Radios abound in Columbus collector's home

<p>Touch anything in Ray Weaver's living room and it's liable to emit a broadcast signal.</p><p>The guitar hanging on the wall is a transistor radio. So are clocks. A small sewing machine, a pair of binoculars, a candy dispenser, a telephone, beer cans, model cars, picture frames, an Elvis figurine, a cigarette lighter -- all of them will pick up your favorite station. The toilet paper holder in the nearby bathroom is AM-FM.</p><p>"I have radios with batteries in them and batteries with radios in them," says the 73-year-old Columbus man, referring to a replica of a car battery.</p><p>Ask him just how many transistor radios are in his home and he gives the exact number.</p><p>"We're right at 1,122," he proudly says.</p><p>All are novelty radios.</p><p>"I love ones that look like something else," he says.</p><p>Holding up the sewing machine he adds, "I also love radios that do other things. This really sews."</p><p>HASH(0x1cd9e44)</p><p>Now, 608 of his favorites are colorfully displayed in a 160-page softcover book published by Schiffer Books that sells for $29.95. Currently, it's available from the publisher and on eBay. The title is "The Novelty Radio Handbook and Price Guide."</p><p>"I wanted it to be called 'The Novelty Radio Nut,' but the publisher didn't agree," says the author, Debby Weaver, a 39-year-old Atlanta area optician who is married to Weaver's son Ken.</p><p>"It really started out as a joke," she says. "I'd tease him about putting together a book. He'd tell me that I'd have to do it. We'd laugh."</p><p>"As far as I can tell, I'm the only one around here who collects novelty radios," says Weaver, who served in the Navy, Air Force and Army, retiring as a chief warrant officer before working for the civil service in communications at Fort Benning.</p><p>Weaver, raised in Mangum, Okla., is especially proud of a radio his daughter Sandy gave him. It's shaped like a microphone and reads: "Make My Heart Sing." It came from a St. Jude Children's Hospital telethon in which Sandy, a disc jockey, participated.</p><p>Weaver also is fond of some Raggedy Ann Figures. "They were Eileen's favorites," he says of his wife of 41 years who died in 1998.</p><p>None of his radios date back further than the mid-1950s. Many were promotional items for dealers and were never for sale in stores. Not all of the radios work when he gets them, but he's been able to fix many.</p><p>He finds the radios in catalogues and at flea markets and yard sales. Family members always know what to get him for a birthday or at Christmas.</p><p>But despite his collection, Weaver says he rarely listens to the radio.</p><p>He said he finds it "boring."</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cde5e0)</p>

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