On this page, those articles about radio that can be called “General Interest,” that is, those with technical/historic topics that don’t fit into other traditional categories:
Norm Berge, CHRS Founder Norm, and several others founded the California Historical Radio Society as a non-profit corporation in 1974. In honoring Norman Berge I want to thank him for his service in the Air Force, supportive of Bay Area radio personalities, and his passions of collecting radios, photos, signs and stories. CHRS was founded by Norm and three others. I can remember a group that included Norm, Jim Cirner, Dave Brodie, Bob Middleton, Gene Rippen, Larry LaDuc, Peter Brickey and myself (Ken Miller). Bob Middleton dropped out early on (because of health issues, I believe), and I kind of took his place. Norm was a dynamo that made it all happen, but Jim Cirner was just as much a vital and key player. Gene Rippen did all the legal work to legitimize the organization.” From Jonathan Winchell.
A Little History of Radio by Mike Gianunzio Now, a radio repair story by Stanley Pitman: He has written a very interesting and technically accurate article about radio and radio servicing over many decades. Radio servicemen were the home heroes every time they fixed a set. Families wanted radio by 1923 as much as other household necessities, even bread and beer. As miraculous as it was, radio entered the home to great fanfare but nonetheless needed maintenance. Hence the repair business could flourish and Stanley Pitman grew up with it and its changing technologies, starting with crystal sets and then amateur radio. With what he knew he went to work in the repair business in 1955, and tells that story, including the era of car radios as well as home radios, and TV, and the new-fangled transistors. He moved on to a distinguished career in the military-industrial complex, but every reader will appreciate his love of the radio technology he grew up with and worked with for years. (de Bart Lee, K6VK)
The Making of a Radio Repairman, 1950 ‐ 1960 by Stanley Pitman