Western Air Patrol radios arrived on the scene in 1926, as evidenced with the radio shown here. Alone the radio sold for $55.00. If you wanted to use it you needed the complete set including a "Golden Bear " Loudspeaker, batteries, tubes, (yes, tubes), wiring, etc for a toal of $96.50. I wasn't around then, but I'd say that was a sizable sum in 1926. Western Air Patrol radios were sold exclusively in the Pepperdine stores in the West. You may notice that all the Western Air Patrol radios on my site are older models. That's because they were no longer in production when many of the Truetones were manufactured.

Truetones arrived on the scene in 1931, marketed exclusively for Davis's stores. I believe my first example is a 1933, model S720, shown here. Most of the Truetones are electric; however, many battery (farm sets) were sold in the early years. Truetone was known as a quality set having the workmanship and features of many higher end radios. The name Truetone itself implies a quality sound not available on some other brands. Manufacturers included Detrola, Belmont, Warwick and Wells Gardener. Detrola was said to have an assembly line devoted entirely to Truetone from 1936 to 1942. Paramount, Plamor and Wizard radios were also sold in Western Auto stores on a limited basis.