# Price of a Radio (1930's)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 7, 2003, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978 "2003-04-07T02:32:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@d12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/d12)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2003, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/1 "2003-04-07T02:32:40Z")
During the Depression, Radio seemed to be one of the ways to pass time (at least in one book I’m reading). I’m puzzled as to how the commener could possibly afford one. How much did a normal Cathedral style radio cost back in the dustbowl days?
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### Author:  [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2003, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/2 "2003-04-07T02:44:45Z")
Wait til whitetheo (I think that’s his username) gets here. There ain’t nothin’ about the history of radio that he doesn’t know. He’s one of the board’s best – but least heralded – experts if you ask me.
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### Author:  [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/3 "2003-04-07T03:05:38Z")
Oops. I meant “whitetho.”
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### Author:  [@Stormfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stormfield)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2003, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/4 "2003-04-07T04:37:32Z")
I found some newspaper ads from the early 1930’s, [here,](http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/adaccess/R/R00/R0046-72dpi.jpeg) [here,](http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/adaccess/R/R03/R0375-72dpi.jpeg) and [here.](http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu:80/adaccess/R/R06/R0687-72dpi.jpeg)
By the time of FDR’s “Fireside chats”, almost every household in the country had at least one radio.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2003, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/5 "2003-04-07T10:02:36Z")
The list price of the cheapest nationally known brand of radio in the U.S. in 1932 was $37.50. That’s $420 in 2001 dollars.
The U.S. Census Bureau has a [map]([www2.census.gov/pub/outgoing/](http://www2.census.gov/pub/outgoing/) geo/cob/1930/pdfs/radios.pdf) showing the percentage of households in each state that owned a radio in 1930.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2003, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/6 "2003-04-07T10:05:58Z")
The radio with the $29.50 list price, linked above, would cost $330 in 2001 dollars.
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### Author:  [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2003, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/7 "2003-04-07T12:33:18Z")
The cost of radio receivers plunged during the great depression, although so did the quality, which would help set the stage for “Hi-fi FM” in the 1950s. If you were handy you could buy the parts and the vacuum tubes and save money by assembling the set yourself, much like some people today build their own computers. As a link to the outside world, many went to great lengths to have a radio during the depression – there are stories that some people would give up their refrigerators before they would part with their radios.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2003, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/8 "2003-04-07T14:42:57Z")
Don’t forget, cathedral-style radios weren’t the only models. You could get a crystal set and assemble it yourself for next to nothing.
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### Author:  [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2003, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/9 "2003-04-07T14:57:32Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Walloon \*
> \*\*The radio with the $29.50 list price, linked above, would cost $330 in 2001 dollars. \*\*
For comparison’s sake, my father made a dollar a day after he finished high school in the late Thirties and he considered it to be a good wage.
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### Author:  [@Ezstrete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ezstrete)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2003, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/10 "2003-04-07T15:17:04Z")
I bought a table model,push button tuner,radio for $5.95 in 1935
50c down and 50c per week,no interest!
These were common Jewelry store items in Cleveland,ohio in those days
Chapel style units could be bought for under $20
Asembled and ready for use crystal sets were $1.25.
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### Author:  [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2003, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/11 "2003-04-07T15:18:01Z")
Another factor is that the bakelite radios came in during the 30’s:
> **[Faculteit Geesteswetenschappen](https://www.uu.nl/organisatie/faculteit-geesteswetenschappen)**
>
> De faculteit Geesteswetenschappen omvat de disciplines geschiedenis, kunst, filosofie, muziek, literatuur, taal, religie en media.
> [@](#):
>
> Technological advantages made the radio smaller and cheaper. Because of these technological advantages, as well in the interior as well on the exterior of the radio, the ownership of radios throughout the US grew very hard. Between 1930 and 1939 the number of households, who owned a radio, more than doubled, from 12 million to 28 million.
> [@](#):
>
> In the case of the radio, bakelite and catalin were seen as a good substitution for wood. Wood was often used by the wealthy part of American society. But the imitation of wood by bakelite was almost perfect. The best thing of all was that a bakelite and catalin radio was much cheaper than a radio with a wooden cabinet. Mostly during the depression of the 1930s, bakelite and catalin material made it possible for everyone to buy a radio for just 10,-- instead of 90,-- or so for a radio with a wooden cabinet.4 On the other hand bakelite and catilin were and are very strong, durable, gloomy and attractive material for designers. But what made bakelite and catilin, as kinds of plastic material, very attractive?
I think the author’s $10 figure may be exaggerated, but the point is that in the 30’s smaller, cheaper radios with bakelite cabinets started appearing.
By WWII, most radio cabinets were made of plastic.
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### Author:  [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2003, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/12 "2003-04-07T15:27:37Z")
I obviously chose that article for the information, not the author’s grammar, BTW.
Another thing to wonder about - how much were vacuum tubes, and how often did you have to replace a blown tube?
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/13 "2003-04-07T15:28:40Z")
> [@](#):
>
> On the other hand bakelite and catilin were and are very strong, durable, gloomy and attractive material for designers.
_Gloomy_? 😕
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### Author:  [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2003, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/14 "2003-04-07T15:36:11Z")
Yeah, I noticed that. I thought I’d let it pass. He misuses the word a couple more times in the article. I’m guessing that English isn’t his first language, but he cites his sources at the bottom, and the basic information is there.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2003, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/15 "2003-04-07T15:53:55Z")
Likely he meant Groovy. :dubious:
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2003, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/16 "2003-04-07T16:32:35Z")
I think a more useful comparison would be ave wage vs price, then to now.
When I was shown this formula, back in the mid 80s, I was very surprised to find that current Leica cameras were far less expensive (as in wagedays needed to afford) than the older models. When I applied it to cars, the same thing was true. Should hold true for radios, too.
I wish I still knew how to do that comparison… Anyone?
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### Author:  [@Maryellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maryellen)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2003, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/17 "2003-04-08T03:04:08Z")
This site, the “Inflation Calculator”, might do what you want:
[http://www.westegg.com/inflation/](http://www.westegg.com/inflation/)
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2003, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-a-radio-1930s/166978/18 "2003-04-08T04:21:27Z")
The inflation calculator won’t tell you a wages to price ratio.