Zenith C845L Table Radio
There's a story behind this one. I already have a Zenith radio that is almost exactly the same as this one, so I didn't really need another. As luck would have it, though, I was out delivering a letter for my employer when I cast my eyes across the street to a nearby antique store. I could barely make out the back of a radio sitting on an old piece of furniture, next to a humongous jukebox.
I decided right then and there that I was going to go in that store and examine the radio. In the best case, I'd obtain it. As for the worst case, I figured that the worst thing would be finding that the radio was overpriced. So, in my prompt spirit of getting around to doing things, about two weeks passed. Fortunately, nobody noticed the radio in that time, so I walked in and took a look at it. The owner of the shop came up to me and started to talk about how the radio had come from an estate sale and he had $30 in it.
"So does it play?" I asked.
The guy said yes, so I took it way back into the shop and plugged it in. The tubes warmed up and music came from the radio. Okay, how about price? The other one of these that I have was nearly free. $30 would be hard to justify.
Moments later, the store owner suggested $20. I hemmed and hawed a bit...he dropped the price to $15. I probably could have asked him to go lower, but $15 sounded fair...after all, the radio played and that's the biggest part of the battle. I got the cash and took it home right away.
Upon getting it home the fun started...this radio was filthy inside and out. The control knobs were worn down to the underlying plastic, the grille was stained, everything reeked of cigarette smoke and the insides were jam packed with dust. I started inside first and cleaned all the dust out of the chassis. After all that cleaning, the radio smelled and looked a lot better.
At this point the radio plays well and sounds great on AM, FM and by way of the phono plug, which I have used to play a CD player, iPod and tape deck into the radio. (You can do this because older equipment that expects a turntable to use a ceramic pickup will tolerate a line-level signal. Note: Some people have suggested to me that using this input plug might cause a hazardous situation in some cases. The most concern seemed to be presented over the possibility of the connected device's case becoming electrically live. I have no had no problems plugging things into this radio to play them, but your experience could be different! Please be careful if you do this.)
However, there's no doubt that some preventative maintenance should be done to keep this radio playing at its best. Just like its "twin", this radio needs to have its power plug replaced. The insulation is cracking away and leaving exposed wiring, which could short. Also, the paper/wax capacitors should be replaced with more modern units. Finally, there's something up with the tuning. FM tuning will only go up to about 106.5 MHz even at the extreme top of the dial. AM tuning seems largely unaffected and the variable capacitor is moving all the way up and down.
One thing I have definitely noticed is that almost every old Zenith radio I've collected has played out of the box, and played well. This one is no exception. Most all of my other radios have required at least a good recapping and usually some other repairs before they would play. Did Zenith really do a superior job of building their radios?
(Oh, and if you're wondering...the "grand opening" announcement above and the music playing through the radio by way of the CD player is "period correct". Obviously the CD player and remote control are not. :-) )
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