The ’40’s and ’50’s were capitalized by a feature we have all become accustomed to and tend to overlook: the “seek” option. This option made it possible for drivers to find station without having to continuously turn the knob. Ford was one of the companies to make the “seek” option so popular with its “Town and Country” models.
The name came from the two buttons located on the radio “Town” and “Country.” When the Town button was pressed the tuning mechanism rotated as the sensitivity was decreased so that only local stations would be selected. In contrast, the Country button made the same mechanism rotate but with full sensitivity so that distant stations could be received.
For continuous seeking, rather than pressing the button, a petal was available for the driver to press with their foot. This petal was located on the far left where the “dead petal” can be found today. This convenient feature aided in travel and really helped car audio take off. The rest of the 1950’s brought an assortment of improvements to car audio and we will dive into those next week!
I have a 1951 Ford F1 pickup. I am looking for a vintage looking radio (that would have came stock) but actually has a lot more of today’s features. Do you have something like this?
Also in addition to sound systems do you also do other vehicle electrical work such as horn installations, or install turn signal system?
Thank you
John k Clark
(750)395-4163
Leave a Reply