Clocks & Music
1948 Philco 48-464 Bakelite Tube Radio Restored with Bluetooth
1948 Philco 48-464 Bakelite Tube Radio Restored with Bluetooth
This 1948 Philco Model 48-464 is a substantial dark brown Bakelite tabletop set, built around a raised, top-mounted dial hump lettered "PHILCO" beneath a wide horizontal window. The dial spans both Broadcast and Shortwave coverage, with SW markers running from 6 to 18 megacycles and city names, London, Rome, Berlin, Moscow, and Japan, set at their approximate tuning points along the shortwave scale. Below the dial, a fluted horizontal grille spans the front, flanked by four amber-topped knobs for volume, tone, tuning, and band selection.
The 48-464 is a six-tube AC/DC superheterodyne set, built around a 14AF7, two 7B7 tubes, a 7C6, a 50A5 output tube, and a 35Y4 rectifier. It draws power directly from house current without a transformer, a common cost-saving approach in postwar tabletop radios, and drives a permanent magnet dynamic speaker for a compact but well-rounded tone.
Labeling shortwave frequencies by city rather than by number alone was a deliberate design choice on sets like this one, meant to make shortwave listening feel immediate and worldly rather than technical, a small but evocative detail of postwar radio design as international broadcasting expanded in the years after the war. The 48-464's cabinet favors a large, simplified Bakelite shell over the more sculptural cabinets of the prewar era, reflecting the more restrained industrial design language that had taken hold by the late 1940s.
This example has been restored and equipped with Bluetooth through a 1/8 inch adapter, allowing a smartphone, tablet, computer, or record player to connect and play through the radio's original tube driven sound. The result pairs modern convenience with the warm tone of a vintage Philco set, housed in one of the larger and more substantial Bakelite cabinets of the era.
