Radiogram (device)
In British English, a radiogram is a piece of furniture that combined a radio and record player. The word radiogram is a portmanteau of radio and gramophone. The corresponding term in American English is console. Popularity Radiograms reached their peak of popularity in the post-war era, supported by a rapidly growing interest in records. Originally they were made of polished wood to blend with the furniture of the 1930s, with many styled by the leading designers of the day. An expensive instrument of entertainment for the house, fitted with a larger loudspeaker than the domestic radio, the radiogram soon began to develop features such as the record autochanger, which would accept six or seven records and play them one after another. Certain recordings could be ordered as a box set which would combine the recorded piece in order, to suit an autochanger set-up. In the 1940s and 1950s, sales of the radiogram, coupled with the then-new F.M. waveband, and the advent of the 45 rpm single and the LP record, meant that many manufacturers considered the radiogram to be more important than the fledgling television set sales. Later models took on the modern lines, piano gloss finish and plastic and