Tucker Radios

[Tucker Fan 48]

With serial numbers ranging from #24267 to #53953 that we know of it seems there are at least 30,000 radios out there.
If Motorola started with #00001 there could be a lot more. Maybe Richard Jones could let us know how far they go back
as I'm sure he has seen way more Tucker parts and radios than we can ever dream of seeing.

Also if anyone with a Tucker radio can take a quick look at the back of their case and see if they have a number lower or
higher than these. The number is located in the lower right hand corner on the side that is opposite of where the plugs go
in. If it's a genuine Tucker radio it will be a model 708T6 and have a serial number stamped into the case. For anyone lucky
enough to have a box it is written on the box. The boxes were sometimes stamped with the dealers name they were
shipped to. To find the date it was made simply remove the two small screws on the top, one on each end, and slide the
top (the part with the holes in it) off of the radio. Inside the top cover there should be a date stamped with a rubber date
stamp.

From what we can tell so far is #25000 was made mid-June of 1948, by the third week in July 1948 they were at #30000,
by mid-August 1948 they crossed #36000 and by and by mid-Sept they hit #46000. At that pace I'm going to guess that
Eric's # 53953 was made between October 10th and the 15th of 1948. It appears they were making about 5000 per month
from June to August and then doubled production to about 10000 per month. Since Motorola was just a couple miles down
Cicero Avenue the Motorola executives must have been convinced Tucker was going to be cranking out cars soon. Seems like
they made a lot of radios.

[cicero]

Those numbers seem high to me. This is making the assumption that Motorola had a distinct set of serial numbers for this model and were not assigning S/N's out of one large pool for multiple models. I don't know which way they did it but I do know that some other manufactures during that time frame assigned them from one large pool for all of their production. Delta Manufacturing (woodworking tools) is one such company.

[plancor 792]

Sorry I can't help you out with serial numbers and numbers of radios Motorola made for Tucker. It was for sure more than the number of automobiles Tucker built. Also don't recall that J. C. Whitney had the radios advertised for sale but this is not saying he didn't. When Nick Jenin finally shut down his project, he ended up taking loads of Tucker stuff to the city dump as no one wanted it. What would the family be worth today had they kept his collection? Nick told me he sold them as the family was unhappy with them. However some of the family now say otherwise.
Richard Jones

[Tucker Fan 48]

Thanks Richard. As always your information is valuable. I'm also sure you've just sent a bunch of people off
to every dump Nick Jenin ever lived near with a shovel looking for Tucker parts

[Tuckerfan1053]

Sorry I can't help you out with serial numbers and numbers of radios Motorola made for Tucker. It was for sure more than the number of automobiles Tucker built. Also don't recall that J. C. Whitney had the radios advertised for sale but this is not saying he didn't. When Nick Jenin finally shut down his project, he ended up taking loads of Tucker stuff to the city dump as no one wanted it. What would the family be worth today had they kept his collection? Nick told me he sold them as the family was unhappy with them. However some of the family now say otherwise.
Richard Jones

Wonder what dump he took them to? Archaeologists like digging through them, no matter how old (or new) they might be, and things often survive for a long time in dumps (apparently, things like phonebooks can last for decades).