It was on this day in 1954 that the first transistor radio appeared on the market.

mhardy6647

18 October
https://writersalmanac.org/

Transistors were a big breakthrough in electronics — a new way to amplify signals. They replaced vacuum tubes, which were fragile, slow to warm up, and unreliable. During World War II, there was a big funding push to try to update vacuum tubes, since they were used in radio-controlled bombs but didn't work very well. A team of scientists at Bell Laboratories invented the first transistor technology in 1947. But the announcement didn't make much of an impact because transistors had limited use for everyday consumers — they were used mainly in military technology, telephone switching equipment, and hearing aids.

Several companies bought licenses from Bell, including Texas Instruments, who was bent on being the first to market with a transistor radio. Radios were mostly big, bulky devices that stayed in one place — usually in the living room — while the whole family gathered around to listen to programming. There were some portable radios made with vacuum tubes, but they were about the size of lunch boxes, they used heavy nonrechargeable batteries, they took a long time to start working while the tubes warmed up, and they were fragile. Texas Instruments was determined to create a radio that was small and portable, and to get it out for the Christmas shopping season. They produced the transistors, and they partnered with the Regency Division of Industrial Development Engineering Associates, who manufactured the actual radios. Their new radio, the Regency TR-1, turned on immediately, weighed half a pound, and could fit in your pocket. It cost $49.95, and more than 100,000 were sold.

Texas Instruments went on to pursue other projects, but a Japanese company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo decided to make transistor radios their main enterprise. They were concerned that their name was too difficult for an American audience to pronounce, so they decided to rebrand themselves with something simpler. They looked up the Latin word for sound, which was sonus. And they liked the term sonny boys — English slang that was used in Japan for exceptionally bright, promising boys. And so the company Sony was born. Soon transistor radios were cheap and prevalent.

With transistor radios, teenagers were able to listen to music out of their parents' earshot. This made possible the explosion of a new genre of American music: rock and roll.

"...[Transistors] replaced vacuum tubes, which were fragile, slow to warm up, and unreliable...

et tu, Garrison?



I shook my finger at the SE 2A3 amplifiers that were reproducing the above-mentioned from
VPR (via a Mac MR-67 vacuum tube tuner) and said "Don't you listen to him!"

rooftop59

I thought the most interesting part of Garrison's little blurb was how such a small, innocent-seeming piece of technology (and something seemingly unremarkable by today's standard's let be honest) literally revolutionized culture and paved the way for the advent of rock n roll.

And here as someone raised in the 80s and 90s, I thought it was the walkman lol...

Mikey081057

$50 in 1954 is about $450 today....

Viking64

Benny Hill - "Transistor Radio"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYAMEREIT7M

motorhead43026

I got my first transistor radio in 1960, could have been 1961. It was a gift and it took a 9 volt battery. I do remember that much.

boston1450

Interesting article. I remember in the 60's having tube radio's & tube consoles players at home & my mom would spin albums for hours. What memories. Who could forget the little transistor portable radio's back then. I had one i brougnt everywhere & the teachers would hold during class so i couldn't turn it on low. Time flies

oldrocker

Neat read.

Back when I was a runt, got my first one from a grandparent.

Spent a many hours listening to WLS radio out of Chicago.

Never could figure out how that little thing picked up a signal that far away.

pitdogg2

oldrocker wrote: »

Neat read.

Back when I was a runt, got my first one from a grandparent.

Spent a many hours listening to WLS radio out of Chicago.

Never could figure out how that little thing picked up a signal that far away.

AH YES Larry Lujack if I'm remembering correctly

Spent many hours doing that same thing.

oldrocker

I don't remember the guys names, but I do remember my Mom saying "don't hold that thing against your ear"...

It explain a lot...

Mikey081057

I still have a tube radio.

It outlasted any of my transistor radios

motorhead43026

I have a like new Stromberg- Carlson, 1940's. It is 100% original and works great.

Mikey, the one you have from the 30's?

Mikey081057

I believe late 30's yes. My dad tells me it was the first radio he saw with push button presets

motorhead43026

So that's obviously been in the family a long time, that's cool.