Editing Radio Row (section)

==New York City==
===Construction and existence===
[[New York City]]'s Radio Row, which existed from 1921 to 1966, was a [[warehouse district]] on the [[Lower West Side, Manhattan|Lower West Side]] of [[Manhattan]], [[New York City]]. Major firms that started there include [[Arrow Electronics]], [[Avnet]] (founded by [[Charles Avnet]] in 1921), and Schweber Electronics.

The first of many radio-related stores was City Radio, opened in 1921 by Harry Schneck on [[Cortlandt Street (Manhattan)|Cortlandt Street]], which became the central axis of a several-block area of  electronics stores.

''[[The New York Times]]'' made an early reference to "Radio Row" in 1927, when Cortlandt Street celebrated a "Radio Jubilee". The ''Times'' reported that "Today ... Cortlandt Street is 'Radio Row,' while Broadway is just a thoroughfare." The street was closed for vehicular traffic and decorated with flags and bunting, and the ''Times'' reported plans for New York's acting mayor [[Joseph V. McKee]] to present a "key to Cortland Street" to the then-reigning [[Miss New York]], Frieda Louise Mierse, while a contest was held to name a "Miss Downtown Radio."<ref>"'Radio Row' Begins Its Jubilee Today," ''The New York Times,'' September 6, 1927, p. 34</ref>

[[Pete Hamill]] recalled that, as a child, "On Saturday mornings, I used to venture from [[Brooklyn]] with my father to Radio Row on Cortlandt Street in Lower Manhattan, where he and hundreds of other New York men moved from stall to stall in search of the elusive tube that would make the radio work again. Later, my brothers went there with him in search of television components. Radio Row was a piece of all our interior maps."<ref>{{cite book|title=Meyer Berger's New York|first=Meyer|last=Berger|publisher=Fordham University Press|year=2004|isbn=0-8232-2328-0}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=sB3XmgaobSIC&pg=PR11 p. 11]</ref>

In 1930, ''[[The New York Times]]'' described Radio Row as located on Greenwich Street "where Cortlandt Street intersects it and the [[IRT Ninth Avenue Line|Ninth Avenue Elevated]] forms a canopy over the roadway...The largest concentration is in the block bounded by Dey Street on the north and Cortlandt on the south, but Radio Row does not stop there; it overflows around the corner, around several corners, embracing in all some five crowded blocks." It estimated 40 or 50 stores in the vicinity, "all going full blast at the same time. There may be regulations prohibiting this vociferous practice, but if the radio dealers have anything to say it about it, it will never have the slightest effect along Radio Row....The clamor is heard even as one walks through the subway tunnel to the street exit....The first impression, and in fact the only one, is auditory, a reverberating bedlam, a confusion of sounds which only an army of loudspeakers could produce." It noted, in addition to merchants selling radio sets, "others display mostly accessories...one shopkeeper last week featured a [[Crystal radio|crystal set]] small enough to fit into a pocket, and another gave prominent position to a bucket of condensers about an inch in side."<ref>"Bedlam on Radio Row: Downtown Mart Continues its Musical Pandemonium, But Meantime Sells Cameras and Golf Balls." ''The New York Times'', May 25, 1930, p. 144</ref>

In 1944, during [[World War II]], ''The New York Times''  lamented that the "one-time repository of nearly everything from a tube socket to a complete radio station" was "bargainless and practically setless, too, due to wartime scarcities" but that it still catered to "tinkerers and engineers" and that an "old spirit" and "magical quality" were still there. One shop said it was practically able to stay in business just by "making repairs on the electric meters burned out by the students of the city schools who were studying radio," and all were optimistic about growing public interest in "two new kinds of radio: FM and television."<ref>Kennedy, T. R., Jr., "Cortlandt Street," ''The New York Times,'' November 19, 1944, p. X7</ref>

But Radio Row rebounded. The used radios, war surplus electronics (e.g., [[ARC-5]] radios), junk, and parts often piled so high they would spill out onto the street, attracting collectors and scroungers. According to a business writer, it also was the origin of the electronic component distribution business.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ruthless Execution: What Business Leaders Do When Their Companies Hit the Wall|last=Hartman|first=Amir|publisher=Financial Times Prentice Hall|year=2004|isbn=0-13-101884-1|url=https://archive.org/details/ruthlessexecutio0000hart}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=hlmssVxlUUgC&pg=RA63-PA167 p. 167] "The electronic component distribution business started in the 1920s and 1930s, selling radio tubes on lower Manhattan's Cortland{{sic}} St. ... "</ref>

===Demolition===
Radio Row was torn down in 1966 to make room for the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/programs/lnfsound/stories/020603.radiorow.html|title='Radio Row:' The neighborhood before the World Trade Center|date=2002-06-03|publisher=National Public Radio|access-date=2006-10-01}}</ref> Five years earlier, the [[Port Authority of New York and New Jersey]] rejected a proposal to build the new complex on the east side of [[Lower Manhattan]]'s [[Financial District, Manhattan|Financial District]]. Instead, officials chose a site on the west side, near [[Hudson Terminal]], and began planning to use [[eminent domain]] to remove the shops in the area bounded by [[Vesey Street (Manhattan)|Vesey]], [[Church Street (Manhattan)|Church]], [[Liberty Street (Manhattan)|Liberty]], and [[West Street (Manhattan)|West]] streets.<ref name="glanz">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/cityinskyris00glan|url-access=registration|title=City in the Sky: The Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center|last=Glanz|first=James|author2=Eric Lipton|publisher=Times Books|year=2003|isbn=0-8050-7428-7}}</ref>{{rp|56}}

Local opposition arose to the decision to raze the streets on the west side for the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]]. Sam Slate reported on this for [[WCBS (AM)|WCBS]] Radio in 1962:{{blockquote|Shaping up in New York City is a legal battle of overriding importance. Its outcome will conceivably affect us all. If the considerable power of the Port Authority is allowed to dispossess the merchants of Radio Row, then, it is our conviction, no home or business is safe from the caprice of government.<ref name="glanz"/>{{rp|62}}}}  The city also objected to the compensation given for the streets themselves obscured by the [[Superilla|superblock]].

A committee of small business owners led by Oscar Nadel took exception to the Port Authority's offer of $30,000 to any business in the condemned area, regardless of its size or age. Nadel's group, who estimated that businesses in the area employed 30,000 people and generated $300 million per year, sued the Port Authority.<ref name="glanz"/>{{rp|68}} But the court ultimately threw out the case, called ''Courtesy Sandwich Shop v. Port of New York Authority,'' in November 1963 "for want of a substantial federal question".<ref name="glanz"/>{{rp|87}}

After the closing of these stores, the concentration of radio retailers was not duplicated elsewhere in New York.  Some clusters of radio and electronics stores were created or added to in the [[Canal Street (Manhattan)|Canal Street]] and [[Union Square (Manhattan)|Union Square]] areas. A large black-and-white photo mural of Radio Row can be viewed at the [[PATH (rail system)|PATH]]'s [[World Trade Center station (PATH)|World Trade Center station]].