Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Radio Ga Ga


"On October 18, 1954 The Regency TR-1 - the world’s first commercially available transistor radio - was announced by the Regency Division of I.D.E.A. and Texas Instruments; changing teenage culture forever by making music portable…

The Regency TR-1 was put on sale in November 1954, and was the first practical transistor radio made in any significant numbers, selling 100.000 units within a year…

In glorious plastic!"


My grandmother gave me her old transistor radio when she bought a new one and for years when I couldn't sleep, I listened at night to everything from old radio shows to sporting events. It only had one ear budd but that was enough to hear all the cool things that tiny radio picked up after the sun went down. I still have it around somewhere in my boxes and I bet it would still work today. They just built things to last back then.

2 comments:

M. D. Jackson said...

It's funny how personal radios started out small then got really really big (ghetto blasters) before becoming small again.

Kal said...

Well it was the eighties and bigger always was better. Plus you can't impress with a pocket sized radio/double tape deck.