TUNE IN...TUNE OUT by Seth Doulton
Have you ever noticed that a big percentage of early trucks have had their radio holes altered in some way? Some of them so much so, that you need to replace half the dash to put the truck back to original. The next difficulty is that after you get it back to original, you have to find an original sized radio to put in the hole! At that point, you attempt to figure out why the previous owner or the one before him cut the hole too large. For some reason, when G.M. designed the radios for their cars and trucks they designed them in such a way that the distance between knobs and the face size were different than any universal replacement radio.
Why did they do this? Well, the answer is that they probably wanted the original customer to feel compelled to buy an accessory radio at the time of the new truck purchase. The problem was that most trucks were bought as work trucks and accessories such as radios were not a high priority even though they only cost $79.45 with antenna in 1949. The 1947-53 radios were push-button tuned. By the time the truck changed hands and the next owner bought the truck and wanted to install a radio, there were none to buy. The only solution was to cut up the dash up to fit a universal radio in it. The introduction of the transistor radio and later the FM radios lead to a whole new group of dash cutters.
Today, just about all of the 1947 through 1959 trucks have found their-final resting place in the garage of a restorer. Operations have been performed on the dashes of a large percentage of these restored vehicles. The |1955-59s were notorious for being cut up because of the unique oval face on the Chevrolet radio. The 1955 radio (which was the same through 1959) was a manual tune (no push buttons) and sold for $69.50. The 1960-63 radio with antenna and the 1964-66 radio with antenna both listed for around $60. They were both manually tuned. In 1967, the truck radios all went to push button and General Motors added an AM/FM unit that has become a really popular model to find and use in projects. The am band push button radio was around $75 and the AM/FM sold for anywhere from $150 to $180.
By 1973, the entertainment center in a CK truck included and FM and stereo tape combinations for around $200. If you're restoring a truck or customizing one today, there's great news. 1983, Car Sprague of Custom Auto Sound developed a bolt in AM/FM cassette unit that has Kenwood guts that can also have a CD player added for old GM trucks. The models available are for 1947-1953 Chery of GMC trucks, 105-59 Chevrolet, 1960-63 Chery or GMC, 196406 Chery or GMC, 1967-72 both makes and 73-87 both makes. The retail price is just over $200. Ask for Custom Auto Sound radios by name from your favorite truck parts company.