[R-390] OT

[Tim Shoppa]

Tish Hayes writes:
> Radio Shack transmogrified itself from Allied into a consumer electronics
> store.

That's a little bit oversimplified.

Allied Radio had their own line of kits and radios,
resold some other "name brands" sometimes with the original
brand and sometimes with the Allied brand, and had a lot of parts.

Radio Shack was a Boston-area ham equipment dealer that didn't
really have its own line of radio equipment, and also did parts but
was obviously more oriented towards selling name-brand radio
equipment and just happened to do parts. I don't know if it was
geographic closeness or just coincidence, but the parts they did
sell were included National and Millen which were also Boston area
outfits.

Both did mail-order stuff too, Allied obviously doing better at this
in the 1950's and 60's.

Tandy Leather then bought Radio Shack and turned it from a
Boston-area outfit to nationwide. As recently as the 90's one of
the older Washington state Radio Shacks (Bellingham?) still did
hobby leather supplies too (but I think not Tandy brand.)

The Allied-Radio Shack conglomeration existed for just a few years
in the early 70's and then was split up again. Radio Shack absorbed
(whithered? axed?) the Allied retail stores which was odd because
when a town had both Radio Shack and Allied Radio stores, the Allied
store had always been much much larger and diversified yet it was the one
that got closed down. Somehow Allied HQ left
Chicago and ended up in Texas too. One aspect that remains
is that the part numbering systems for the two companies are still
similar and last time I checked, the Allied "stock number" was identical
to the Radio Shack part number for a couple of very common items.

I do still hit Radio Shack for battery holders, buzzers, fuses, etc.

Tim N3QE