A selection of the radios on display in the Vintage Radio Museum. Photos / Paul Brooks
Not so very long ago, an evening of family entertainment consisted of everyone gathering in the sitting room, listening to the radio - commonly called "the wireless".
News, entertainment, information — it all emanated from the speaker attached to the technology of the time. The radio was a piece of furniture and a valuable connection to the world. All stations were AM, the dial had a soft, warm, amber glow, and the valves in the back could heat the room.
Graham and Val Hawtree have turned their fond memories of the wireless into years of collecting and, ultimately, a museum of vintage radios.
In a purpose-built room lined with shelves, upright shelves through the centre, display cases and lighting to cover the whole area, they have displayed about 500 valve and battery radios dating from 1918 through to about 1950. Among them are many very special wireless sets, each with a story.
First sight of the museum took this reporter's breath away! And what's on display is by no means all of the collection, giving Graham and Val room to rotate parts of the display and keep things fresh. Mind you, with the age of the objects in question, this is not the sort of place where you ask, "What's new?"
Most are in working condition, restored and presented at their best. I asked how they managed to amass such a collection.
"A very tolerant wife," answered Val.
Graham agreed. He says Val has always said, "If we need it for the collection, get it."
They say the museum is as much Val's as it is Graham's, with both of them putting in the hours to make it happen.
Graham's interest in radios goes back to the 1960s.
"As a schoolboy we had things like crystal sets and one-valve receivers that ran off telephone batteries; my interest in radio has been there all the time, but it was only after our kids had grown up and left home that I found I had a bit of extra time and a few extra dollars to start buying them up as I came across them."
Until recently, most of them were in storage, waiting for such time as they could construct a museum.
"Once we'd built the room and set the shelving up, we could slowly start bringing them in; it was amazing how many double-ups we found. We've passed on probably 50 or 60 sets to other collectors."
Graham says the bulk of the collection is of American manufacture, with models also produced in New Zealand, UK and Australia. They have come from all over, with many being imported from the US.
"If there's a particular set I've really wanted, to add it to the collection, we've tried to pursue it," he says. "That becomes a little bit expensive. Having said that, we've had help from some marvellous people, retired folk, who have known what our goal was."
Such people have helped with radio restoration, getting them in shape for the museum.
"We've made some wonderful friends from one end of the country to the other."
Val says there have also been people who have willingly handed on "Uncle Fred's" old radio, knowing it would be cared for, restored and displayed in a good home. Some arrive in pieces or badly damaged.
"Not all have been restored: some have been left in 'as found' condition," says Graham.
Parts are not a problem, with valves still being readily available. Graham and Val have a collection of more than 21,000 valves, all catalogued by a good friend who had some time on his hands.
Graham, a retired builder, also has the tools and skills to restore wooden cases to original condition, including the all-important scroll saw.
"This is more about preservation," he says. "We had some kids come through and they spotted a 78 (rpm) record. They said, 'Geez mister, that's a big CD.' Because they don't know."
That's the part he likes, explaining to them that this is how their grandparents or great-grandparents were entertained.
Taking pride of place is a large gramophone in full working order. Graham wound it up and put on a record — Blackboard of my Heart. When he opened the cabinet doors to give the horn speakers full play and maximum volume, the tone was impressive, with a bass response seldom heard from machines of that age.
"Out of the whole collection, that's my favourite," says Val.
There's another gramophone of similar size, unrestored. Its cabinetry is a work of art.
The collection includes novelty radios, commercially made crystal sets and all sorts of unusual looking radios, Morse keys, microphones, radio parts and memorabilia.
Aerial wires are rigged along each shelf, enabling radios to pick up an AM signal. With AM frequencies being less common, Graham says they're working on a gadget to transform FM signals to AM to allow the radios to have a larger choice of stations. They also have a low-wattage, limited range AM transmitter through which they can feed programming.
Included in the collection is a Radiola 20 from 1915-1920. "That has a horn speaker and is a battery set. It's all up and running."
Two large dials are marked "station selector" and "amplification". Its manual is still with it.
"These along here are all Eddystone receivers, used a lot during the war and then after the war by radio amateurs."
Graham pointed out an American Zenith model from the 1930s. "This might surprise you: it's got FM on it, but it's down in the 7MHz band."
Graham brought it in from the US. Included are switches for pre-selected radio stations.
There's a row of familiar New Zealand made Bell Colts, with wooden or coloured plastic cases.
"All the chassis and all the insides are identical, just different colour cabinets. The story is they made a different colour for every director on the board of Bell Industries."
Val told the story of a man who visited the collection and bemoaned the fact he had sold his grandmother's old radio, not realising what it now meant to him. It turned out that Graham was the man he sold it to; Graham gave it back, reuniting grandson and radio.
"Funny enough, I had another radio (same model) to fill the hole," says Graham.
Also on the shelf is a Gordon radio, produced in Wanganui in the 1930s by The Radio Service Co, founded in about 1925 by Robin Rowe (Robbie) Robinson, who was "technical director" of the Wanganui Amateur Wireless Club and principal operator of the club's experimental broadcasting station 2AH.
"There were only 38 of them ever made," says Graham. The sets were manufactured when the company was owned by Brian McLean. "I only know of one other set and it's owned by a guy in Palmerston North and he won't part with it. His name's Gordon."
Graham's late cousin was an apprentice for Brian McLean and he helped build those radios.
There's an American-made Majestic model they call the "church" radio.
"We only know of one other cabinet in New Zealand, but it hasn't got the chassis or anything with it," says Graham. The woodwork reminds one of a pipe organ, hence the nickname.
"You look at them [the radios] and you can't help but appreciate the beauty of them," says Val. "And they are beautiful."
In the collection is a Phillips radio that was last used to hear Winston Churchill's victory speech at the end of World War II. At the end of the broadcast it was turned off, unplugged and packed away, never to be used again. Some time later the family emigrated from England to New Zealand. Its dial is still set to the BBC frequency. It will be left unpowered to respect its unusual provenance.
Val says they'd like to have one or two radios broadcasting era appropriate programmes – spoken word or music – so visitors get the full ambience.
To book a viewing of the Vintage Radio Museum, contact Val and Graham through the website – vintageradiomuseum.co.nz
Fire crews were called to Tremaine Ave at 4am to tackle the blaze.