The Site..

The following is taken from two emails I received from Annabel Marx.

My Father, Harold Burns was one of the two partners that founded the company and of course, anything "Masteradio" holds a special place in my heart.

On the left, Harold Burns Presenting a Television to a Football Club (Believed to be Watford FC)

I am sorry to be a little vague on some of the headings, but my father died in 1975 and my mother, who was actually my Father's secretary (they met at Masteradio) also died in 1994.

What I can tell you is that in the Home Guard picture, the one in the middle is Sidney Robinson (known as Robbie) who worked for Masteradio for many years and the one on the left was my half brother, Gerald Burns. He died soon after the war, when he was running the Masteradio business in Dublin.

On the Left, Gerald Burns, in the Middle Sidney Robinson

I was the only child of Harold and Brenda and was born close to the end of the heady Masteradio days. The company was established in the late 30's by my father and his partner, George Benning (who was also a distant cousin). During the war years, they mostly manufactured some fairly sensitive defence equipment for the British government.

 After the war, the business really blossomed. My father handled the sales and marketing side. It was he who dreamt up the Masteradio Logo with the slogan "Yours In Harmony" They also pioneered car radios and my father, along with Jack Buchanan (our English version of Fred Astaire!) went on a sales trip to the US, where they successfully launched.

They were also known in Europe.

By the late fifties, they had an offer from General Electric and they sold the company.

They believed that time was running out for the smaller firms and of course, they were getting older (my father was born in 1901).

Many thanks to Annabel Marx for supplying this information and allowing it to be published on this site.