Scott serial numbers

[Kent King]

As most of you know, I've been gathering and analyzing Scott serial numbers for over 20 years. I have a couple requests....first, if you haven't sent me your serial numbers, please do. Also...if any of you have a confirmed date for a set/serial number, please send me that. There is a warranty tag on ebay at the moment, these are great, since they have the date and serial number on them. A letter with a date is also good confirmation. I would greatly appreciate any info you fellows can provide. I'll post more about serial numbers here in the future.

Kent

[Kent King]

David -

I gathered some P/S numbers years ago. There are several problems with them: (1) they can (I had 2 examples) have the same serial as a tuner chassis. So they aren't exclusive. They typically didn't pair either..I have at least two sets in my personal collection where I know the tuner/amp have been together all their lives, and they both do NOT match. Finally (and the biggest concern): P/S units and tuners get swapped all the time. There is absolutely no correlation between an amp and a tuner unless the history of the set is known (very rare). Also, here's a fun one: I've seen P/S units for Philharmonics and late sets that have 3 letters, e.g.; AAA-123 or BBB-456. Not sure how those fit into the production. Of course, there are a handful of Laureate tuners that have FA and FB serial numbers. Still a few things to figure out that we may never know.

Kent

[David Wilson]

Kent,

Here is my AW 15 serial number: F-423, I think you already have my AW 27 number: Z-558. I will get you my friends numbers for his AW 12, AW 15 & Philharmonic.

David 

[David Wilson]

Kent,

Here are three more Scott serial numbers for you

AW 12: X-179 

AW 15: L-310

Philharmonic BOL: BB-380 

[David Wilson]

Kent,

I have another serial number for you on AW 15: J359

Best,

David

[Kent King]

David - 

We can narrow down the build date on that set...J-350 was built Aug 24, 1934. Your set would have been within just a very few days (J-419 was built 21-Sep).

Kent

[David Wilson]

Kent,

Thank you for the serial numbr information. It looks like these two 1934 AW 15's were made faily early in to the AW 15 production. Do you have any idea when Scott ended their AW 15 production? 

Thanks!

David

[David C. Poland]

David - 

Re: AW-15's - The AW-23 was introduced March 1935. Although I know of no verified AW-15 advertising dated after March 1935,  the AW-15's were probably built a little while longer for those who didn't want the more expensive new model (was economic depression, after all). And after allowing for parts inventory for warranty repairs, be in Scotts economic interest to exhaust remaining AW-15 chassis and parts on hand.

Also,  in comparison, we know that after the Philharmonic was introduced in Spring 1937, Scott continued to advertise the AW-23 well into late 1937 - I have a multipage brochure for the AW-23, Philharmonic, the model Sixteen and the late 1930's Scott Autotroph, a 30 record radio/phono combo.

[Tom Jardine]

Kent, is there a newer/revised Scott model vs. serial number listing available? That might be something to place in the Scott Info Archive.

Tom

[David Wilson]

Hi David,

Thanks for your feedback here! I find this time period for Scott interesting. I have gone back and look at Scott ads in all issues of Radio News Magazine in the years of 1935, 1936 and 37. In part of 1935 and most of 1936 Scott ran a full page ad, in the front of the magazine promoting the AW 23. Scott cut the size down to an 1/8 page single column ad in early 1937 and ran that small AW 23 ad until May. Scott’s Philharmonic ad push started in June of 1937 when they come back with a full page in a premium position in the front of the publication. I believe and I would have to check again that Scott did run an AW 15 ad or two in 1936. I remember being surpised to see the ad because the focus had been on their AW 23 model. Scott may have cut back to the smaller ad in late 1936 too. I remember see McMurdo writing regular guest stories in Radio News in 1936 and durring this time Scott dropped their ad size to the smaller size. 

I will have to go back and check again. I really need to build a log of what issue of Radio News had what Scott or McMurdo ads running. It would be interesting to log all ads and editoral stories for the two companies from  in all issue of Radio News 1931 to 1945. I will try to find time to do this and report back here. 

David

David C. Poland said:

David - 

Re: AW-15's - The AW-23 was introduced March 1935. Although I know of no verified AW-15 advertising dated after March 1935,  the AW-15's were probably built a little while longer for those who didn't want the more expensive new model (was economic depression, after all). And after allowing for parts inventory for warranty repairs, be in Scotts economic interest to exhaust remaining AW-15 chassis and parts on hand.

Also,  in comparison, we know that after the Philharmonic was introduced in Spring 1937, Scott continued to advertise the AW-23 well into late 1937 - I have a multipage brochure for the AW-23, Philharmonic, the model Sixteen and the late 1930's Scott Autotroph, a 30 record radio/phono combo.

[David Wilson]

Kent,

I have established, from looking at every 1931 & 32 issue of Radio News Magazine, that Scott started their advertising on their dual dial AW 12 in the June 1931 issue and continued to run dual dial AW 12 ads for 13 consecutive months ending in June of 1932 with 4 full page ads in the same issue of Radio News.  Scott introduces In Radio News Magazine the next month, July 1932, their new AW 12 with a single dial Allwave De Luxe Radio.  I will look tonight to see if I can tell when Scott stopped running AW 12 ads and introduced the AW 15 ads by going through all the Radio News issues in 1933, 1934 and 35.

Kent... in the Scott radio book you helped with it has the introduction of the AW 12 dual dial radio as being October 1930. Do you know the source for this October 1930 introduction date?

Also, here is some additional Scott serial numbers from another one of our radio club members: 

AW 12 S-199

AW 15 E-274

AW 23 W 606

All the best!

David

David Wilson said:

Kent,

Thank you for the serial numbr information. It looks like these two 1934 AW 15's were made faily early in to the AW 15 production. Do you have any idea when Scott ended their AW 15 production? 

Thanks!

David

[Norman S Braithwaite]

David: Scott advertised in several periodicals switching from one to another on occasion. One must research all popular periodicals at the time to get the full story. Scott also tended to introduce new models based on prototypes and mock ups before the model sold to the public was available. I assessed the introduction date of the Allwave Superhetrodyne ( 2-dial) as January 1931 based on the first advertisement showing the model as it was received by the customer. Kent may have have assessed the introduction date based on an ad showing a prototype.

Norman

[David Wilson]

Norm,

 

I appreciate your comments here. I did go back and look at the E. H. Scott Collector’s Guide tonight when I got home from work and I answered my question to Kent about his source. His source was Scott News October 1930 for the introduction of the AW 12. Sorry, I should have look this up before asking Kent here.

 

I agree with you that Scott was probably testing their AW 12 in the 8 months leading up to Scott’s advertising campaign launch to support their new radio. 

 

Being in the advertising agency business for over 36 years I have a different view though concerning Scotts advertising and Radio News. I have managed several national accounts for U.S. product manufactures and have a good understand of media buying that goes into these kinds of campaigns. I enjoy collecting old magazines, studying the advertising and advertising strategies used in some of these old advertising campaigns. So collecting old and then getting to study the marketing and advertising behind the radio companies like Scott, McMurdo and Zenith are kind of a bonus for me.

 

Norm, yes there were other magazines Scott advertised in, two of which were Fortune and Nation Geographic. I own a complete set of National Geographic magazines, bound by each year going all the way through the 1930’s and Scott did very limited ads in that publication due to the cost it looks like. I also own a large collection of Fortune Magazines with most of the issues from the 1930’s, which Scott ran a couple ads in and Zenith also ran a couple full page ads for their 1000 Z Stratosphere at the about the same time as Scott. These magazines had large circulation for the time and a small radio manufacturing company like Scott, who was only making only 3,000 to 5,000 radios a year, could not sustain a regular advertising schedule in them due to the cost. My research indicates that Scott most likely tested magazines like Fortune and National Geographic on a very limited basis because one reach the industry leaders who made the kind of money it took in a depression to by a $300 radio and the other reached the wealthier world travelers. Scott would have had to run 6 ads a year minimum in each publication to achieve an effective reach and frequency. I think they found they were not getting results and it just was not sustainable.

 

Scott and other small direct to consumers radio manufactures focused their media buys in publications where serious radio listening aficionados were subscribing and they could afford to run the ads in almost every issue, achieving an effective maxim reach and frequency to get their message noticed. Radio News was the first and only big magazine category from 1919 to 1929. Radio Craft Magazine became their direct competition in 1929.  Direct to consumers radio sellers like Scott did not advertising in large radio industry publications like Radio Retailing and Radio Today because these magazine target audience were radio distributor or resellers who they did not use.  So, if you look at Radio News it was the primary magazine that the direct to consumer radio manufactures like Scott, Midwest and Silver Marshall and later McMurdo Silver competed in almost every issue with large ads for radio sales. Many of these companies advertised in Radio News consistently for a good part of the 1930’s.  These companies were consistent advertisers in the magazine and because of this make the magazine is good indicator of where these companies were spending there adverting money behind each radio model they sold and when their models changed.

 

As far as your theory of switching from one magazine to the other, that is not how print media is usually bought in my industry. Successful campaign run ads constantly in publications with the correct target audience and where the manufacture is gets the best return on their advertising investment.

 

So let’s look at what the research Radio News research shows us. In Radio News Magazine in 1930 no editorial or ads ran on the Scott’s AW 12 and no editorial or ads ran on the Scott AW 12 from January 1931 to May 1931 ether. Keep in mind, Radio Craft Magazine, Radio’s News’s new competition started publishing in July of 1929 and was just starting to build its circulation and had much less advertisers because of their low number subscribers  at the time. More on Radio News can be found here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_News

 

This is what ran from June 1931 to June 1932 in terms radio

ads in Radio News Magazine:

 

E.H. Scott: (17) full-page ads*

Lincoln Radio:  (7) full-page ads

Silver Marshall: (12 full-page ads

Midwest: (10) full page-ads*

* More than one full-page ads per issue.

 

What does this tell us, it tells us that Radio News was effective for all these companies because they kept advertising in the publication. This research tells us Scott out spent there nearest competition, Silver Marshall by 30% in Radio News in their first full year of selling the AW 12.  It tells us that Scott started their marketing for their dual dial, AW 12 in June of 1931 and they switch advertising in June of 1932 to focus selling their new single dial AW 12. So I think, in Scott’s case, Radio News it’s a good indication when radio sales start for a model and when there is a model changed and who had the strongest advertising voice in their marketing efforts.

 

I will keep you posted here on what I learn and will continue to collect Scott serial numbers from collectors I know and submit them here.

 

David

Norman S Braithwaite said:

David: Scott advertised in several periodicals switching from one to another on occasion. One must research all popular periodicals at the time to get the full story. Scott also tended to introduce new models based on prototypes and mock ups before the model sold to the public was available. I assessed the introduction date of the Allwave Superhetrodyne ( 2-dial) as January 1931 based on the first advertisement showing the model as it was received by the customer. Kent may have have assessed the introduction date based on an ad showing a prototype.

Norman