This PYE 127BQ 'Pockette' was manufactured in New Zealand by Akrad Radio Corporation Ltd circa 1959. It is really a re-branded Toshiba 6TP-314A with slight cosmetic differences. It is another of the rare NZ manufactured Toshibas (See the Murphy P62). When I searched the net for PYE 127BQ I came up with absolutely no matches.

This PYE features a beautiful gold reverse painted face!

I have seen the Toshiba version of this radio colored two tone red & gold, grey & gold, and black & gold. The gold reverse painted portion of the Toshiba 6TP-314A only covers the section above and below the tuning dial unlike the full gold reverse painted-face of the PYE 127BQ.

The original sale price was just over 14 NZ Pound, which was quite a bit of cash back then!

 

The Akrad Radio Corporation developed out of a small radio sales and repair business that 18 year old Keith M Wrigley started in Waihi in 1932. Akrad is an acronym for ‘Auckland Radio’.

In 1953 Akrad became associated with PYE Radio Ltd of England and it was during this year that the first New Zealand made PYE radios appeared. PYE radios were an immediate success on the New Zealand market and in 1958 Akrad employed more than 200 people in its Waihi factory.

In 1962 PYE Radio Ltd acquired a majority shareholding in Akrad which then became PYE (NZ) Ltd.

In 1967 a reconstruction of the parent company PYE Radio Ltd of England took place when Philips purchased a controlling share. Ten years later Phillips gained full control of PYE Radio Ltd. Eventually this led, in 1982, to the closure of all nine New Zealand companies then owned by PYE.  Amongst the casualties were the PYE Electronics Corporation of New Zealand Ltd and Akrad Radio Corporation Ltd.

This event marked the end of a chapter in the history of electronics manufacturing in New Zealand.

Ref: The Golden Age of Radio in the Home  by John W Stokes
 

W.G.Pye & Co. Ltd. was founded in Cambridge in 1896 by William George Pye. PYE started as a part time business making scientific instruments. After the War the company started a wireless components factory and in 1928 William Pye sold the company, now renamed Pye Radio Ltd.

In 1937 PYE diversified and began manufacturing TV’s. At this time a 5-inch PYE television was priced at 21 guineas (£22.05).

In 1944 PYE formed a specialist division called PYE Telecommunications Ltd which became the leading UK producer of mobile radio equipment for commercial, business, industrial, police and Government purposes.

In 1956 PYE developed the first British transistor and later that same year they manufactured the first British transistor radio labeled the PAM 710.