Clay Walker worked for Jamison (Jam) Handy, a motion picture company in Detroit during the 1930s. He realized television was going to be much bigger than radio, which was still in its infancy at the time. Clay had two other radio repairmen, who had been working on radios since the 1920s, and the three of them formed Northern Radio in 1940.

The first location for Northern Radio was in Detroit, Michigan on Clairmount Avenue off Woodward Avenue. The partners quickly acquired the largest inventory of televisions and sold them mainly to bars as a novelty, for the rare broadcast of the day. Shortly thereafter, they opened a second store.

During World War II, all commercial production of television equipment was banned. Clay surged ahead opening this second store, assuming the TV popularity would be enormous, as it was and continues to be today. This second store was originally located at 1226 E. 11 Mile Road in Royal Oak, Michigan. Clay was so sure of the sales boom to come, he opened a third store at 834 Griswold Street, in Port Huron, Michigan. At one time there were five separate Northern TV locations!

Due to the war, NBC’s commercial TV schedule was canceled, however, television was allowed to continue broadcasting on a very limited basis on some stations. Meanwhile, radio was still thriving and growing – becoming the main primary during the war. Radio sales and service was a huge business and Clay concentrated his service efforts there. He knew once the war ended the TV boom would be huge.

For reasons unknown, Clay bought out his two partners, closed the Detroit and Port Huron stores, and focused on the Royal Oak location.

1993-PRESENT

Mike had been bitten by the radio repair bug in the early 1970s. He quickly obtained work in his teens in the electronics service industry. By the age of 24, Mike had opened his own service shop, Sheppard Electronics, in Troy and Warren, Michigan. He closed those locations to concentrate his efforts on Northern Television Company, just as Clay Walker had done 53 years prior.

On January 2, 2012 Northern moved to its current location in Madison Heights, Michigan, beginning Northern’s 72nd year in business (to the day) in a new location.

Northern Audio offers the highest quality service at a very fair price, keeping in mind that customer satisfaction is of the utmost importance in our success.

We continue to expand our business and grow with the technological changes that happen every day, while stepping back in time to when Northern Television Company got its start – servicing radios (now antique) and phonographs.

Bring in your item for repair. We’ll check the blood pressure and cholesterol and get you up and running again.