Radios restored at Asheville museum, preserving vital part of communications history
By Karen Wynne
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ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — At the Asheville Radio Museum, Tim McVey tunes in an RCA Radiola 20, built in 1927 but still kicking.
“This one still requires that you manipulate two dials to tune it in, and you have another dial here that fine tunes this dial. And this controls the filaments in the tubes,” says McVey, as he tunes the sound of several radio stations with static, down to one station with clear sound.
McVey retired from the FBI and moved from the Washington D.C. area to the mountains a year and a half ago.
“I get giddy thinking about it, because Tim has been such a remarkable addition to the museum,” says Asheville Radio Museum Curator Stuart Smolkin.
Smolkin says McVey has restored some of the most important radios in the museum, built in the 1920’s and 30’s, preserving a vital part of communications history.
“Without radio, we would not have cell phones,” Smolkin explains. “We would not have GPS. We would not have wireless internet routers, or wireless Bluetooth speakers. The list goes on and on.”
McVey tunes in another radio, this one from 1931, sounding great.
McVey does his restorations in his home in Hendersonville. His office is filled with vintage radios and plenty of equipment to help keep them going.
McVey says his passion for radio began back in fifth grade, when he and a friend were playing with G.I. Joes.
“We used radios and pretended they were communication devices for the G.I. Joes,” he recalls. “Then we got more interested in the radios than the G.I. Joes.”
McVey’s current project is an Atwater Kent Breadboard radio, made in 1925.
“There are seven controls on this thing,” he points out.
McVey says he’s fortunate his childhood passion turned into a successful career, and now a retirement hobby, one that brings joy to others when they donate their radios and hear them restored.
“They get so excited and thrilled by that, to see that grandad’s radio can still pick up stations and work,” he says.
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