Pavek Museum of Broadcasting - Saint Louis Park, Minnesota - Museum

The Pavek Museum of Broadcasting is located at Raleigh Avenue in Saint Louis Park, Minnesota. It is approximately 15 miles from Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport via N-62 E. Opening hours are 10am to 6pm Wednesday to Friday and 9am to 5pm on Saturday, while it remains closed Sunday to Tuesday and on all holidays.

The museum has one of the most significant collections of vintage radio and television equipment in the world. Joe Pavek was an instructor at Dunwoody Institute just after the Second World War when he started his collection. Pavek's collection continued to grow through to the 1970s before eventually teaming up with Earl Bakken and Paul Hedberg to start the Pavek Museum, which opened in 1988.

The collection contains hundreds of radio receivers, transmitters, and televisions from the first half of the twentieth century. Included amongst this historic treasure trove is a working 1912 rotary spark-gap transmitter similar to the one used aboard the Titanic. Visitors will also see crystal radios of the early 1920s, a chronologically ordered collection of vacuum tubes and a massive collection of radio literature.

Sadly Joe Pavek died the year after the museum opened but the collection continues to grow through donations from area radio and television stations. The museum has 12,000 square feet of historic broadcast equipment such as cameras, consoles, microphones and much more. One of the unique features at the museum is the Jack Mullin Collection, which documents the history of recording technology and how Mullin introduced tape recording to the U.S from Germany at the end of the Second World War.

As well as the historic equipment the museum celebrates the key figures of local broadcasting over the years, with recorded interviews from some of these people explaining the changes they have seen in broadcasting. There is also a Broadcasting Hall of Fame here with induction ceremonies for the outstanding talent in Minnesota broadcasting in categories such as ownership, management, talent, and engineering. Visitors can get DVDs from popular local children's shows as well as seeing the vast library of technical and service information on electronics and electronic communication.

Numerous workshops and educational programs are offered at the Pavek Museum with the first one a Broadcast Workshop that started back in 1991. This is very popular with students from all over Minnesota at elementary school age, who learn about the history of electronic communication while creating their own sixties style radio broadcast.Four other courses are run including two adult classes on the history and development of the broadcasting industry and vintage radio services.

After touring the museum visitors may want something to eat and there are many restaurants, bars and cafes located nearby. Less than two miles from the museum are the Convention Grill & Fountain in Sunnyside Road, Edina and Punch Neapolitan Pizza at West Lake Street in Minneapolis. There are numerous places to stay nearby as well such as the American Inn in Excelsior Boulevard, Minneapolis or actually in Saint Luis Park there is TownePlace Suites at Zarthan Avenue West.