Hullo My name is Hamish and I live in rural NSW. Always liked collecting and have collected vintage clocks over the years via e-bay, most of my collection has come from the states and have mananged to get previously hard to get models like an air clock( yes works on air pressure to wind it up!) and 1870 calender clock that even allows for leap years( must have been a buzz back in 1870!) Have always liked vintage radios and got my parents thorn(first of the transistor models) a while ago. Since then have bought a couple of AWA radios with a clock in them as well. These are near prefect condition , clock goes so does alarm, as often the case is the radio goes but clock is stuffed. Started searching the net on vintage radios and fell in love with the awa radiolette empire ones....Came across a picture of the first tombstone AWA with walnut wood(I think) Does any one have one of these or are they museum pieces now? Found more on the empire models and Had to have one! managed to get one on e-bay for a resonable price ( Ihope anyway) This looks like a life time of love for old radios!!

The Radiolette you speak of is the model R27 of 1934. I have one that is in the middle of being refurbished as the speaker grille is quite worn. An article on its restoration will feature on the next version of this website due in the second half of the year.

There were two versions of this model, the first sharing the same size speaker as the later bakelite Empire States and a taller model with a 150mm speaker. Both are considered rare, though the larger model more-so than the smaller one.

Hi Brad question for u not sure if youe e-mail is working!!