I bought this radio in 2006 from an antique store in Elkhorn Wisconsin and restored it to working condition in 2011.
This King radio model 62 was sold in 1926 so sometime in 2025 it will be just one year shy of being 100 years old or can be officially termed as a genuine antique.
The King model 62 sold for $101.00 in 1926 and as calculated in todays inflated dollars it would be approximately $1,745.00 all of which makes this radio to be quite expensive both in 1926 and 2024. When I bought it at the antique store in 2006 I believe I paid around $100 for it.
Mice must love old radios because this radio served as a nice home for mice. When I bought it the radio was packed full of mouse nest. 1920s radios were very well built radios and as they aged to the point of being replaced with a new modern radio the owners rarely sent them off to the dump. They were most often put in attics, cellars, barns or outside sheds. This one was probably retired to an attic and sat there for many-many years until the house was cleared probably in an estate sale.
I remember when I was a very young boy in the early to mid 1950s. We had a radio playing in our kitchen throughout the holiday season. The music and holiday programming was wonderful then. Today it’s fun to tune through the old AM broadcast band on Christmas Day to see how many stations are actually broadcasting Christmas music and holiday programming. Starting somewhere in the late 1970s forward AM radio stations were being bought up by the ultra-wealthy to be networked into “news” talk radio. Note I put news in quotes because in reality the talk radio was not news and instead was propaganda hate related programming designed to be divisive. The music for the most was gone only to be found on the FM broadcast band. I was glad to hear some holiday programming as I tuned up through the old AM broadcast band. I might tune up some of my other restored radios in the future.