1939 Westinghouse Console Radio – Model 159

This radio is a Westinghouse Model 159 console radio. The earliest advertisement is in Muswellbrook Chronicle (NSW) Apr 14, 1939. This was more of a budget model for that year (1939) with a 5 valve circuit and sold for 21 Guineas. It received AM only.

It features the new ‘Wonder Westinghouse Dial’ and 12 inch Auditorium Speaker. The more expensive version of this radio had a multi-coloured dial.

Westinghouse branded radios were distributed by Westinghouse Sales & Rosebery Ltd. and from 1939 were manufactured by AWA. The chassis of this radio is identical to some AWA radios of the same period.

This radio was purchased at auction in 2022 and as with most radios of this age, it did not work. Investigation revealed that the original electrodynamic speaker had been removed and replaced with a permanent magnet speaker of the same size and manufacturer. The problem with this was that the electrical coil of the electromagnet of the original speaker (called a field coil) is an essential part of the operation of the radio. There were also some other burnt out components which may have been the reason for the radio going in for repair. It was common for radios of this period to go in for repair every few years as some of the parts were not as durable and reliable as they are today.

Radios of this era also were not as electrically safe as they are today. In bringing this vintage radio back to life it has been made electrically safe with the provision of an On/Off switch, a fixed connection to Earth and a fuse. Even so, the voltages operating inside these old radios is very much higher than in modern domestic appliances so that tampering inside the radio is strictly prohibited.

As a part of modernising the radio, Bluetooth has been added to enable connection to smart devices. See the instructions to enable this. In this case a small 5volt DC circuit has been added to an existing 6.3 volt AC line in the radio to produce the power to run the small Bluetooth circuit. To help balance the audio output of the Bluetooth circuit with the radio signal output a small amplifier circuit has been added to the bluetooth.

These radios were almost always fitted with ‘Pickup’ sockets to enable a record player to the connected to the radio amplifier circuit so the records could replayed through the radio. In the Westinghouse model 159, there are three sockets with a ’jump plug’ on the back of the radio chassis that connected the radio signal to the amplifier and speaker. When using a record player, the jump plug was removed to disconnect the radio and the record player plugs were inserted into the socket that connected to the volume control and an ‘Earth’ connection. This same connection has been used to connect the Bluetooth circuit. A 3 pin plug has been made and connected to the switch on the side of the cabinet to switch between the radio and bluetooth.

Maker of the Cabinet

The cabinet does not have a makers label but was quite likely made in the Ricketts and Thorp factory at Rockdale, Sydney. There is a definite evolution of design form the previous year with many of the elements of the previous years cabinet being expressed in a different way. There were many more cabinet makers than radio manufacturers.

Detail of the Cabinet

Firstly, the overall cabinet is made of a much lighter coloured timber with the central panel providing a strong contrast to the brown Bakelite dial escutcheon. The central panel is broken up by two strips of Zebrano veneer, where as in the previous year two wider Zebrino strips were at the side of the central panel. The tiered relief making three vertical lines of the previous year have been replaced by the single smaller moulding with three raised lines. This vertical element is mirrored in the single dental vertical column in the lower part of the cabinet.

The grille cloth in front of the speaker is a modern replacement of a similar colour to what have been the original. The cloth present when purchased in 2022 was an evening dress fabric possibly from the 1940s or 1950s The advertisement below from a WA newspaper in 1939 shows the cloth to be plain without pattern. The radio in this advertisement is the top of the range Westinghouse for 1939 with lots of extra features. One is left to guess what a ‘Huma’ treated cabinet or ‘Phantom’ control might be

Your vintage radio collector Malcolm Grenness is a member of the Sound Preservation Association of Tasmania, the Historical Radio Society of Australia and Radiomuseum.org. There is more information on this actual radio on the Radiomuseum.org website. This vast archive and community of radio collectors features over 120,000 radio model listings and 350,000 photos and schematics