Out of the past: The Hamburg Hamfest, 1974

       By Steve Cichon
       steve@buffalostories.com
       @stevebuffalo

Through the 1970s, the South Town Amateur Radio Society hosted The Hamburg International Hamfest, a celebration of everything from the world of amateur radio operators.

Amateur radio operators from Long Island, North Tonawanda, and Montreal gathered for the 1974 Hamburg International Hamfest at The Regency Motor Hotel in Blasdell.

The event was well-attended during the years when CB radios were most popular. Thousands of ham radio and CB radio enthusiasts jammed the Regency Motor Hotel for the first several annual conferences, but it eventually moved to the Erie County Fairgrounds for lack of space.

At the 1977 event, The Sun reports “computer hobbyists” could find displays involving “microprocessors–the building blocks of all computers” as well as a homemade computer.

This photo was taken inside the Regency Motor Hotel on Milestrip Rd. near the Thruway entrance. It was the site of Buffalo Bills training camp during several years in the early 1960s.  The motel was torn down in 1989 to make room for the BJ’s Plaza.

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Steve Cichon

Steve Cichon writes about Buffalo’s pop culture history. His stories of Buffalo's past have appeared more than 1600 times in The Buffalo News. He's a proud Buffalonian helping the world experience the city he loves. Since the earliest days of the internet, Cichon's been creating content celebrating the people, places, and ideas that make Buffalo unique and special. The 25-year veteran of Buffalo radio and television has written five books and curates The Buffalo Stories Archives-- hundreds of thousands of books, images, and audio/visual media which tell the stories of who we are in Western New York.