Hi,
My earliest 'radio memory' was of the radiogram that my parents bought the same year I was born (1954). It was a table model and badged 'Beethoven' and had a Garrard autochanger. My two elder brothers loved those Sunday afternoon programmes such as 'The Goon Show', 'Round The Horne', 'The Navy Lark', etc., etc.
The radio had a simple fame aerial within, and we turned the whole set round sideways on the sideboard to improve the reception. It used B7G 'H' series valves and it took forever to warm up. My brothers had their usual teenager parties, and the 'gram belted out the Stones, the Beatles et al at a whopping two watts! My brother connected a contact mic to the gram input and played his guitar through it a few times.
Alas, my parents and one of my brothers are no more, but the 'Beethoven' has survived and now lives in France.
Like most of on here, I was given plenty old radios to play with and, I'm sorry to say, most of them were ruined (sorry
)
However, an 'uncle' then gave me a Murphy A122 that came from a joiner's shop and was full of sawdust and dead spiders. The valves lit up, the speaker crackled, but no music. I forgot the aerial, So after a length of flex was cast from the bedroom window I was greeted by a dial full of entertainment! I was hooked!! I spent hours trawling the short wave band late at night, and loved hearing all the foreign stations that came in after dark.
Cheers, Pete