The Texas Broadcast Museum has launched a free monthly email magazine to highlight its latest happenings.
Located in the East Texas community of Kilgore, about 120 miles east of Dallas-Fort Worth, the museum features a variety of exhibits that will appeal to radio and TV enthusiasts.
The inaugural issue spotlights one of the 246 RCA 1948 Berkshire Regency TV models ever produced. This rare model is fully operational and on display at the museum.
[Related: “Take a Step Back in Time in Kilgore, Texas”]
The “mini-magazine” also highlights uniquely crafted vintage radios, including the Porto-Products SR-600, known as the Smokerette. Introduced in 1947, it was designed to pair the enjoyment of smoking a pipe with listening to radio programs. According to the magazine, the radio features two humidors for cigars and tobacco, a double humidor for cigarettes and a large ashtray. It is also on display at the museum. Also featured are a 1953 Philco Transitone radio, which combines a radio with a lamp, and a 1970s-era Toilet-Roll radio.
Chuck Conrad is the founder. He started the museum as an internet-only project in 2001 after having worked for over 30 years in the audio industry. He amassed a collection of vintage equipment, including radios, TVs and cameras.
“People would just give them to me because they didn’t want it to end up in a dumpster,” Conrad shared in the magazine. He cataloged the equipment online, even documenting the process of moving it to a new home he and his wife built.
In 2012, Conrad met Warren Willard, a fellow collector of vintage radios and TVs. Their partnership led to acquiring the museum’s current building in 2014. After extensive renovations, the museum has blossomed into its present form. “People who visited in our early days would be surprised at how much this place has grown,” Conrad said in the magazine.
The museum receives glowing visitor reviews, with one describing it as “one of the greatest museums in all of Texas.”
In October, Conrad said the museum received 10,000 pounds of equipment, including cameras, video tape recorders and monitors. To display it all, the museum renovated the last available section of the ground floor, transforming it into a fully functional TV studio with an adjoining control room. Among the collection is the famous “Lee Harvey Oswald” camera, used at the scene of Oswald’s assassination.
Conrad said anyone interested in receiving the monthly magazine can email him at news@txmbc.org.
