I also don't think that Ric was making anything up about Power Company 'giving' employees expensive radios, but I can see where they would have had an 'employee purchase' program with manufacturers of appliances, the $750 Stratosphere 1000 had a "distributor's price" of $270 and the Power Company could get that price for its employees. Ric was replying to Eric's question about Betty having a Scott, which was the radio that killed the Stratospheric.
According to the this letter from the president of Zenith, Eugene McDonald (attached), the Stratospheres were snapped up by the Zenith distributors so it appears unlikely (at least to me) that there would have been any left over for a power company store.
Unlike what Gary wrote, there were other radios available with those 'ultra short wave' bands available selling for under $200. Zenith was just one quality brand and this is one of theirs @ $185 retail and Zenith's entire line of 15-tube models tuned 4 bands instead of the 3 offered in the 9 and 12-tube models. The additional “ultra” band, as signified by the “U” in the model number, also adds a fourth shutter to the dial. All of the 15-tube sets can tune from 540kc-44,870kc. (This "shutter" is why Gary thought that the Stratosphere in his video was the normal broadcast band only.)
The radio that you directed us to is a 'Shutter Dial" model and the "Shutter Dial" did not come out until 1938.
See the video here at the 46 second mark to see how it worked. Also you can see additional
photos of the Zenith radios here.The $750.00 price for a 25 tube Stratosphere constitutes a very high portion of Mr. Klenck's annual pay. We now know that Mr. Klenck was a bookkeeper making $1,700 per year so that $750.00 is 44% of his annual salary. A new hire bookkeeper today starts at about $40,000 so a similar proportion of today's bookkeeper's pay would equal $17,650.00 and I doubt the a bookkeeper today would spend that kind of money for a hobby or entertainment appliance.
But, it turns out that there were actually three different models of the Stratosphere available during the 1935-1938 time period. Two of these models had only 16 tubes and had coverage limited to only 23,000 kcs, not high enough to hear Earhart on 24,840 kcs, almost 2,000 kcs higher than these radios tuned. Only the much more expensive 25 tube Stratosphere tuned high enough to hear Earhart. You can see the information on
all three models of the Stratosphere here. Look at the pictures of each, they all have "alcoves" in their cabinets.
We also now know that he rented his previous residence for $15.00 a month making the $750.00 equal more than four year's worth of rent.
We have also recently found out that the Klencks bought their own house by 1940, less than three years later, they had been renting the 1937 house. This house cost $3,500.00 so the $750.00 price tag is the same as one-fifth the cost of their new house. I remember when I bought my house that I had to save for several years to get the down payment together and that meant no travel on vacations and no large expenditures on hobby equipment (Ma LaPook would have killed me) and I think that this is the common experience (at least it was prior to the last real estate bubble) so I believe it is reasonable to infer that Mr. Klenck would have faced the same financial pressures. If Mr. Klenck purchased a shortwave radio it makes a lot of sense that he would have purchased a less expensive and less capable model, one that didn't have coverage above that of the common shortwave radios, not above 18,000 kcs. See the attached excerpt from the January 1938 "Radio Index" which basically advises that there is no reason to spend additional money on a radio to get any higher frequency coverage since all the international shortwave bands are covered by the common shortwave radios. I know people who lived through the Depression and they all learned frugality which they still practice to this day, it was a hard lesson learned.
So what I have reasonably inferred from all of this evidence is:
1. That Mr. Klenck had some type of shortwave radio.
2. That it is extremely unlikely that he had a 25 tube Stratosphere.
3. That it is possible that he had a 16 tube Stratosphere.
4. That is is very unlikely that he had any other very expensive model that covered 24,840 kcs.
So that's my position. From reading your posts it appears that in your opinion, Betty mentioning an "alcove" trumps all other evidence to the contrary and has convinced you that she was listening to a 25 tube Stratosphere but you may want to re-evaluate your reliance on this because the 16 tube models also had "alcoves." So we each have reasons for our conclusions. Others can make up their own minds.
gl