Huntington, West Virginia - Radio Museum

Pretty neat -- if you can find it! There are signs, but the Museum is housed in a former elementary school in an obscure neighborhood that clings precariously to the side of a hill. Get off I-64 onto Adams Avenue in West Huntington, and follow a torturous trail to the other side of the tracks. The Museum has very little parking and almost no signage, but once you get inside there's a re-creation of a radio repair shop from the '20s, several rooms crammed with broadcasting memorabilia, radio (and TV) receivers, and even the complete transmitter from a station in Fairmont. In the building's former gymnasium they have swap meets for enthusiasts of electronics history. The whole shebang is operated by the Antique Radio Club, the members of which are exactly the sort of coots you'd expect. This is not so much a tourist attraction as a clubhouse where the members store all the junk their wives were going to make them throw out. Still, they've put effort into the displays. [Charlie Cooper, 06/10/1998]