In a Nutshell
This is how bakelite can look like, if it is well preserved, shiny and like a mirror

Introduction:
Stromberg Carlson's Radio Model 872H has been produced for the Canadian market only. Its US cousin is called model 1204, and has a similar but not identical cabinet and different knobs. Two features make this radio stand out: I never have seen bakelite of this quality before. It is brown-black mottled but very dark, it is shiny and highly reflective, and has no dull spots, hairlines or scratches. The second (rare) feature is that it uses tunable inductors instead of tuning capacitors for AM and FM station tuning (pict.s 22-27), like the 1947 Emerson 540A (Emersonette) and the 1946 Detrola 571. Various car radios of the time used this "permeability" or "slug" tuning, which is supposed to be more selective and sensitive. Like the 1204 the 872-H used a Se rectifier, which is obsolete and has been replaced by a Si-diode plus resistor (pict.28). With 7 tubes the radio is thus an effective 8-tuber. It uses a unique tube set, found in no other radio, a strange mix between miniature and octal tubes, necessitating to use a rare 12H6 (normal is 6H6) in the FM detector.

Additional information:
ref.1: http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/stromberg_872h.html
ref.2: http://radioattic.com/item.htm?radio=1090154

About my Radio:
Safety was of utmost importance for the designers of the radio: not only has it a two prong on/off switch, but also an interlock switch, when removing the back plane. I made a copy for being able to service the radio (pict.26). The defect loop antenna, integrated into the back plane has been repaired, the radio serviced and aligned. It works fine on both AM and FM (click on thumbnail 35 to watch an 8MB video). Please e-mail me (Kris) for any questions, ich spreche Deutsch, je parle Français.

Here are the specifications:

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