Radio Row is a nickname for an urban street or district specializing in the sale of radio and electronic equipment and parts. Radio Rows arose in many cities with the 1920s rise of broadcasting and declined after the middle of the 20th century.

Sep 4, 2014 · In the shadow of the World Trade Center site in NYC was once a thriving 13-block small business stronghold known as Radio Row that is now lost.

The six-square-block area around Cortlandt Street in lower Manhattan was a bazaar of radio tubes, knobs, and antenna kits. Metro Radio, Leotone Radio, Cantor the Cabinet King. For more than four decades it was the largest collection of radio and electronics stores in the world.

Radio Row was a neighborhood/commercial district that existed in the footprint of what subsequently became the World Trade Center. It was a crowded series of shops selling consumer electronics that rose during the 1920s due to the rise of home electronics and radio technology.

Decades before the World Trade Center was built, the lower Manhattan neighborhood once known as Radio Row bustled with commercial activity. As recounted by Tribeca Tribune, it was home to restaurants, flower shops, hardware stores and bookstores, as well as the roughly 400 radio, television and hi-fi stores that inspired the district’s name.

Mar 4, 2016 · But most of all it was known for the 400-odd radio, TV and hi-fi stores that congregated in the southern half of the area and went by the name of Radio Row. In the 1930s the noted photographer Berenice Abbott captured it in the picture shown above.

Sep 25, 2017 · The influx of war surplus parts and the consumer product explosion turned Radio Row into a booming spot in the 1950s.

Jun 3, 2005 · As part of Lost and Found Sound's Sonic Memorial Project (in collaboration with NPR and WNYC), we take a look back at the people and stories of Radio Row.

Sep 11, 2020 · Long ago, the very land that the twin towers stood on had once been a thriving district known as Radio Row. This congested 13 block area in lower Manhattan contained shop after shop of mom and pop stores.

Jul 25, 2016 · Before the World Trade Center complex was erected, the location where it stands was once home to a thriving business district known by locals as Radio Row (not to be confused with Music Row).