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WEST VALLEY CITY — Michael LaRose loves bringing classic radios back to life.
The West Valley City resident jokingly describes it as a hobby that just grew out of control. Since he started becoming interested in radios about five years ago, the engineer estimates he has restored about 150 antique radios in his free time.
"I just immediately got into it for other folks, and now it consumes me," LaRose said.
He mostly works on tube radios from the late 1920s to mid-1950s. LaRose said he can't count the number of times he has watched a gentleman older than him get tears in their eyes and go silent as they listen to their radio play again the first time.
"It sounds silly, but that's actually a thrilling moment," LaRose said. "This thing has been dormant for maybe 40 or 50 years and now it's making sound."
The engineer checks classified listings every day to check for antique radios in need of restoration. Occasionally, he will sell them when he is done so his house doesn't get too cluttered. Most often, he restores radios by request as a side business — he said the demand is so great that he is already scheduled out through April.
LaRose finds joy in his hobbies. Prior to moving to Utah, he restored cars and even had a collection of 40 vehicles at one point. He also works on TVs and other devices.
Out of it all, LaRose loves working with sound the most. He said that one time a man brought a wire recorder, which is similar to a tape except the sound records to steel wire, to him and said he could have the wire recording machine if he could figure out how to get the recordings onto a CD.
After LaRose made the CD, he said they listened to the audio together. The sound was recorded in the mid-1940s, and the man hadn't listened to the track since the 1950s.
"It was like there were ghosts in the room with him because the voices sounded just like he remembered them. It was fascinating to watch the guy. He couldn't talk for a few minutes. He got to hear his little brother's voice from when they were kids, and you just don't get that experience every day."
Of the radios LaRose has restored, he has kept about 20 of them. He said he has two favorites: one is an antique radio that his wife and children gave him for Christmas more than 10 years ago. The other is one similar to a radio that he found in the attic of an old house his mother rented when he was a young boy.
LaRose said radio has a special ability to transport people to another time.
"I think more so than sight, sound does that. It's more visceral," he said. "I restore old TVs too and they're really cool, but they don't make me feel nostalgic like a late 30s radio does. And I don't know why that is. I didn't live in the late 30s, but still I feel that nostalgia."
