R-32
When
radio became the rage in 1924-1925, the Victor Talking Machine Company was
caught totally unprepared, and sales of old-style phonographs tanked. So to
get back into the consumer market, Victor relied on a licensing agreement
with RCA to design and produce radios for their radio/phonograph combination
models. This agreement lasted for nearly 5 years. But understandably, Victor did not want to depend on an outside
supplier for a critical element of their products, so they designed and
manufactured their own "Microsynchronous" radio, which proved to be one of
the top-performing sets of 1929.
The
R-32 was a Microsynchronous radio-only set (without phonograph),
and was one of the final products introduced by Victor before RCA purchased the company later that year. It
was functionally identical to Victor's more expensive
R-52 model, which had been launched just a few months earlier; the
difference being that the R-32 utilized a smaller cabinet without doors in
the front to conceal the controls. The R-32 also shared the same
Microsynchronous radio
with the RE-45, the RE-75
and several other upscale models.
Approximately 188,000 R-32's were made before production was officially discontinued
in early 1930, making it the 11th top-selling product that Victor had ever
made. The list price was set at $155.00, which equates
to about $3,000.00 in today's money. Tubes were not included in this price.
The buyer had a choice of a walnut or mahogany veneer with a blended lacquer
finish. The excellent performance of this set and its relatively affordable
price made it an extremely successful product; those units remaining in
dealer stock after the onset of The Depression in the fall of 1929 continued
to sell well. Dealers continued
to market them well into the early 1930's; the Microsynchronous radio
remained a very competitive product even as newer radio designs were being
introduced.
The high cost of restoration of these early
radios limits the interest of many collectors today.
No serial number data has yet been logged for the R-32 in the survival database.
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