Hallicrafters Short Wave Radios

When I was in grade school I wasn't the only one who was bitten by the radio bug.  There were 4 of us that I remember having Hallicrafters short wave sets in 7th and 8th grades.  BTW, Allied had a store not too far from us in the Milwaukee area, I suspect that's where all 4 radios originated.  The Hallicrafters sets were a lot of fun although all were the basic All-American 5 tube AM radio (but made for Hallicrafters in Japan).  These were the heirs to the S-38.  Hallicrafters did theme and variation on the designs, adding doo-dads here and there.  This WR-1500 is a beautiful example (it added long wave coverage):

This was the 1968-1969 time frame, a sunspot maximim (I remember seeing the northern lights on vacation to Washington Island).  We could listen to regular broadcast AM (one fellow used to DX AM stations, writing for QSL cards) - there was actually stuff to hear on AM and shortwave then.  I used to love to listen to the overseas shortwave stations and also wrote for QSL cards.  Although shortwave listening probably cut into study time, it also cut into TV viewing and really increased my interest in geography and current events.

I was the only 1 of the 4 who became a ham.  One fellow became a CBer (and also had his own radio shows on the college FM and other stations).  The other two fellows drifted away from interest in radio.

But what about now in the 21st century, what will happen to ham radio ?  Even if there was a company like Hallicrafters and a store like Allied to buy it at there's nothing to listen to anymore (in my opinion).

I don't have any good ideas on this, wish I did.

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm