The Northland Antique Radio Club

Radio Daze 2024 Report

The NARC Board of Directors recently reviewed this year's May 17th-18th Radio Daze event at the Comfort Inn in Plymouth, Minnesota with our Radio Daze Chairmen and the others who organize and work at the event, and everyone agreed that Radio Daze 24 was once again a resounding success! An auction full of interesting items of all sorts, a swap meet with great weather and a strong turnout, a contest with some rarely seen entries, and a very interesting program by WCCO's Mike Max made it an unforgettable event that resulted in many compliments from attendees.

The auction on Friday evening was held in the Comfort Inn Plymouth's ball room, as usual, and all the tables around the room, plus those in the adjoining room, were filled with consignments. 97 bid numbers were assigned and 216 lots of radios and related items crossed the auction block, including 30 lots that had been donated to the club. The auction crew did an outstanding job again with Frank Rasada as auctioneer.

Some of the nicer items were; Philco Predicta TV, Hallicrafters Super Skyrider S16, Zenith T600 Transoceanic, Atwater Kent Kiel Table radio model 60, Zenith 12A58, EH Scott Warrington cabinet, Bulova model 100 pink clock radio, Philco model 45 'Butterfly' radio, 1958 Zenith B835E AM/FM HiFi radio, two 7-inch Airline TVs, Zenith B600 Transoceanic, Harman Kardon Citation III-X Tuner, Philco 49-506 flying wedge radio, Zenith 5S127, Sleeper Scout type 60 battery set, box full of Radio Record and assorted magazines, Emerson AX-217 radio, RCA R28P cathedral, Aeriola Sr. battery set, Firestone Airchief S7398-3 radio, 1948 Sentinel 400TV television, Crosley 11-119U radio, Sansui SP2500 speakers, Precision Tube Tester, a box full of early radio catalogs and brochures, RCA Radiola III battery set, Eveready Radio Batteries sign, Federal 61, Fisher 800B, and a nice Zenith sign.

The weather was GREAT for the Saturday morning swap meet.

Forty-seven seller spaces in the hotel parking lot were filled with a wide assortment of radio equipment and related things. Lots of buyers showed up and sales were good!

The hospitality crew provided a nice selection of coffee, pop, water, donuts, muffins, and snacks in the Hospitality room. Registration and seller spaces were both up from last year.

We congratulate Kip Wallace for his amazing British-made World War I Marconi Mark III Shortwave Tuner, shown here. It was entered in the contest's crystal set category, and with 44 entries in the contest his won the Best of Show award. We also congratulate Matt Hyman for his 1939 RCA World's Fair radio that he entered along with a nice display of accompanying items from the 1939 World's Fair, in the contest's '1930's and Newer Tube Radios' category and won the People's Choice award.

The highlight of the afternoon program was a talk by WCCO Television's Sports Director, Mike Max. Mike told us about how he got into the profession with WCCO Television back in 1986, how he advanced after his coverage of the 1987 Twins World Series, how he got on the Midwest Sports channel and WCCO Radio, and how he is so grateful for the interesting job he has. To him, it is interesting because of the people, not necessarily the sports, and how being able to work with his good friend Sid Hartman taught him how valuable networking is. Mike went on to talk about how things have changed in the business with so many options available now other than radio and TV broadcasting - live sporting events are doing great, but other venues can be seen anytime on-demand. He took questions and we heard about his ground-breaking coverage of the George Floyd riots - he had volunteered to go out on the street to find out what the people's concerns were and what the rioting was all about because he wanted to be there to tell the story to the viewers. We also heard about the Timberwolves and some of his favorite interviews with John Wooden at age 97, Brett Favre, his friend Bud Grant, and three times with Michael Jordan. It was an excellent program that captivated everyone for over an hour.

The event ended with the ever-popular door prize drawing, thanks again to Kip Wallace for his excellent selection of door prizes to give away.

Next year's Radio Daze event is already scheduled at the Comfort Inn Plymouth for May 16-17, 2025. Put it on your calendar today!