David Eduardo wrote:

The European radios in Ecuador, which were the majority in 1966, were known
brands like Telefunken and Grundig. Since there were no FM stations, there
were only about 16, 000 of them then. Almost all were 88 to 100 MHz,
including theone in my home. Most were consoles, with a record changer and
all... in a credenza sized piece of furniture that, then, cost about $500 or
more.

Most of the few vintage FM radios I saw in Colombia were all 88-108.
But those were mostly all transistorized. All the tube radios I saw
there were MW/SW only. I brought back two, a huge Grundig and a
smaller Philco-Tropic made in the UK.

My grandmother has her 1940s Philips MW/SW set.

As you said, German and Dutch brands ruled.


The export ones in LAtin America must have been ones intended for other
markets, as they were 76 to 100. Not many of them, though.

I remember seeing a couple Japanaese AM/FMs in a pawn shop. They were
88-108, but these were from the 1970s. Wayy too beat-up and battered
for my taste, so I didn't get them.

But then Ecuador and Colombia are two very different animals. I'm
pretty sure that Colombia got into the FM game much earlier than
Ecuador - at least in the major cities like Bogota (now-departed HJCK,
for instance).

Most Japanese analog-tuned portables cover 76-108 anyway, so that their
owners can take the radios outside the country and have them work. In
Japan they're marketed as FM/TV.

It's a different ball game with the digital units and home/car stereos,
though. Once again, this is just from the ones I've seen and played
with.

Here is an old Polish FM radio (not mine, unfortunately):

http://www.astercity.net/~janekr/1.jpg

A friend did some consulting for J-Wave, an FM in Tokyo. They gave him a
radio. It tunes the non-com band nicely, of course.

Oh yeah, that's about the only FM radio you can pick up with them.
Here's an OLD Sanyo add-on tuner made for the Japanese market:

http://radiomann.hp.infoseek.co.jp/H...-sanyoSFT1.JPG

and an old Pioneer table-top radio (FM only, and the dial knob is
missing)

http://radiomann.hp.infoseek.co.jp/H...F6-Pioniaf.JPG

Hope he still has it. Foreign-market electronics can be a cool thing,
well....if you're a nut-case like me and collect radios.... but that's
a whole different story.

--
Steph