Philco for 1930 (introduced June 1930)

Overview

Take a Mod­el 76 and a Mod­el 95, remove the local-dis­tance switch from each, put the vol­ume con­trol where the local-dis­tance switch was, add a four-point tone con­trol switch where the vol­ume con­trol was, and voila - you have the 1930 Mod­els 77 and 96!

These were the only changes made to the chas­sis. How­ev­er, they received new cab­i­nets for 1930; the excep­tion being the table mod­els and the console.

Mod­el 40 also became a Mod­el 41 with the addi­tion of a tone con­trol instead of a local-dis­tance switch.

Philco had been a bat­tery man­u­fac­tur­er for many years before they began to make radios. How­ev­er, up to this point they had not built a radio that oper­at­ed on bat­ter­ies. That now changed with Mod­el 30, a set designed for use where no elec­tric­i­ty was avail­able. It was essen­tial­ly a bat­tery-oper­at­ed ver­sion of Mod­el 96, as it also fea­tured Auto­mat­ic Vol­ume Con­trol (AVC).

Philco put a radio-phono­graph mod­el into pro­duc­tion for the first time. Mod­el 296 had a sin­gle play 78 rpm phono­graph cou­pled with a Screen Grid Plus 96 chassis.

All of the new mod­els now used translu­cent, back­lit dials. Ear­ly ver­sions had point­ers on either side of the dial; these soon gave way to a "glow­ing point­er" mount­ed behind the dial.

Model Index

All Fall 1929 mod­els were discontinued.

Click on a thumb­nail to see infor­ma­tion and pho­tos for each model:

Table Mod­els

77 & 96

Con­soles

Con­sole (30, 41 & 77) Low­boy (30, 41, 77 & 96) High­boy (30, 41 & 96)

Radio-Phono­graph Combination

296

Models

Table Models


Models 77 & 96

Models 77 & 96

The Table Mod­els con­tin­ued, unchanged in appear­ance from Fall 1929. As men­tioned above, they now fea­tured a four-point tone con­trol instead of a local-dis­tance switch.

Sep­a­rate F-10 speak­er: $25

Orig­i­nal sell­ing price: $55 (77), $85 (96)

Num­ber made: 17,700 (Note: This fig­ure includes June 1929 Mod­el 65 table mod­el as well as Fall 1929 Mod­els 76 and 95 table models)

Consoles


Console (Models 30, 41 & 77)

Console (Models 30, 41 & 77) - Model 77 Console shown; Models 30 & 41 Consoles are identical. Image courtesy of William Johnson.

Anoth­er set which con­tin­ued unchanged in appear­ance was the Con­sole. It could now be pur­chased as a bat­tery set as well as a DC-only or AC-only model.

Orig­i­nal sell­ing price: Not avail­able (30), $95 (41 & 77)

Num­ber made: 45,000 (Note: This fig­ure includes June 1929 Mod­el 65 con­soles as well as Fall 1929 Mod­els 40 & 76 consoles)



Lowboy (Models 30, 41, 77 & 96)

The new 1930 Philco Low­boy was not quite a big sell­er as was its pre­de­ces­sor, but exam­ples are still easy to find today.

Orig­i­nal sell­ing price: Not avail­able (30), $119.50 (41), $110 (77), $127.50 (96)

Num­ber made: 130,904 (Note: This fig­ure includes Jan­u­ary 1931 Mod­el 111 lowboys)



Highboy (Models 30, 41 & 96)

No doors or fleur-de-lis, but nev­er­the­less, the 1930 Philco High­boy was (and is) a fine-look­ing cabinet.

Orig­i­nal sell­ing price: Not avail­able (30), $149.50 (41), $145 (96)

Num­ber made: 43,098

Radio-Phonograph Combination


Model 296

Model 296 - Image courtesy of Bob Timms.
Model 296 - Model 296 phonograph - left side view. Model 296 - Model 296 phonograph - right side view.

This large and heavy set has a sin­gle play 78 rpm phono­graph under the top lid, and record stor­age at the bot­tom of the cab­i­net, con­cealed by a drop-down door at low­er front.

Orig­i­nal sell­ing price: $198

Num­ber made: 14,052


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