[ARC5] deathwatch for radio shack?

[Richard Knoppow]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Nickels" <ranickel at comcast.net>
To: <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2014 3:02 PM
Subject: Re: [ARC5] deathwatch for radio shack?


On 9/26/2014 3:23 PM, D C _Mac_ Macdonald wrote:
> I suppose it is possible that Bill Halligan might have had 
> something to do with founding of Radio Shack, but I 
> seriously doubt it.
It's not hard to discover Halligan's role in Radio Shack - 
the following
is from http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/history.html

The First Radio Shack Store

Two years later (1921) and half a continent away, two 
London-born
Bostonian brothers, Theodore and Milton Deutschmann, opened 
a one-store
retail and mail-order operation in the heart of downtown 
Boston. These
young immigrant brothers wanted to provide amateur and ham 
radio
equipment to the public; much of it was leftover Army gear. 
At the time,
this radio technology was cutting-edge and the field was 
wide open. To
pursue their interests, the brothers opened a retail store 
(a block from
the site of the Boston Massacre). William Halligan, one of 
Deutschmann's
first employees and later the founder of Hallicrafters, 
suggested the
name, Radio Shack. They chose the name, "Radio Shack," which 
was a
term for the room that housed a ship's radio equipment.

The brothers thought the name was fitting since their store 
would supply
the equipment for ships radio officers, as well as ham radio 
operators.

Beginning in 1921, Radio Shack would grow to a handful of 
stores
clustered in the Northeast, and become a leading electronics 
mail-order
distributor to hobbyists. This is how it would remain until 
the company
and a young Texan named Charles Tandy crossed paths four 
decades later.

--

     This is pretty much the story I was thinking of.  The 
Deutchmann brothers had a company called Tobe Deutchmann 
which made a sold capacitors and other components. The story 
I read was that Bill Halligan was an early employee who was 
given the task of opening up a retail store.  This may not 
be accurate and I am not sure of its source.  Halligan was 
also associated with Ted MacElroy, another Boston friend, 
whom he set up as a Hallicrafters distributor after WW-2.


--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL
dickburk at ix.netcom.com