mono duetto radio

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

In AD7-906 MODONOVAN1 asked about the original radio for his '67 Duetto, and 
in AD7-911 SLC247 replied that radios were dealer installed items, no 
particular radio is "stock."

SLC247 is mainly correct, but perhaps does not go far enough, in my opinion. 
Radios were definitely not factory-installed or distributor-installed, and in 
my experience not dealer-installed and only rarely owner-installed. The two 
dealers where I bought three new Alfas in 1967, 1971, and 1972 did not sell 
or install radios; my prior Alfa, a 1962 Spider purchased used, never had a 
radio. We did put a Becker Grand Prix in the '67; Becker was the preferred 
brand in that era, with Blaupunct an acceptable but decidedly more modest 
choice; typically one saw a Becker in a Mercedes and a Blaupunct in a 
Volkswagen. The reasons we did not put radios in the '71 and '72 were that in 
the '67 static suppression was difficult, the effort didn't help the Alfa, 
and broadcast material in the sixties was not generally worth listening to. I 
would guess that most buyers of new Alfas in the late sixties passed on 
radios, and that stereo cassette radios added five or more years later to 
depreciated cars by second or third owners were the most common radios in 
Alfas of the sixties and early seventies. Thus a non-digital Pioneer or Sony 
would be historically correct in a slightly tatty car, but a monaural Becker 
without cassette capability would probably be the desideratum for ahistorical 
concours detailing.

John H.

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