The word " Radio King" has several meanings. Technically there were drums w/ that title in Slingerland catalogs. Some were solid shells others were not. There were even Student RK's. Then there is the colloquial language of drummers who decided to call solid shell drums "Radio Kings", even though the catalog gave them a different Model name (Artist). So, you have the technical, catalog name, & the loosely used informal drummers name. Nowadays, RK has become shorthand for a solid wood shell Slingerland, (even though there are Brass RK's).

IMO: Single ply shell; Radio King "brackets".

FYI

I would say the model. Slingerland had other models when they were producing Radio Kings. The Artist model, the Professional model, and the Universal model. As mentioned above, there were also Junior and Student models as well. Up until the mid-'50s, I think, RKs had 'Radio King' engraved on the hoop. There were also different Radio Kings. Mine is an early '50s 'Gene Krupa' RK. There may have been others as well, that I'm not aware of.

Stephen

The hoop says so. Laughing H Kidding a bit but it's a very good question.

The whole premise of the Radio King was the strainer and bracket system to carry the wires off the head. The fact that it had a one-piece maple shell was just the way Slingerland was building high end drums at the time. As with any good business, it becomes obvious to use certain terms for marketing to sell more items. So it was with the RK snare drums. That's why we see so many drums with the "RK" moniker that are truly not RK drums. For my money, as long as the drum has the three-point strainer and proper brackets (and is a Slingerland drum!) it's an RK drum. This has been evidenced by the COB Radio Kings. Is a Slingerland drum (whether ply or solid) with a Clam-shell strainer system truly an RK drum? No, because it doesn't have the proper strainer and bracket system! Of course, there will be those that argue that as long as it's listed in a Slingerland catalog as a Radio King, it must be!

Let the arguments begin!

Mark

The Slingerland book says that a true Radio King has the snare strainer bracket.That's the original but as we all know others were called that.

Mark, Your exposition started out pretty good, but by the end, you were informally deciding what was a Radio King, in defiance of Slingerland's own model designations. e.g. The "Super Gene Krupa Radio King" of 1940-53 & 1955-62 (all solid Maple shells, w/ the Super Strainer)

Early-to-mid-'50s Radio Kings had clamshell strainers, so I don't know that I'd say those weren't real RKs. Back to my 'Gene Krupa' RK, it has 'Radio King' engraved in the hoop, but a clamshell strainer. I think it would be a stretch to argue that it wasn't a 'real' RK. That said, I'm in the market for a cloud badge RK with the 3-point strainer and brackets to remove all doubt. I really want a 8" x 14", which is extremely rare, so I'm prepared to be very, very patient. I will say that my clamshell RK sounds as good as any RK I've ever played, which is more important than semantics to me.

Stephen

I was saying just that, that Slingerland decided what was and wasn't a Radio King. Sorry if I wasn't clear. The bottom line is that Gene Krupa was making a fortune for Slingerland, selling RK snare drums. Slingerland used their marketing skill to call many drums a Radio King, even if they weren't 100% RK, but close!