If you are in western WA, there is a guy near me that does them. I think my dad's '49 ford one was $100 or $125 a few years back. It just needed a test and cleanup. I have one for my '59 ford i'm going to bring him when i get around to it.

Also there are ways to make an am radio play what you want. In a quick search i found this

https://redirad.com/collections/all-products/products/redirad-am-n

geo56,
Hang loose for a few days to give me a chance to look in my parts stash. I seem to remember having a '56 radio if I do and it plays I'll make you a deal you can't resist.

I have 2  round faced AM radio's.   Neither work.   One is actually out of the dash of my truck.  My brother messed with it but couldn't fix it.   Nothing major,  he tested the tubes and found they were good.   I'd love to get it fixed and put it back in the truck.  I have an FM converter that was in my 76 scrubelle back in the day.  I'd love to put it in the truck with the radio for THAT look.   

Replacing tubes is almost always a total waste of money, don't bother.

The real issue is always waxed paper and foil coupling & bypass capacitors, and electrolytic power supply and buffer capacitors in the power supply. They are well past their "best by" date. Don't let the fancy names fool you. You can do this yourself if you can run a soldering iron.

The folks who tell you they don't want to mess with a simple "repair" are exactly right. They are only interested in a complete electronic restoration. There's no advantage to a half-fast repair. Shipping costs money, time is money, and they have a reputation to consider.

For the money they charge this should also include what's called an alignment - of the IF (intermediate frequency) transformers and various tuned circuits. This is important and what makes a good radio sensitive, selective, and loud with good tone. After 50 years different operating points will have emerged, and parts replacement will have shifted things further. An alignment re-establishes the proper windows to line up properly. The very final "tweak" is an RF alignment, done today by the end user after re-installation - connect the antenna and precisely trims the antenna circuit by peaking the signal from a weak station above 1400 Hz. You will be amazed at how well those old radios can work. Modern AM sets are simple but crude.


Here's some info to decide if you want to tackle it yourself or not:

https://www.antiqueradio.org/howfix.htm

Actually,  my brother repairs X Ray machines for a living.   He did replace 1 capacitor with no luck.  A lot of it is time.   Our mother passed in February,  but dealing with her illness for a couple years took lots of time.   Even with her in skilled nursing.   Plus he drives about 50-60,000 miles a year for his job.   So his time is really limited.  So if an honest guy could go through it,  replaced all the minor stuff and get it tuned for under $200,   I'm there.   Although Tedster,   since your my friend on here,   you'll do it for 2 chili dogs and a beer,  right?

Old radios have a lot of components that do not age well, capacitors, tubes, wiring.  A rebuild may be money well spent.

No luck finding a '56 radio what I have is out of a '57 and it won't fit.

On one hand, I understand not wanting to spend $200.  On the other,  I know it is typically cheaper in the long run to just have it done right from the beginning.  There's also the option to take it to the next level to have it modified for modern functionality while maintaining a 100% stock appearance from the outside although that typically costs quite a bit more.


Lawrenceville, GA

Car radios are kind of a PITA to work on, because they really stuffed things in as small a space as possible. Now, the really expensive complex radios with motorized Wunderbar auto-tuning and the dial string from hell, maybe leave those to the pros unless you're a masochist but, if you just want to get a standard old AM radio back up and running well it isn't rocket science. Get the power supply sussed out. That is the key to any electronic device. Early sets used a "vibrator" and a high voltage buffer capacitor, and a few power supply electrolytics. $20 or so worth of parts and you're back in business.

Vacuum tubes themselves are the easy part. Believe it or not radio tubes are plentiful and cheap if you were to ever actually need one, but they don't go bad sitting on the shelf or in the radio and are extremely rugged and long lived. I have vacuum tubes that are 100 years old and they work just fine. Interestingly the same cannot be said about certain transistors and they are just as obsolete as vacuum tubes at this point. At one time vacuum tubes were even used for proximity fuses in artillery rounds.

Color Televisions, people remember those as trouble because they ran hot, and ran certain types like horizontal output tubes hard, but in these vintage radios tubes last just about forever. The labor charges, then as now, is what costs so if you are handy with a soldering iron it should be no major trouble and results in considerable savings. Plus you have a cool radio that works.

geo56,
$200 does seem to be quite a bit to bring an am radio back to life if it died from natural causes, For instance the radio played well for you until one day it just quit. If the radio has physical damage from being tossed around for years or being exposed to weather that can makes things very difficult if not impossible. Which brings up the question has this radio ever played since you owned it? A lot of times even simple problems require taking voltage measurements of live circuitry. A vibrator powered radio develops several hundreds of volts so I don't recommend you putting your hands in there. The push button tuners were pretty tough, strange that yours doesn't work unless some one has messed with it or all of the buttons have been set to the same channel. You need to be able to tune across the band to make sure its not setting on an unused frequency. The tuning knob is coupled through a clutch that can develop slip but push buttons should still work. You need to make sure the speaker you are using is a good one. When trying to trouble shoot I wouldn't use a battery charger as I am firm believer of Murphy's Law. Last tip I can give you is that USA tubes that were made in the 50's were tough but they can fail and still be lit. Tube testers are not fool proof, basically if a tube tests bad on a tester it is bad but a tester can show a tube is good and it is bad.