[SFDXA] World Radio Labs - From QRZ

[Bill]

*How many remember WRL? I have a WRL QSL Card from Leo for a 20 meter 
SSB contact in the 50's - Bill W2CQ

New* Back in the late 60's with a group of ham buddies from the Twin 
Cities area I made a road trip down to visit WRL, the amateur radio 
enterprise of Leo WØGFQ. The new Galaxy brand rigs were a sight to 
behold. Opinions may vary on the quality of their later designs and 
venture into CB, but glad to see such historic pride and fond 
remembrance still making it into the local press today. Hope you enjoy too.
73, John, WØPV PS - love that small town newspaper name, "The Daily 
Nonpareil <https://www.nonpareilonline.com/site/about.html>"

[​IMG]

*World Radio put Council Bluffs on the cutting edge of technology 
<https://www.nonpareilonline.com/lifestyles/world-radio-put-council-bluffs-on-the-cutting-edge-of/article_0bbdc7f2-cc60-5412-bd68-92c430d2edd8.html>*

“High tech” wasn’t always synonymous with Silicon Valley. For many 
years, it was Council Bluffs that was home to one of the most innovative 
electronics companies in the country.

What was most recently known as World Radio, actually traces it’s origin 
back to one individual. Leo Meyerson (WØGFQ) began tinkering with 
electronics at the age of 9, turning oatmeal boxes and even toilet paper 
rolls into radio coils. Meyerson was born in Omaha, but the family moved 
to Council Bluffs when he was 8 after his father got a job with Peoples 
Department Store.

Despite his fascination with radio, Meyerson almost embarked on a music 
career. To earn a little money to support his radio hobby, he started 
playing the organ to accompany silent films at the Liberty Theater. He 
found he enjoyed it and was good at it. At the University of Nebraska in 
Lincoln, he formed a piano duo with friend Leo Skalowski. “Leo and Leo” 
had their big break when a talent scout lined up an audition for them 
for the Orpheum circuit. Tragedy struck on the way to the audition when 
Skalowski died in a car accident. Discouraged, Meyerson left school and 
returned to Council Bluffs.

Using a $1,000 loan from his father and a budget so tight he slept in 
his car at night, Meyerson started a radio parts store at Seventh and 
Broadway in Council Bluffs. He called the store Scientific Radio 
Products Company. Meyerson expanded the scope of the business by taking 
old radios as a trade-in and repairing them for resale, as well as 
soliciting mail orders under the name Wholesale Radio Laboratories.

When World War II broke out, most regional beneficiaries of the 
government’s war spending were on the Nebraska side of the river, but 
Meyerson’s company garnered large military contracts for the production 
of quartz radio crystals.

The wartime demand for radio crystals — the component that 
communications equipment used to determine operation frequency — was 
acute. Meyerson changed his focus toward production of quartz crystals 
to sell to the Signal Corps. Working with his father and others, he was 
able to devise ways to mass produce the crystals, accelerating what had 
up to this point been a slow and time consuming process.

The initial order of 10,000 crystals was followed by more orders. The 
Council Bluffs company met the demand, earning several awards from the 
U.S. Army and Navy for it’s fine and timely work in the process. At the 
peak of wartime production, the company employed several hundred people 
and even had it’s own company newspaper, the Crystal Gazer. William 
Petersen, a friend of Meyerson, likewise produced crystals locally. 
Petersen Radio Company was located at 28th and Broadway.

Following the war, Meyerson’s company continued as World Radio 
Laboratory, focusing on equipment for ham radio operators. They were one 
of the first to make amateur radio gear available in kit form. The 
company is also credited as a pioneer of transceivers — a combination 
transmitter and receiver in one unit.

While working with World Radio, Meyerson also formed several related 
companies. Globe Electronics introduced one of the first Citizen’s Band 
radios in the mid-1950s. It’s Globe Scout and Globe King transmitters 
became ham radio legends. Meyerson also formed the World Radio Export 
Company and Galaxy Electronics. Under the Galaxy name, Meyerson 
positioned himself as a technology leader by marketing one of the first 
single side band transceivers available to radio amateurs.

The company built a large facility in the 3400 block of West Broadway in 
1954 to house its manufacturing, local sales and mail order operation. 
“The House the Hams Built” featured a tall tower of antennas on Broadway 
connected to a variety of ham radios that were always up and running, 
with radio amateurs welcome to stop in and chat around the world. The 
firm offered free Morse code classes for aspiring radio operators and 
stocked every electronic part and component imaginable for those who 
wanted to build or repair their own gear.

Just days before the move to the new building, a passerby saw smoke from 
the old building at 7 a.m. He pounded on doors of the second floor 
apartments to awaken the residents; the portion of the second floor that 
had housed Boyle’s Business College was vacant, but there were 11 
occupied apartments. Damage was extensive and firemen had to use caution 
due to toxic gasses produced when heat attacked a 50-gallon drum of 
carbon tetrachloride in the basement.

Leo Meyerson brought in son Larry, who took over as president of the 
company. In the 1960’s, consumer electronics came on the scene and World 
Radio Laboratory — by then known simply as WRL — changed it’s focus to 
providing the home entertainment gear that was coming into demand. The 
company did well in the citizens band (CB) radio boom of the 1960s and 
‘70s, manufacturing the popular Rustler and Rustler II radios at their 
Council Bluffs plant and sold nationally at competitive prices.

The company also expanded beyond Council Bluffs, at it’s peak operating 
24 stores in four states under the World Radio name. In 1989, sales were 
estimated at $40 to $45 million dollars, making it at that time one of 
the largest electronic equipment retail chains.

The Meyersons sold World Radio. Since then, the intense competition of 
the consumer electronics business caused first the consolidation of the 
operation into just a few stores and eventually closure of the company 
entirely.

Leo Meyerson retired to California. He passed away in 2011 at the age of 
100.

 From QRZ:
http://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/world-radio-put-council-bluffs-on-the-cutting-edge-of-technology.642354/