RCA Cunningham Radiotron Ad
July 1934 Radio News and the Short-Wave Article

July 1934 Radio News & Short-Wave

[Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio & Television News, published 1919-1959. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

Have you seen the new national advertising campaign where Freescale (formerly Motorola) is using big name celebrities to sell their cellular base station power transistors? Scarlett Johansson and Ashton Kutcher are up on a tower along with man-and-woman-on-the-tower smartphone users discussing how much better their phones work now that the service provider switched to base transceiver stations (BTSs) that use Freescale LDMOS RF power transistors. Of course you haven't seen the ad because it would never be produced and marketed. The very concept is ridiculous, you might say... unless you happened to see advertisements like this one for RCA's Radiotron vacuum tubes from the 1930s. In it, none other than Bing Crosby was joined by a trendily dressed woman who was rejoicing in her decision to buy a new radio that contained those newfangled "Micro-Sensitive" receiver tubes. Now, raise your hand if you would like to see an advertisement with Scarlett Johansson and/or Ashton Kutcher on top of a cell tower.

RCA Cunningham Radiotron Ad

Get Radio at its Best with Micro-Sensitive RCA Radio Tubes

Here's a new thrill in store for you when you replace old tubes with these new Micro-Sensitive RCA Radio Tubes. For true-to-life reception a radio tube must be sensitive enough to pick up a microscopic electrical impulse - the millionth part of a volt. RCA Radio Tubes give you "Micro-Sensitive" accuracy. Have your dealer test your tubes today. Replace worn tubes with the only tubes guaranteed by RCA Radiotron Co., Inc., to give these 5 big improvements:

     1  Quicker Start 

     2  Quieter Operation

     3  Uniform Volume

     4  Uniform Performance

     5  Every Tube is Matched

Posted October 9, 2013