Tarrant in tune with radio plea

Radio broadcaster and television presenter Chris Tarrant was on the same wavelength as bosses at the Black Country Living Museum when he tuned in to help launch an appeal.

The Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? presenter took time out from TV to reminisce about radio as the attraction, in Tipton Road, Dudley, searches for sets from yesteryear to kit out its latest shop.

James Gripton's Radio Repair Shop is due to open this summer and the museum needs around 40 pre-1939 vintage radios to stock the shelves.

Former Birmingham University student Tarrant, who was a presenter on Midland radio and TV, posed with a 1934 Art Deco Murphy '24' radio to help drum up interest in the appeal. He said: "It is important that broadcasting gems like this Murphy set are preserved for future generations.

Some of the world's most memorable speeches were made on radios such as these including Neville Chamberlain's declaration of war, the death of King George V and who can forget Churchill's famous wartime speeches?"

The radio repair shop will cover all the technical landmarks of wireless from the start of public broadcasting in 1920 up to the outbreak of the Second World War.

Assistant curator for displays Stephen Howard said: "This really is an SOS appeal. In order to ensure the accurate reconstruction of Gripton's Radio Repair Shop we need to find a lot of pre-1939 vintage radios. As long as they're the right date we will happily accept them. If they're broken or just shells it doesn't matter. The shop would have carried the latest models and the current bestsellers but also customers' trade-ins, while in the back room there would be plenty awaiting repair.

"One way to check the date of your radio is to look at the dial and if it has the Third Programme – that's the forerunner of Radio 3 – on it then it's too late, because the station started in 1947. We also hope to find a 30s car radio, or a radiogram."The radio shop is part of a row of four new shops including a builders merchant and tobacconist, taking shape in the multi-million pound Old Birmingham Road development.

If you have a radio to donate call Stephen Howard on 0121 521 5609.