Remembering Allied Radio

Once upon a time there was a mail order company called Allied Radio. It was the largest electronics supplier. They sold many name brand components, as well as their own Knight-Kits. They sold anything and everything electronic. Hi-fi, parts, accessories, ham gear, test equipment, CB radio, tools, records & tapes. And they had lots of stores that sold all these things. In recent years, Fry's is the closest thing I've seen. The store and warehouse in Chicago was my first exposure to a hi-fi store. I was hooked. On every visit to Brookfield Square mall near Milwaukee, I would make a B-line to Allied and Brookfield Music, a killer independent record store. Once in a while, I would shop for clothes, too. loll!

In 1970, Allied was sold to Radio Shack. This was just as Quad was being introduced. Fisher, Altec, Pioneer, Sansui, Allied, Kenwood, Dynaco, Knight, AR & all the name brands were replaced with Realspastic equipment. Eventually, Allied Electronics, their industrial parts division was divested and survives to this day. In 1974, Radio Shack was ordered by the FTC to sell Allied. Schaak Electronic from St. Paul, MN bought Allied and retained most of the stores in Chicago and Milwaukee. Within a year or two, Schaak closed all the former Allied locations in Chicago, but kept the two in Milwaukee. Schaak was a hi-fi retailer, with locations mostly in mega malls in the Midwest.

Allied's Chicago Store & Warehouse at 100 N. Western Ave.:



1969 Catalog:


1971 Catalog, featuring the 498 w/auto-tuning, one of the last Allied receivers:


May 4, 1961 Milwaukee Journal ad announcing Allied's first Milwaukee store. Although I never shopped this location, when I was a rep, I called on them as a Allied (Schaak) location and later when the location was taken over by an independent.:


2 speaker pages from 1970 catalog:


A receiver page from 1968 catalog:


Allied TD-1099:


Allied 285 Tuner:

Knight-Kit catalog page from 1958, the dawn of stereo:


Knight-Kit radio catalog page from 1938:

View attachment 8400


Knight-Kit tape deck:

View attachment 8401

What is interesting to me is how much all of this resembles Lafayette Radio in NYC. I have a similar history with them and I keep a collection of Lafayette and Allied catalogs. BTW, Allied did soldier on longer but only as a commercial electronics supplier.

Just by coincidence, I began a Remembering Lafayette Radio thread a couple minutes ago: https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...membering-Lafayette-Radio&p=166299#post166299

Kal, if you re-read the first post in this thread, you'll notice that I mentioned that Allied Electronics, their industrial division was divested and continues to this day. No offense intended or taken.

Kal Rubinson said:

What is interesting to me is how much all of this resembles Lafayette Radio in NYC. I have a similar history with them and I keep a collection of Lafayette and Allied catalogs. BTW, Allied did soldier on longer but only as a commercial electronics supplier.

Click to expand...

I ordered quite a few parts out of that 1969 catalog in my mid-early days of HiFi experimentation.



Doug

Hahaha The dawn of stereo! I remember the old man coming home with a consol tv/radio with FM and there were no FM stations! (in my area) I thought FM was like uhf- not really anything. I think it was like 1965-6 we got an FM station.

My Dad bought a Grundig stereo. He found out he had to dump another $75 for the multiplex decoder to make it FM stereo.

Ouch! No FM until '66. We had lots of FM stations in Chicago when they started broadcasting on FM. By '67, rock was being broadcast on FM here. Better fidelity, underground rock and stereo. :banana:

In '72, Lafayette began opening stores in Chicago and Milwaukee, obviously capitalizing on both the advent of Quad and Allied's loss of hi-fi market share after it's take over by Tandy.

Kal Rubinson said:

What is interesting to me is how much all of this resembles Lafayette Radio in NYC. I have a similar history with them and I keep a collection of Lafayette and Allied catalogs. BTW, Allied did soldier on longer but only as a commercial electronics supplier.

Click to expand...

That upside down designed reel to reel is a trip. Do you stand on your head to thread a tape?

So The Shack sold Allied to Schaak and the FTC didn't even notice?

FTC was the reason for the sale of Allied to Dick Schaak. After the fact, the FTC said Allied's sale to Radio Shack was in restraint of trade. A sale to Olson, who at that time was #2, would not have been allowed. Finding a buyer wasn't easy. Sadly, Schaak bit of more than they could chew. At the time of the sale, there was a recession and energy crisis, so every store except the two in Milwaukee posted miserable sales. They first closed 11 of them, including a couple underperforming Schaak branded stores, eventually closing all but the two in Milwaukee. The store at Brookfield Square in Brookfield, WI was shrunk, relocated within the mall, and re-branded as Schaak. Schaak recovered from this debacle, only to go belly up 9 years later in '83. Dick Schaak returned briefly with a store in the Twin Cities called the Right Stuff.




Leases on many of the locations reverted to Tandy, who reopened many of the locations as Radio Shack stores, some of which survive to this day.

1975 Schaak/Allied Catalog:




Photo of "Thanks for your support" Schaak T-Shirt: http://www.shesnotajanitor.com/SAD/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_4725.jpg

cupboy said:

That upside down designed reel to reel is a trip. Do you stand on your head to thread a tape?

So The Shack sold Allied to Schaak and the FTC didn't even notice?

Click to expand...

Check out the phone booth in that picture, and is that a Torino parked near it?

You mean that car kinda above the legs?



Doug

I think you've caught on to why I enlarged the photo to begin with.

Quad Linda said:

Once upon a time there was a mail order company called Allied Radio. It was the largest electronics supplier. They sold many name brand components, as well as their own Knight-Kits. They sold anything and everything electronic. Hi-fi, parts, accessories, ham gear, test equipment, CB radio, tools, records & tapes. And they had lots of stores that sold all these things. In recent years, Fry's is the closest thing I've seen. The store and warehouse in Chicago was my first exposure to a hi-fi store. I was hooked. On every visit to Brookfield Square mall near Milwaukee, I would make a B-line to Allied and Brookfield Music, a killer independent record store. Once in a while, I would shop for clothes, too. loll!

In 1970, Allied was sold to Radio Shack. This was just as Quad was being introduced. Fisher, Altec, Pioneer, Sansui, Allied, Kenwood, Dynaco, Knight, AR & all the name brands were replaced with Realspastic equipment. Eventually, Allied Electronics, their industrial parts division was divested and survives to this day. In 1974, Radio Shack was ordered by the FTC to sell Allied. Schaak Electronic from St. Paul, MN bought Allied and retained most of the stores in Chicago and Milwaukee. Within a year or two, Schaak closed all the former Allied locations in Chicago, but kept the two in Milwaukee. Schaak was a hi-fi retailer, with locations mostly in mega malls in the Midwest.

Click to expand...

Allied, in the Hillside Mall, was where my mom took me to get my first copy of "Cosmo's Factory" by CCR. I was 9. Memories....

A GF of mine managed the Allied in Hillside and was the one to close it for Schaak.

I managed a former Allied location in Mt. Prospect. It was called Stereo City. It was the only Allied location in Chicago that was closed before Tandy took it over. It was symptomatic of why Allied sold out. The Allied was there for a couple years. Obviously, they weren't doing well. Yet, we did fantastically. Demographically, it was a great location with 1/2 million middle/upper middle class households within 5 miles. On US 12, a block from Randhurst Mall. We carried TV's by Sony & JVC. Everything else was audio. We also had three car stereo installation bays, which was mostly unheard of back then.



Allied 380:


Allied 495:


Allied 395:


Allied Electronics (Industrial division) catalog. I often used this and Newark, who had a warehouse up the street from Allied, for parts. Sadly, much of what I ordered was back ordered from both of them.

Bob Romano said:

Allied, in the Hillside Mall, was where my mom took me to get my first copy of "Cosmo's Factory" by CCR. I was 9. Memories....

Click to expand...

Got my first copy of Cosmo's Factory at Licorice Pizza on reel to reel. I was shocked to find it was 7 1/2 ips. All previous CCR had been 3 3/4.

Quad Linda said:

Once upon a time there was a mail order company called Allied Radio. It was the largest electronics supplier. They sold many name brand components, as well as their own Knight-Kits. They sold anything and everything electronic. Hi-fi, parts, accessories, ham gear, test equipment, CB radio, tools, records & tapes. And they had lots of stores that sold all these things. In recent years, Fry's is the closest thing I've seen. The store and warehouse in Chicago was my first exposure to a hi-fi store. I was hooked. On every visit to Brookfield Square mall near Milwaukee, I would make a B-line to Allied and Brookfield Music, a killer independent record store. Once in a while, I would shop for clothes, too. loll!

In 1970, Allied was sold to Radio Shack. This was just as Quad was being introduced. Fisher, Altec, Pioneer, Sansui, Allied, Kenwood, Dynaco, Knight, AR & all the name brands were replaced with Realspastic equipment. Eventually, Allied Electronics, their industrial parts division was divested and survives to this day. In 1974, Radio Shack was ordered by the FTC to sell Allied. Schaak Electronic from St. Paul, MN bought Allied and retained most of the stores in Chicago and Milwaukee. Within a year or two, Schaak closed all the former Allied locations in Chicago, but kept the two in Milwaukee. Schaak was a hi-fi retailer, with locations mostly in mega malls in the Midwest.

Allied's Chicago Store & Warehouse at 100 N. Western Ave.:
View attachment 8395
View attachment 8396

1969 Catalog:
View attachment 8390

1971 Catalog, featuring the 498 w/auto-tuning, one of the last Allied receivers:
View attachment 8397

May 4, 1961 Milwaukee Journal ad announcing Allied's first Milwaukee store. Although I never shopped this location, when I was a rep, I called on them as a Allied (Schaak) location and later when the location was taken over by an independent.:
View attachment 8391

2 speaker pages from 1970 catalog:
View attachment 8392

A receiver page from 1968 catalog:
View attachment 8398

Allied TD-1099:
View attachment 8393

Allied 285 Tuner:
View attachment 8394

Click to expand...

Quad Linda said:

Once upon a time there was a mail order company called Allied Radio. It was the largest electronics supplier. They sold many name brand components, as well as their own Knight-Kits. They sold anything and everything electronic. Hi-fi, parts, accessories, ham gear, test equipment, CB radio, tools, records & tapes. And they had lots of stores that sold all these things. In recent years, Fry's is the closest thing I've seen. The store and warehouse in Chicago was my first exposure to a hi-fi store. I was hooked. On every visit to Brookfield Square mall near Milwaukee, I would make a B-line to Allied and Brookfield Music, a killer independent record store. Once in a while, I would shop for clothes, too. loll!

In 1970, Allied was sold to Radio Shack. This was just as Quad was being introduced. Fisher, Altec, Pioneer, Sansui, Allied, Kenwood, Dynaco, Knight, AR & all the name brands were replaced with Realspastic equipment. Eventually, Allied Electronics, their industrial parts division was divested and survives to this day. In 1974, Radio Shack was ordered by the FTC to sell Allied. Schaak Electronic from St. Paul, MN bought Allied and retained most of the stores in Chicago and Milwaukee. Within a year or two, Schaak closed all the former Allied locations in Chicago, but kept the two in Milwaukee. Schaak was a hi-fi retailer, with locations mostly in mega malls in the Midwest.

Allied's Chicago Store & Warehouse at 100 N. Western Ave.:
View attachment 8395
View attachment 8396

1969 Catalog:
View attachment 8390

1971 Catalog, featuring the 498 w/auto-tuning, one of the last Allied receivers:
View attachment 8397

May 4, 1961 Milwaukee Journal ad announcing Allied's first Milwaukee store. Although I never shopped this location, when I was a rep, I called on them as a Allied (Schaak) location and later when the location was taken over by an independent.:
View attachment 8391

2 speaker pages from 1970 catalog:
View attachment 8392

A receiver page from 1968 catalog:
View attachment 8398

Allied TD-1099:
View attachment 8393

Allied 285 Tuner:
View attachment 8394

Click to expand...

I’m the current engineer at 100 north western and there’s still allot of stuff up in there that they left that say allied on it