I picked this up at a flee market. It looks to have literally been nailed down at some point! It still has nails poking out of the bottom. I couldn't really find out anything about it. Curious indeed!

I picked this up at a flee market. It looks to have literally been nailed down at some point! It still has nails poking out of the bottom. I couldn't really find out anything about it. Curious indeed!
It looks like 1946 or newer, by the tube complement and the Hayden coin timer. :scratch2:

It looks like 1946 or newer, by the tube complement and the Hayden coin timer. :scratch2:

You are prob. a lot closer on the age then I am. I was thinking 1930's due to the somewhat bland wood case.

I guess the idea of putting a very small chassis in a very large cabinet isn't new. It seems as if this radio's chassis is somewhat smaller than the cabinet, not unlike the small PC-board "chassis" (not much larger than an oversized postage stamp) used in Zenith's last console color TVs. There was a lot of wasted space in those sets' cabinets as well. However, the extra space in the radio's cabinet probably improved the sound quality by at least a small amount. There isn't enough empty space in this cabinet to cause problems such as echoes or a "hollow" sound.

BTW, what was the meaning of the term "one good quarter gives two hours (of listening time)"? I would think the radio's coin box probably was designed to detect any kind of counterfeit stuff, be it slugs or anything else, while allowing legitimate coins to pass through and operate the radio normally. My best guess is the detection scheme used an electromagnet to determine the authenticity of the coins.

The adage "there is no free lunch" applies here, in spades. The coins were probably used as partial payment of the motel's electric bill, as there was probably one radio in each room; depending on how many rooms the motel had, the income from the radios' coin boxes could have been substantial.

I guess the idea of putting a very small chassis in a very large cabinet isn't new. It seems as if this radio's chassis is somewhat smaller than the cabinet, not unlike the small PC-board "chassis" (not much larger than an oversized postage stamp) used in Zenith's last console color TVs. There was a lot of wasted space in those sets' cabinets as well. However, the extra space in the radio's cabinet probably improved the sound quality by at least a small amount. There isn't enough empty space in this cabinet to cause problems such as echoes or a "hollow" sound.

BTW, what was the meaning of the term "one good quarter gives two hours (of listening time)"? I would think the radio's coin box probably was designed to detect any kind of counterfeit stuff, be it slugs or anything else, while allowing legitimate coins to pass through and operate the radio normally. My best guess is the detection scheme used an electromagnet to determine the authenticity of the coins.

The adage "there is no free lunch" applies here, in spades. The coins were probably used as partial payment of the motel's electric bill, as there was probably one radio in each room; depending on how many rooms the motel had, the income from the radios' coin boxes could have been substantial.
I just scrapped a Telex hospital radio, that had the same kind of coin acceptor.
I'll have to look at it again. It probably has a permanent magnet slug detector.

These come-up from time to time on eBay. The most popular is the Tradio and RCA models. They were popular in hotels in the late '40's and then TV took over. They're moderately desirable when found complete. The '30's models typically had an external coin unit that attached to a radio.

I imagine the phrasing of 'one good quarter' is meant to be a psychological deterrent to those who would try to cheat the system.