time. 5 days a week we had Hoe Down and on sundays we had Country music Roundup . Not much to choose from so old Casey Kasems top 40 was listened to from go to whoa every saturday night.. And that is the reason why I first started to love Valve radios as they were the only ones that had the pulling power to get anything else other than 2TM. you know what after I was given a choice of what to listen to I actually started enjoying Country music as well.

GTC I think the programme you were listening to in that melbourne cab would have been a replay of Casey Kasems earlier top 40s as I think he actually went back a long way.

From what I read, the program called American Top 40 commenced in July 1970. The songs being played in that cab were definitely late 50s/early 60s. That's what has me puzzled.

On further searching I note that Kasem made numerous specials including "The 40 Rock and Roll Acts Of the 1950s", so perhaps that's what was being played in that cab.

Tallar Carl. Tamworth boy eh! If I look out my front door I see the 2TM tower, less than a km away. Ive just moved here recently and suspect when I get the workshop setup I will be building a wave trap.

Ben

I lived in Tamworth for a few years. During that time Hoedown became Country Music Radio, shortened to "CMR" by Nick Erby, the announcer. CMR shifted to a website in recent years. 2TM, along with a host of other stations is now owned by 2SM's parent company.

As a kid I remember Casey Kasem on 2UW with the American Top 40. A few of his common sayings included "from coast to coast" and "as we count down to the number one in the nation".

Country music is not really the same as it once was. It is more like country rock now. Proper Australian country music includes bush ballads like the one I linked to in another thread recently, The Diamantina Drover, for example.

I'll give a bonus 30% to any Australian country singer who can sing with a genuine Australian accent. It makes me cringe to hear perfectly decent and patriotic Australians who suddenly start yowling like a Tennessee coyote when they sing. And the same goes for "folkies" who sing with fake provincial English or Irish accents. Do they think you have to be foreign to be good, just because "that's what it sounds like on the radio"? We are proud of our country, so let's have some country pride.

Maven

Hey GTC Have a look at this I just ggogled Casey Kasem podcast and this is what I came up with there is heaps.

American Top 40 with Casey Kasem

old radio shows from the 1970s and 1980s last update: March 22, 2015 (no further updates planned!) free download:

new: Listen to a rare, very early Casey Kasem recording on KRLA, Pasadena, CA from May 27, 1965 (MP3-file, 192 kBit/s mono - 87,080 KB / 1 h 2 min) with commercials - most of them done by Casey himself!

Listen to a rare, very early Casey Kasem recording on KRLA, Pasadena, CA from May 27, 1965

Many thanks. That's not unlike what I heard, but there weren't so many ads. It was more a countdown program I guess.

Nonetheless, it's very interesting indeed on a number of fronts: the impact of the British invasion of the USA music scene headed by the Beatles; black rights racial violence; not to mention the price of cigarettes in Texas being newsworthy.

My favourite was always Chuck Chunder and the space patrol staring [snip] etc & the monster from the [snip] - of to distant planets with [snip] - giving the pilot [snip] all the way ! now that's class! good radio programme.

Par the course, the pollie correct along with the Dudley Do rights and other do gooders ---- canned it !

God forbid )))) can't have enjoyment lol

Steve: Please keep it G-rated.

For me it can't be nostalgia because I wasn't born
Nostalgia, it usually is with regard to vintage computers
and other items that do remind me of my childhood,
and early adulthood.

Valve gear, I think it started with fascination of the principle
being an electronics hobbyist from childhood...
Then I hear you can pass current through space
in the absence of atmosphere, and in presence of heat.
It all still looks and sounds a bit magical to me!