Thomas replica cathedral AM/FM radio/cassette player from 1989

[@sheranealey7787]

I just purchased a crosley cathedral,with cassette practically brand new for $20. Sound is great for my nightstand..I love it. Purchased @ a thrift store

[@vintageceilingfans]

I have the GE version from the late 1980s, this one didn't have the cassette player on the side.. My aunt bought it for me back in 1990 after a few years of wanting one for Christmas when seeing them at a Costco in 1988.. That year I got a Panasonic boombox instead and remember being a little disappointed that it wasn't the old style radio as I would call it back then.. My aunt bought it at one of those Service Merchandise type of places where the item would come down off a belt.. I still have it.. I think it needs to be recapped, it use to lock in far away stations much better than it does now..

[@sheranealey7787]

Love the vintage look

[@justsumguy2u]

I had a Philco-Ford cathedral from '76. It worked fine, but as soon as I got it home, the solid state electronics went into the trash can, and I had fitted a 5 tube Zenith chassis into it. The hardest part was relocating the tuning capacitor (I had to make special brackets), and getting the dial to work. I also replaced the 4" speaker with a 5"x7". The radio worked quite well.

[@Jericho297]

I would of done the same.

[@jeepguy95]

When my grandmother moved 2 years ago, she gave me hers that my mom got for her back in 1988 or so... it sits in our den and I don't play it very much... but it's so cool to have the radio in my possession that I remember when I was a little kid.

[@generalpatzer6893]

That's not a bad looking radio for a reproduction. I recently found a General Electric late 80's solid state cathedral 1930's style reproduction radio in almost new condition at the thrift store for $20. It works and sounds great! No dirty controls and nice smooth tuning dial with still working light. Made in Malaysia! I'll never get rid of it.

[@vintageceilingfans]

I still have mine my aunt bought me back in 90 for my birthday, and I recently found one in a thrift in very nice condition like you did.. I could not walk away from it..

[@3Cr15w311]

The Paul Harvey imitation made me giggle and reminds me of hearing him for so many years as a kid and into my young adult years.

[@shango066]

Jerry Reed you called it!

[@arthureverett8220]

They use a rubber tire on the tuning shaft that dry rots over the years causing it unable to tune any radio stations and not turning the vernier dial. I used rubber grommets to fix this problem

[@vintageceilingfans]

I saw that video, I have one with that problem..

[@cowtippingrocks]

I got one for Christmas , but it was rectangular shape . I think modeled after a Zenith . Got it in 1990, and gave it away in 2008, still worked just fine! Older reproductions are way better than the crosley crap made today.

[@vintageceilingfans]

Agreed!!!

[@tectalabyss]

Thank you for sharing. I am looking forward to more videos. Take care.

[@Rebel9668]

I had a Thomas cathedral back in the early 90's that worked great, different model from this, had a darker finish and a different grill design. I used it mostly to play tapes of old radio shows on as we lived quite a ways from any decent stations on FM and there wasn't a way to attach an external antenna.

[@ekop1778]

Rebel9668 WENT THROUGH 6 OF THESE THINGS THREW THEM OUT AM NEVER WORKED THEYRE GOOD BUT THIS IS ANALOG THATS WHY

[@Rebel9668]

The AM on mine worked fine. The FM might have worked if we had been in range of more than just the one local station we had and believe me, that station, WSLM, Salem, Indiana was a real joke back in the day. It's still not a very good station today. Their signal cuts in and out all the time and was out completely for a couple of days last week. Thank goodness however that they're only a 5,000 watt station nowadays because back when the station was 50,000 watts it bled over all the way across the dial on every receiver in the house, from the old The Fisher model 90, to my little Thomas, lol.

[@Rebel9668]

As far as Analogue goes, I prefer it in some situations, like fine tuning. If an analogue station is weak, you can still listen to it if you choose whereas with a digital tuner, if the radio decides the station isn't strong enough it'll jump right past it. That irritates me to no end when I'm wanting to listen to 103.5 WAKY in my truck and the Kenwood digital receiver won't stop there on scan, so I have to go through the whole rigamarole of switching to seek and tapping the button until I manually get there.

[@ekop1778]

Rebel9668 HI I WENT THROUGH 5 OR 6 OF THESE THOMAS RADIOS .WORKED OK BUT HAD SO MUCH STATIC -IM IN HARTFORD,CT THERES SO MUCH INTERFERENCE THAT I HAD TO GO BACK TO MY BOOMBOX I GOT AT CVS 2 YRS AGO WORKS OK BUT STILL GET SOME STATIC

[@realgroovy24]

digital (at least in wireless transmission of data wise) is far worse than analog, when you've got a poor analog signal it will have a little static but you can still hear the station but when digital has even a slightly bad signal it will screw up badly.

[@markmarkofkane8167]

We have Philco reproduction from 1972. It had AM and FM, and aux input. It still works. But needs filter cap. Not badly, but would help. Summer Breeze. Brings back memories of my youth.

[@arthureverett8220]

Mark Markofkane They use a 1000 mfd at 35 volt electrolytic filter cap

[@seatboi]

Sounds like the "Gazette" player needs new rubbers! LOL! That Paul Harvey parody/skit was FUNNY!

[@gavincurtis]

Gut it of the "electronics" and dip the wood in several thick layers of spar varnish... allow to cure properly and you have an awesome bird house that looks like a radio!!!

[@roadmaster720]

you have a good point to recycle the radio cabinet. it would make a swell birdhouse. little birdies chilling to the moldy oldies tunes of the 1950's such as "castle in the sky".i would never have thought of that. our present age is one of recycle/reuse. save the electronic waste until the local landfill has a electronic waste collection day. better electronics construction would make these items last longer,however.

[@heiditownsend3498]

Figures the only thing I wanted to do was get the cassette

[@cttv90108]

I have the GE you mentioned. It's actually a good receiver on AM and FM.

[@EddieJazzFan]

They could have easily put a bigger speaker in that big cabinet. Would have given it some great bass. What is that like a 3 or 4 inch speaker?

[@arthureverett8220]

margaretsville You can drill extra holes in the back cover and mount a 5x7 speaker inside the back cover and remove the tiny front speaker. It would be rear firing but would give better bass response

[@EmersonCollie]

I remember getting this for Christmas from my Grandmother in 1989. The AM/FM worked fine but the cassette player on the side never worked right even when it was new. When it played, I would have to turn the volume all the way up to hear it and it was still too low to hear. I guess it was a nice try although I would much rather have the real thing.

[@arthureverett8220]

Emerson Collie The tape head needs cleaning with alcohol and a long q tip. Dirty tape head will produce very very low volume or no volume at all. I repaired many of these Thomas radios. They are not built for quality. Basically show pieces!!

[@Captain_Char]

im glad i managed to get my philco model 70 when i did and due to connections was able to acquire it for half the asking price

[@heiditownsend3498]

Can't seem to find anybody that knows how to fix one

[@donfraysier5079]

Enjoyed this one.

[@pcno2832]

I found one of the Philco versions of that in an attic a while back. It was older, with no IC on the PC board and, made in USA with a chassis that was obviously thrown together even more sloppily than that one and covered with wax in Taiwan or Hong Kong. It had terrible sound, but by tweaking the tone control capacitors I was able to bring it up to some reasonable standard. I gave it to my sister to use with a turntable and the last I tried it, it was still OK.

[@MisterTalkingMachine]

I wonder if the cabinet would be useful in the case of someone finding an original radio that has no cabinet, or it's totally destroyed; if is there any model that would fit inside this one.

[@OlegKostoglatov]

No, it's pretty much useless for that, the cabinet is cheap junk too.

[@MisterTalkingMachine]

OlegKostoglatov It certainly is (looks better than today's chinese Crosleys though), I was just thinking of it as a last option on the case of a radio that lost it's cabinet.

[@spresc2180]

If there was an identical to this original Crosley, could you stuff its chassis into this one?

[@davidhicks2178]

I found one at the drop off at a thrift store one night when I was dropping stuff off, so I took it as a trade. That was in 2002, my sister has it now. Still works and so does the cassette player, although no longer have any cassettes lol

[@richardcline1337]

I bought a GE AM/FM cathedral radio, made in Malaysia, several years ago. It actually has a mailing address on the back for GE! Surprisingly it seems to work well and has fairly good sound for what it is. I've seen others that look almost identical to it but with the Thomas brand on it and they were just pitiful excuses.

[@ritchienavarro2920]

THIS RADIO IS GOOD.

[@metalmoto]

Don't you know...when people know you collect/restore antique radios. They just have to give you one of those reproduction radios for Christmas. I just got another one. Now I got 3. This new one just says "RADIO" on the front. No kidding...

[@kenseabury1067]

I like hearing that interesting imitation of Paul Harvey. From the front, at least the radio is aesthetically pleasing, in my opinion!

[@jimrick6632]

I JUST GOT A BENJAMIN REPLICA...LOVE IT....ANY IDEA OF THE DATE OF PRODUCTION OF THIS RADIO..LOOKS JUST LIKE THIS ONE???

[@h.e.rogish5701]

Any idea what bulb is used to replace the dial light?

[@arthureverett8220]

H. E. Rogish They use a 6 volt bulb

[@riverhuntingdon6659]

We had the same thing, badged as a Steepletone. Tinny little speaker, tone control with a mind of its own, and el cheapo cassette mechanism, as used on the low end car stereos in the 80's. Nasty things. Best avoided LOL

[@williefleete]

It's not even an auto reverse deck by the looks of things, similar to ones from VERY cheap car radios, lots of wow on that thing

[@realgroovy24]

I saw one at the dump it was saved though it was an original it used an american plug not the standard NZ/AU plug

[@guyonearth]

The main reason they make junk like this in the first place is because somebody with little taste and less knowledge will buy it. Take a three dollar radio chassis and a leftover obsolete cassette transport, stick it in a five dollar particle board cabinet, and you've got something you can sell to the clueless for two or three times what an ordinary table radio or small boom box would cost. Call it a "collector" item, you can probably add another ten bucks.

[@jasonthejawman5442]

Where you been at? Please post more new Videos

[@Tguin]

How do you rewind an Audio tape on it? I tried and it's keep on fast forwarding it.

[@madonnafitzgerald7840]

You have to turn the tape to the other side and then fast-forward it, and flip it back over, then it should be rewinded. That’s how cassettes work. The farther along on a side of the tape that you get, the more the other side will be rewinded.

[@Evan420]

We saw this at an estate sale it, said Thomas Collector's Edition on it. I forgot what they wanted for it, but it was too much

[@caman171]

how do u find someone to work on radios anymore?

[@TheCRTman]

At least it has sentimental value. A almost laughed hearing the 8-Track cassette player messing up at 5:43. Nice Perry Mason remix at 6:15!

[@OlegKostoglatov]

It's a cassette player, not an 8 track, you insert cassettes the same way as you would in many car dashboard cassette players in that era.

[@TheCRTman]

OlegKostoglatov Oh whoops. For some reason I always get those confused.

[@josephfrye7342]

well I was kinda pissed or/and sad that they dont make the actual original anymore all we got is reproduction replicas or somthing.

[@arthureverett8220]

I have a GE retro cathedral from mid 80s. Very excellent tone quality and super sensitive. Also have a Windsor all plastic cathedral radio repurposed as an extension speaker due to chassis sustaining lightning damage Upgraded the speaker to a good 5x7. I power it with a GE superadio. Best sounding combo I ever owned!!!!!

[@SebisRandomTech]

Certainly not as bad as today's junk, but still nothing compared to the originals.

[@ekop1778]

SebisGameReviews HAD REPRO CROSLEY RADIOS FROM AMAZON NEVER WORKED HAD 6 OF THESE THOMAS RADIOS NEVER WORKED SO GOOD, WELL IT DID AM NEVER WORKED THAT GOOD FM WAS GOOD

[@realgroovy24]

+SebisGameReviews Yeah, after about 26 years of being alive its still going! needed repair but still mostly works, especially for a generic Chinese radio.

[@marthasmadman]

I have one similar to this and is a piece of crap but my friend gave it to me so I guess I'll hang on to it

[@fuzzybobbles]

I bought a Crosley record player cd thing. Only paid £5 for it as it's scratched and the cd player doesn't work. I'm going to put some fireworks inside it and give it the send off it deserves.

[@JohnSmith-eo5sp]

0:05 'Replica', not "reproduction" - - the former has authenticity because it uses the same materials & technology and/or is fabricated by the original manufacturer/company. A 'replica' is just a cheap duplicate that merely mimics the aesthetics of the original

[@arthureverett8220]

Cute radio. They are basically made for looks. They are not a quality radio. For show only!!!!

[@fallout0624]

Late I know, but that's the truth. I've had mine since I was young and it is currently having major issues

[@playboy0869]

My sis gave me the exactly the same of for free no lie and it says 1989 in back and made from china but its a cool lil radio i just dont know what kind of cassets it uses

[@purplesabbath9057]

I didn't realize such cheap junk was being made in 1989. In fact, I would have thought that shit like this didn't show up on the market until after I was born (which was 1997). Most of the audio stuff I find from this time period is very high quality and usually made in Japan. For example, over the summer I purchased the Technics SA-R230 receiver, manufactured from 1988-1990. But, even then I guess we were getting worthless junk from China.

[@ddorfpunk]

i agree. stuff like that was not so common back then as it is today.

[@purplesabbath9057]

ddorfpunk1 234 Well, I have since learned that it was more common than I thought, but yeah cheap audio equipment has gotten more abundant over the years.

[@ddorfpunk]

+Purple Sabbath yes, the late 80s were when china crap era started off, but there were also still many high quality devices sold in the stores. if u look in the stores today there is only crap, especially in the TV/ small radio category. HiFi and Speakers are sometimes decent tho. I am 19 yrs old and my dad had a mid/late 80s TV when I was a kid made by philips and it was very high quality, great picture and amazing stereo sound for a TV. Since then my fascination for vintage stuff began. I have a mid 80s yamaha receiver which powers my 1978 kenwood tower Speakers which is also reliable and well made.

[@purplesabbath9057]

Cool, I have a really nice set of Sansui speakers that I believe were made in 1980 or so. And, as I mentioned in my original comment I also have a sweet Technics receiver that I paid only $12 for. I'm also 19 by the way. It's nice to know there are other young people interested in vintage audio.

[@ddorfpunk]

+Purple Sabbath yes, sadly most of our generation prefers the flimsy and butt ugly china crap cause its 'sooo high tech' :/

[@2davydo]

I thought about finding one of these cheep sets for a project of just ripping everything out of it and replacing with a home brew all tube chassis and bigger speaker if it would even be worth it ?

[@barrybear2012]

I would love to see a modern American-made retro cathedral radio made with the highest quality American-made capacitors, resistors, diodes, and either high quality transistors, high quality tubes, or a mix between the two. And it would have to have either a long wire antenna or high quality ferrite rod for AM, a long wire antenna for FM, and connections for external AM and FM antennas. And if it means paying a premium price for that, then so be it. I would rather buy that instead of buying one cheap Chinese made crap reproduction after another and throwing cash in the trash and funding a communist state which in prisons political protesters and killing prisoners and harvesting their organs.

[@jasonthejawman5442]

Post New Videos Please

[@realgroovy24]

he will post as many videos as he wants.

[@rohnkd4hct260]

saw one of these at a flea market. wanted $40.00 for it . I laughed at her. And it didn't work on top of that! Made her an offer and she laughed . Guess she still has it. LOL

[@KingRiverVlogs]

What was your offer?