POWERGRAMS

2 preservation to join us. There's so much to learn about the history of radios and electronics, and we've got the perfect place to do it in the shop." As far as the tinkering goes, it's serious work. Mountain Brook Mayor Stewart Welch brought them his late grandmother's cherished radio, a 1942 Crosley console. After a crucial vacuum tube caught fire, the radio had been sitting inoperable several years in the lobby of his office at The Welch Group, an investment planning and financial advisory business. "Dave Cisco and all the guys at the AHRS did an amazing job of transforming a very well-worn, actually beat-up, nonfunctioning radio, into a beautiful, fully functional work of art," Welch said. "They are an extremely talented and passionate group of folks and I can't thank them enough for restoring my most prized memory of my grandmother." "They" are AHRS President Dave Johnson, who tackled the electronics, and Frank Parker, who handled the cabinetry. It took both men two months of tedious work to restore the mayor's radio. The shop has hosted the annual "Legends of Broadcast" luncheon the past nine years, as former Birmingham radio and television personalities, technicians and engineers meet to swap stories and keep memories alive. "The AHRS is doing wonderful work," said Sharon Tinsley, president of the Alabama Broadcasters Association. "Not only is the group preserving and repairing equipment, they are also capturing the history of broadcasting in Alabama." The museum and AHRS were the brainchild of the late Don Kresge, a radio enthusiast who helped General Electric develop FM radio in the 1930s. Kresge worked on the LORAN (long-range navigation) radio system for Bendix during World War II. "After he retired in the late 1970s, he became aware of television getting all the attention and people forgetting how important radio was in people's lives from 1920 to 1950," Cisco said. "He felt like this history needed to be preserved." Cisco and six others partnered with Kresge in 1989 to create AHRS. The museum in the atrium, meanwhile, has been somewhat of a roadshow. It started when retired Alabama Power Archivist Bill Tharpe asked to borrow some of Kresge's impressive radio collection, which Kresge kept in his basement, to display in the company's Archives and Museum to celebrate the 70th anniversary of WSY in 1992. Cisco said Alabama Power didn't have a place to permanently keep the collection, nor what was still in Kresge's basement, so it landed at the Fairfield Civic Center. An AHRS board member was employed with the wife of then- Mayor Larry Langford, who offered the space. A new Fairfield city administration wasn't interested in keeping the collection, so AHRS leaders asked Tharpe for help. Tharpe convinced Alabama Power officials to allow the exhibit to be displayed in the hall linking the atrium and the original 1925 Building. "The problem was, only employees with badge access could see the display," Tharpe said. "We met with Facilities Services and other company officials and got approval to relocate it in the atrium where the general public could have access. "The Alabama Historical Radio Society is truly a hidden treasure," Tharpe said. Heralded museum holds more than 800 vintage radios. The Alabama Historical Radio Museum is at APC Corporate Headquarters and in a former bank across the street.

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