Mythopoeic Radio Logos

 

tomorrow is yesterday

 

 

Russian/Soviet tube logos!

Production For All!

Every currently known factory. For identification or just fun.

 

 

Once upon a time, the future was our friend. We didn't dread every new invention. I wasn't born when this changed, but I assume the nuclear bomb had a lot to do with it.

But there's more. I can sort of remember when commerce was also our friend. Like now, guys could start companies in their garages. Unlike now, the point was usually to make better widgets, not to sell stock. Especially where technology was concerned, a couple of engineers would usually meet over lunch and come up with a friendly name like

 

Joe's Radio Company .

 

But telecom became way more serious business, and everyone was gobbled up or driven out by meganationals with names like

 

EATX ® .

 

Technogeeks didn't need to hire huge ad agencies and pay for 2000 focus groups, because for the most part we still had a shared semiotic code. The company logo was usually another lunch meeting. Stories abound of some engineer scribbling a thunderbolt inside an atom over a globe, sending it to a printer who'd pretty it up a bit, and for a couple hundred bucks instead of a couple hundred million, there was the company image.

People seem to like this logo page a lot. Sometimes it's camp, the irony of looking back at a Eurocentric faith in science we'll never have again. There's more, though. There's a real sense that, somehow, all this weirdness belonged to us. After all, it did. It was folklore, not statistical marketing analysis by people shut off in a building somewhere. We need folklore. We need our shared symbols, our mythos, our language, and our future back. They belong to the people.

Meanwhile, enjoy yesterday's tomorrow.

logos A-H

logos I-Z

 


Altec Lansing Company

(Maestro, hi-fi products)

 


Altec Lansing Company

(Generic Logo)

 


Ambient Sound Company

(70s, from S. Wilson)

 


American Radio Relay League

 


American Telephone & Telegraph

(Bell Telephone, 1930s-50s)

 


Amperex

 


Andrew Company

(Thanks to Reid Brandon)

 


Antenna Specialists Company

 


Australian Electric Valve Importers Pty Ltd.

(Thanks to John Kaesehagen)

 


Burstein-Applebee Company

(Still property of Applebee family;
not a public domain boat anchor logo)

 


Collins Radio Company

(Wings, pre-60s)

 


Collins Radio Company

(Round, post-60s)

 


Communications Company (50s-60s)

 


Lee de Forest

(Thanks to Reid Brandon)

 


Dualex
(1950's)

 


DuMont

 


E.F. Johnson

 


Eitel-McCullough

(Original company; thanks to Reid Brandon)

 


Eitel-McCullough

(Current logo, property of CPI, Inc.;
thanks to R. Brandon)

 


Electrical Contractors Assn.

 


Electro-Tec Corporation

 


Electro-Walser

(Switzerland, 1960s)

 


Eveready Raytheon

(Co-branding by National Carbon, 1929)

 


Eveready Battery Company

("9 Lives" Cat, 30s-50s)

 


Federal Telegraph Company

(1920s?)

 


Freier Rundfunk Oberösterreich GmbH

(N. Austrian Free Radio, 2001)

 


General Electric

 


The Hallicrafters Company

(Round, pre-60s)

 


The Hallicrafters Company

(Circuit, post-60s)

 


Hammarlund Manufacturing Company

 


Hammond Manufacturing, Inc.

(1950s?)

 


Hammond Manufacturing, Inc.

 


Harrison Radio

 


The Heath Company

(1960s, courtesy Flavio Betti)

 


Heintz & Kaufman, Ltd.
(1940s)
(60s, courtesy Flavio Betti)

 


Hytron Radio & Electronics Corp.

 

logos I-Z

 

logos remain property of their respective companies
(when extant)

 

logos i-z

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Last, best update 11/26/08