Antique of the Week: 1930s RCA Victor Radio

A 1930s-era RCA Victor radio is available for purchase at Nancy's Treasure Chest near the Peconic River in downtown Riverhead.

"In 1929, RCA purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company, then the world's largest manufacturer of phonographs (including the famous "Victrola") and phonograph records (in British English, "gramophone records")," according to RadioMusem.org. "The company then became RCA-Victor."

The 1930s was part of the Golden Age of radio. Radio programming included shows such as "Dick Tracey," "Little Orphan Annie," and "The Lone Ranger." The term soap opera was also coined during the 1930s, leading to shows we still have today like "Days of Our Lives" and "All My Children.

These shows and others provided amusement, a relief for Americans during the Great Depression.

RadioStratosphere.com reports that while "the Great Depression drove down the average price of a radio sold in United States from $139 in 1929 to about $47 ... the brutal market forces of the early depression did not stop Americans from buying radios; by the end of the 1920s, one third of U.S. households owned a radio and by 1933 that number climb close to 60 percent."

Now, you can own this piece of American history. The RCA Victor radio pictured here is available for $250 from Nancy's.