We built crystal radios from kits, but for some unknown reason my mother would never let us play with razor blades, even in the name of science (this was the same woman who stopped putting out table knives when she caught her kids "sword fighting" with them). We once (around 1956) inherited a great old radio from somewhere. One tube (valve) didn't light, so I took it down to the store and bought a new one. The radio then worked, but reception stunk. A coat hanger attached by wires to the antenna leads helped some, but we finally got the best reception when we connected the leads to the metal bunk bed set in the room. We improved reception by stringing bare copper wire all over the place, but fearing that we were going to get caught in it like a fly in a spider's web, mom made us take it down.

My grandparents had a Crosley, if memory serves rightly, with all sorts of stations to receive, push buttons, dials and all sorts of stuff. It stood on the floor and served them until 1954, when my grandmother moved in with us after my grandfather's death.