Al Adams works on the tuning mechanism for an antique Atwater
Kent radio.
Al Adams of Lincoln Park collects antique radios, including
these consoles.
How many people dream of turning their hobby into a cottage industry? Al
Adams of Lincoln Park offers proof that it can be done.
Like many entrepreneurs, he simply discovered a need and filled it.
Adams was restoring an antique radio and was having difficulty finding a
dial belt for its tuning mechanism.
He made his own, found that it worked, and is now supplying fellow radio
collectors with dial belts and more.
“As I was making my own I thought there must be others looking for the same
thing,” Adams said.
Indeed there were.
Adams Manufacturing was started two years ago, and since then, has sold
hundreds of dial belts for antique radios with an emphasis on those built in
the 1930s and 1940s.
And with orders for dial belts have come requests for other items, such as
dial cords, tuner repair kits and bronze tuner cables.
Adams’ son, Jim, helped create a Web site (
www.adamsradio.com ) for the
business; catalogs are available and word is spreading. Adams also has a
daughter, Linda.
“The business is expanding constantly,” said Adams, noting that his name now
appears on the computer screen when “dial belts” is “Googled” on the
Internet by antique radio enthusiasts.
The foundation of his business is the dial belts, which are handcrafted,
polyurethane tubes that are electronically welded together.
What sets his product apart from others is that it is the only ready-made
dial belt available to collectors and restorers, Adams said.
“Before, when I ordered dial belts, they had to be put together with glue;
it was messy,” he said.
Adams’ product arrives assembled and ready to be placed inside a tuning
mechanism — “no cutting or gluing needed,” his catalog states.
The tubes also display a Made in America label. Even his raw materials are
supplied by American companies.
Specializing in reproduction components for antique radios, Adams
Manufacturing is stocked with many standard-size belts for radios
manufactured by companies from Acratest to Zenith.
This means that orders are quickly filled.
The majority of his customers are fellow members of the Michigan Antique
Radio Club, but Adams gets orders from around the world.
He said the farthest order he’s received came from an antique radio
collector in France.
Retired from ASC, Adams is currently working on a tuning mechanism for an
Atwater Kent console radio. It is one of several consoles in his collection,
which includes antique radios of all sizes and shapes.
His favorite is a console radio manufactured in 1935 by the Wilcox Gay Co.
The company wasn’t a big player in the radio industry, Adams said, but it
was based in Michigan.
Also included in his collection are antique decorative speakers and
headphones, which were necessary components for early radios, but had to be
purchased separately.
Adams said everything in the early radios had to be bought piecemeal, right
down to the vacuum tubes inside. He likened it to modern-day computer
packages.
“You needed each piece to listen to the radio, just like you need the
monitor, keyboard, hard drive, speakers to use a computer system,” Adams
said.
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