A couple years ago I installed a tube radio that I found on ebay in my 56 victoria. I usually listen to local  radio news or conservative talk shows, so the original tube am radio is fine for me. Radio played fine but the pilot light that comes on with headlights on only came on when I had my foot on the brake. when I hooked it up there were two wires hanging in the vicinity of the radio with one of them having the inline fuse and the other wire had no fuse.
Radio played fine for a couple months and quit but as of late my instrument cluster lights have gone dark. Tomorrow I plan to drop down the light switch and check for a burned reostat. I will also check the radio for a burnt inline fuse. I have checked my shop manual to see where the pilot light wire connects to on the light switch or if a previous owner had it wired wrong.
I'm hoping someone on this site can advise me as to what terminal the pilot wire attaches to . I cant find it in the shop manual.    George

You can connect the wire for the radio light to the accessory terminal of the ignition so it will go on when the car is started.  Or you can connect (splice) it to any of the wires that go to the instrument lights (or to the light switch terminal which controls the instrument lights).  If one of the wires going to the instrument light has a connector/sleeve like original, there is a 4 way connector that can be used


54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

Go to ctci.org/gilsgarage/, where you'll find how to use a jump wire to bypass the rheostat. However, by doing so, you will not be able to dim the dash lights when the light switch is on, but your dash lights should work.