THOUGHTS OF A FEW YEARS AGO

[manhattan]

I realize this may be only peripheral to FD activity, but I post it because it brings back some good memories of when I was a youngster and used to go to one of the shops on Chambers between Broadway(?) and Church where the owner would answer my incessant questions about which radio I should save up for so I could listen in on FDNY and NYPD transmissions as well as from Jersey and the ?Eastern Provences? of Nassau and Suffolk.

Radio Row: A Tinkerer's Paradise and Makerspace, Lost to the World Trade Center | 6sqft

The history of Radio Row, a booming neighborhood of more than 300 businesses that was razed to make way for the World Trade Center.

www.6sqft.com

Radio Row: A tinkerer?s paradise and makerspace, lost to the World Trade Center

 

[68jk09]

Good Memories back then of Radio Row i remember it well ....in 1962 (2 years before enlisting in the USMC) after leaving but not graduating high school after 4 years i was working for William H. Magee Marine & Aviation on John St near the now South St Seaport ...on a break when in the area after going to a nearby place offering a  $2.00  ham & swiss cheese hero including a mug of beer time was often spent walking around Radio Row in the many stores perusing all the different models of Radio Receivers some of which could be used to monitor FDNY (before the more modern Scanners) ....many years later while working in sadness at the WTC Site i often thought about the same  ground walked on years ago by myself & many other people as well as FD Buffs in better times when it was Radio Row ...it was hard to pinpoint the exact spots of the earlier stores other than the subway stations & the phone bldg etc but they were underfoot on the ground that we worked on during the time between 9-11-01 & 5-30-02....also when i thought about on the first day 9-11-01 hearing the act's of LAD*43 including FF Jimmy Lanza RIP on the handy talkie (hoping to hear more similar successful reports, but that did not happen )  i thought of how proud my Dad would be of his LAD*43 guys doing what they did that day in the stairwell but then i also thought of the fact that my Dad died in 1965 well before the WTC Towers were built ....maybe he knows ?

 

[nfd2004]

Coming from Connecticut, my father was a frequent visitor to Radio Row. I guess I'm talking back in the 1950s. He was a ham radio operator (Lic. - W1WML) as a hobby. As a young kid he would sometimes bring me down there with him. We would walk the aisles of those radio stores.

My father was color blind but he never let that on. When he would bring me down there he would always ask me what colors were on some small round transistors that he needed to buy. The different color bands (usually three) would represent various power levels (?). They were needed sometimes for his radios and the early black/white TV repairs he did as a side job.

In the early days my father didn't even have a car, so we would go with another guy who had worked with my father and was a ham radio operator as well. I think we used to drive down on Route 1 from Connecticut because I-95 might not have even been finished yet.

My father was able to get an old police radio from a police car in another town. Making a few adjustments he got it to pick up the police in my home town now using a/c power. It was great and he bought the parts to do it from Radio Row in NYC. They had everything. The entire family would listen to those police calls. What made it even better was that the police channel (39.10 MHz - at the time) would rebroadcast all the fire dept activity whenever getting a full assignment. So I guess it was "The Best of Both Worlds".

I remember one day stopping in a NYC firehouse with him. He had asked for directions to go someplace we were looking for. I think that firehouse might have been Eng 7/Lad 1 on Duane St. At that time I think there was also Eng 31 there as well. I remember Eng 31 (?) being one of those Wards with the CD decal on it.

I never really knew it was called Radio Row and I didn't know it was located at the WTC site.

I guess NYC has been a part of my life even before chasing the rigs during those very busy FDNY War Years. Besides going to Radio Row, I remember going to the Worlds Fair in Queens, Freedomland in the Bronx - where Co Op City is located now, and of course The Bronx Zoo. Each one having some Great Memories as a young kid. Growing up kind of poor, but looking forward to these very special One Day Vacation Trips. Like so many others here, "I would do it all over again if I could".

 

 

[811]

Nearest firehouses to "Radio Row" in the 1950s would be Engine 6 on Liberty Street, near Church; and Ladder 10 on Fulton Street, near Church. Both companies moved out in 1970.

 

[811]

Here's an interesting article on Radio Row.

New York Architecture Images-

 

[68jk09]

Nearest firehouses to "Radio Row" in the 1950s would be Engine 6 on Liberty Street, near Church; and Ladder 10 on Fulton Street, near Church. Both companies moved out in 1970.

My friend Joe Donovan (former owner of both Donovan's Woodside & Donovan's Bayside) became a Cop in the late '50s walking a solo beat on the old 42 St in the Times Sq area ( he has some stories about that) then after a few years he became a FF assigned to LAD*10 he often relates about inspecting the WTC Towers as they were being built including testing the possibility of breaking the thick plate glass windows which were extremely strong...when LAD*10 was closed for a period he transferred to LAD*3 ....when 10 was reorganized he had a chance to go back but choose to stay in 3 where he finished his career in the early '80s....he bounces back & forth between FLA & NY we were together just the other night...i know some of the guys on here that have came to Bayside have met him.