Antique and Vintage Emerson Radios

Founded by former Columbia Records employee Victor Hugo Emerson in 1915, the Emerson Phonograph Company manufactured records and low-cost external horn phonographs. In 1924, Benjamin Abrams and his brothers took over and renamed the company the Emerson Radio and Phonograph Corporation. The new Emerson company introduced the first combined radio-phonograph available in the United States. Thanks to the Abrams brothers, Emerson led the way toward democratizing radio, selling radios everywhere from department stores to sporting goods retailers. In 1929, the average price of a radio was $133, more than $1,800 in today's money. Emerson revolutionized radio in 1932 when it offered its Model 25, the first seriously compact radio, which was 10 inches wide, 6 1/2 inches tall, and 4 inches deep. These "midget" or "peewee" table-top radios were roughly half the size of the previous smallest radios, cathedral radios that measured 18 by 15 by 9 inches. Even better, an Emerson Universal Compact radio could be had for $17.95 in 1933, about $335 in today's money. During the Great Depression, this affordable radio was a huge hit, and Emerson sold hundreds of thousands of them. In 1939, the company introduced the CF-255 "Emersonette," a 2-tube TRF radio that was only 6 inches wide and 5 inches tall. It sold for $6.95, which would be about $125 to us. By the time Emerson was conscripted to make communications devices for World War II in 1942, it controlled one-sixth of the radio market in the United States. After World War II, Emerson introduced one of the first successful consumer televisions. By 1954, radio sales only constituted 15 percent of the company's revenue. But Emerson claims that it continued to pioneer radio technology by developing clock radios, self-powered radios, and transistorized pocket radios.