Radio Row (New York City)

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Berenice Abbott : Radio Row , 1936

The Radio Row of New York City was 1,921 to 1,966 a storage City at the lower west side of Manhattan . The term Radio Row is a name for an urban street or district whose stores there specialize in the sale of radio and electronic equipment and parts.

Across 13 blocks, there were more than 300 ground floor stores and more than three times as many businesses on the upper floors. Ten percent of the radio, television, stereo, and hi-fi equipment sold by American manufacturers was sold to retailers on Radio Row. It has been home to hundreds of commercial and industrial tenants, small business owners, and approximately 100 residents.

In 1966, Radio Row was demolished to make way for the World Trade Center . The existence of over 300 companies with annual sales of 300 million US dollars and approximately 30,000 employees who directly earned a living for up to 120,000 people was destroyed.

history

In the 1920s and 1930s, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and Radio Corporation of America (RCA) dominated the radio industry in the United States. Since they owned most of the patents for broadcast radios, other radio manufacturers had to pay royalties to the RCA and NBC, which increased the selling price of a radio. The alternative to get a radio reception was the inexpensive self-construction of a system, since no license fees were to be paid.

In 1921 Harry Schneck opened his company City Radio on Cortlandt Street on the Lower West Side of Manhattan . That was the hour of birth of New York's Radio Row. New York City's Radio Row became famous for selling essential radio reception materials . Over the years, electronics stores expanded around Cortlandt Street. The area in Lower Manhattan became a bazaar of radio tubes, capacitors, transistors, hi-fi equipment, and antenna systems. It extended on a central axis along Cortlandt Street, to the north as far as Fulton Street , the eastern boundary was the Greenwich Street , to the south Liberty Street and west by West Street . Dey Street, Fulton and Liberty ran parallel to Cortlandt Street. Between West Street and Greenwich Street, Washington Street crossed Liberty, Cortlandt, Dey and Fulton from the south and north.

Wholesalers, retailers and resellers were housed in the shops on the ground floor, some of which had shop windows that were six to eight meters long. The upper floors were used as storage rooms, distribution centers and workshops. It was the largest collection of radio and electronics stores in the world. Their shelves and floors were filled from top to bottom with all kinds of electronic parts and were offered at low prices. Radio Row was the center of the electronics industry in New York City and a focal point for amateur radio enthusiasts and electronic tinkerers.

Most of the companies on Radio Row survived the Great Depression of 1929. In the 1930s, the popularity of radios grew, bringing Radio Row top sales potential. When the USA entered the war in 1941, radio and electronics parts were required by the armed forces, which led to a collapse in Radio Row's business. After the end of the war, Radio Row was flooded with old radios and electronic parts of the armed forces, which resulted in an economic boom. The war surplus electronics, which originally cost thousands of dollars, went over the counter for $ 25-50. New companies shot up like mushrooms and wanted to participate in this economic boom. With the advent of new consumer electronics , the 1950s brought another high point in Radio Row's popularity. Demand for stereos, large televisions, portable shortwave radios, and the latest in hi-fi systems attracted large numbers of buyers to the Radio Row area every day except Sundays.

Forced relocation

In 1961 the decision was made to build the World Trade Center (WTC) on the Lower West Side of Manhattan. In this area was Radio Row, which had been the center of the electronics industry in New York since the 1920s.

In 1962, the New York port authority (client) bought the WTC construction site from New York State, after which the forced relocation of the affected companies, with the offered financial compensation of 30,000 US dollars per company, was to be carried out. In June 1962, a group of about 325 stores and 1,000 other small businesses affected took legal action against the expropriation. The forced resettlement was to be stopped with protest actions. The dispute with local entrepreneurs worked its way through every court instance, up to the New York State Court of Appeals. This court upheld the decisions of the lower courts in April 1963 and granted the New York Port Authority the right of expropriation, since the construction of the WTC served a public purpose.

On November 12, 1963, the United States Supreme Court refused to accept the case because the lawsuit was not the subject of a federal matter. Under state law, the port authority had to compensate the entrepreneurs financially and to help with the relocation, even if many entrepreneurs believe this offer was insufficient.

The end

On March 12, 1966, the commissioned Ajax Wrecking and Lumber Corporation started demolishing the buildings on the planned construction site. A total of 164 buildings, including the entire Radio Row, had to give way to the construction of the World Trade Center . Over 300 companies with over 30,000 employees lost their existence. Many stores were closed forever, with some moving their radio and electronics stores to 45th Street and West Broadway, and Canal Street and Union Square.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Angus K. Gillespie, 1999, Chapter 1, Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center , Rutgers University Press
  2. ↑ Syd Steinhardt, September 2002, The Death of New York's Radio Row , accessed January 27, 2010
  3. ↑ Gloss, James; Eric Lipton (2003). City in the Sky: The Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center . Times Books, page 68, ISBN 0-8050-7428-7
  4. ↑ Radio Row: The neighborhood before the World Trade Center , National Public Radio, accessed February 16, 2010
  5. ^ New York Architecture , accessed February 12, 2010
  6. ^ Angus K. Gillespie, 1999, Chapter 1, Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center , Rutgers University Press
  7. ^ Alfred E. Clark, June 27, 1962, Injunction Asked on Trade Center , New York Times
  8. ^ Paul Crowell, April 5, 1963, World Trade Center Here Upheld by Appeals Court , New York Times
  9. ^ Merchants Ask Supreme Court to Bar Big Trade Center Here , New York Times / Associated Press, August 26, 1963
  10. ^ Martin Arnold, November 13, 1963, High Court Plea is Lost by Foes of Trade Center , New York Times
  11. ↑ Jr. RW Apple, Nov. 16, 1963, Port Body Raises Relocation Aid , New York Times
  12. ^ Angus K. Gillespie, 1999, Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center , Rutgers University Press, 61
  13. ^ Radio Row of New York , accessed January 25, 2010