"O'Ryan Radios."

[Doghouse Riley]

Here's a "blast from the past" prompted by a mention on another board.
In my early twenties, between 1961 and 1965, I managed a branch of a chain of Radio/TV & Electrical Appliance stores in North London.
I got a call from the chain's warehouse manager one day to tell me that he was sending me some "O'Ryan radios." I was unaware of the brand or any that was made in Ireland.

When they arrived I was no wiser, it was one of these. Very impressive, an Orion, made in Hungary.

It performed quite well, but seemed to weigh less than the second-hand Bush VHF 64 I was using in our flat in Shepherd's Bush, (which could receive the sound of BBC TV programmes). Also, the push buttons seemed very flimsy compared with the Bush.
I'm wondering if any of these have survived.

[Paul_RK]

I've seen the large multi-pushbutton sets a few times over the years, but somehow never owned one: I just have this fairly compact portable, out of use for a few years now but I remember it as quite a good performer. Clearly a major and long-lasting manufacturer, RM.org lists 1077 of their products.

Paul

[paulsherwin]

The Orion branded Hungarian models were quite common in Britain in the 60s, and lots of them have survived. They offered a lot for the money, but the build quality wasn't great. The same comments apply to all the 60s eastern European manufacturers really.

[Sideband]

Orion valve radios pop up on eBay quite a lot so worth keeping an eye out if it's what you want.

[G6Tanuki]

I remember Orion table-radios being sold by the Civic home-electricals chain into the early-70s. Still valve based and very dated looking; must have had limited market-appeal compared to the likes of solid-state portables and AMSTRAD stuff which looked much more modern.

Tesla and Unitra were other COMECON-bloc makers of old-fashioned-looking valve radios that persisted long after you would have expected them to have gone out of production.

[Doghouse Riley]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

I remember Orion table-radios being sold by the Civic home-electricals chain into the early-70s. Still valve based and very dated looking; must have had limited market-appeal compared to the likes of solid-state portables and AMSTRAD stuff which looked much more modern.

Tesla and Unitra were other COMECON-bloc makers of old-fashioned-looking valve radios that persisted long after you would have expected them to have gone out of production.

Yes, they even looked dated when new with their curved corners, when most stuff coming on the market was rectangular in shape.
They didn't sell particularly well.
It was a Civic store I managed. The "traditional" set-up with a manager, salesman, cashier, a "proper engineer" and a driver.


I left in 1965 to join a chainstore group.

[David G4EBT]

You might like to know that in the BVWS Bulletin, Vol 20 Issue No 4, there was an article about Piano Key Radios including the Orion '612', which even compares its relative importance. Here is the link:

https://www.bvws.org.uk/publications...letin_20_4.pdf

Hope that's of interest.

[HamishBoxer]

Orion I thought was sold by Currys, I remember the vcr,s.