1960s Era (marina and gable) Safeway PA Systems
Posted: 24 Dec 2019 18:24
Hello everyone,
First off wanted to note it’s great to see such an active community of folks interested in the same thing as I. I originally came across this site on a journey of learning more about the Marina style Safeway’s that started popping up all over the place in the 60s.
My interest in the marina Safeways extends beyond the architecture, nostalgia, and stunning interiors — in fact, I wanted to see if anyone here who potentially worked at a Marina style store would have any knowledge of the audio systems in use at the marina stores early in their existence (thinking 60s and 70s). Many of these stores have either flush or surface mounted circular speakers with a Louvered grille. I’m fairly confident they are either Lowell or Bogen but not sure.
The part I’m most curious about is if anyone here has memories of the Amplifiers used in the early marina style stores. My guess is that it was a Bogen Challenger (something like a CH 100 either the tube or solid state version). In fact, Safeway is to this day a Bogen customer — most of the Safeway stores these days use Bogen speakers with a Bogen TPU250 paging amplifier and TAMB2 for paging access. Some of the older stores I’ve seen also use a Bogen HTA 250 amp.
First off wanted to note it’s great to see such an active community of folks interested in the same thing as I. I originally came across this site on a journey of learning more about the Marina style Safeway’s that started popping up all over the place in the 60s.
My interest in the marina Safeways extends beyond the architecture, nostalgia, and stunning interiors — in fact, I wanted to see if anyone here who potentially worked at a Marina style store would have any knowledge of the audio systems in use at the marina stores early in their existence (thinking 60s and 70s). Many of these stores have either flush or surface mounted circular speakers with a Louvered grille. I’m fairly confident they are either Lowell or Bogen but not sure.
The part I’m most curious about is if anyone here has memories of the Amplifiers used in the early marina style stores. My guess is that it was a Bogen Challenger (something like a CH 100 either the tube or solid state version). In fact, Safeway is to this day a Bogen customer — most of the Safeway stores these days use Bogen speakers with a Bogen TPU250 paging amplifier and TAMB2 for paging access. Some of the older stores I’ve seen also use a Bogen HTA 250 amp.