A LITTLE ABOUT ME AND TRANSISTOR RADIOS
VINTAGE POCKET AND NOVELTY TRANSISTOR RADIOS FOR SALE
PAYMENT LINKS AND ALSO FAVORITE LINKS PAGE
MORE NOVELTY TRANSISTOR RADIOS
SLIDE SHOW OF NOVELTY RADIOS FOR SALE EMAIL FOR PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
TRANSISTOR RADIOS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A PASSION AS WELL AS A HOBBY OF MINE SINCE I WAS ABOUT 8 YRS OLD. I RECEIVED MY FIRST POCKET TRANSISTOR RADIO AT CHRISTMAS THAT YEAR. I REMEMBER THE VERY FIRST 2 SONGS I HEARD ON THAT SMALL WIRELESS WONDER. WERE "DOWN IN THE BOON DOCS" AND "RED RUBBER BALL". I REMEMMBER MANY NIGHTS LYING IN BED TUNING IN ALL THOSE LONG DISTANCE STATIONS. I EVEN KEPT A LOG BOOK OF FAR AWAY STATIONS I HAD TUNED IN.THOSE WERE THE DAYS!! I HAVE ALWAYS ENJOYED THE AM RADIO AND I STILL TUNE IN AS MANY DISTANCE STATIONS AS I CAN. I HOPE TO PRESERVE AS MANY OF THESE SMALL RADIOS AS I CAN. ITS NOT JUST A HOBBY BUT AS I MENTIONED BEFORE ITS A PASSION.. |
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THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST TRANSISTOR RADIOS The very first transistor radio was a joint project between the Regency Division of Industrial Development Engineering Associates and Texas Instruments. Texas Instruments knew that it needed a fun product to catch the nation's attention. They thought a radio would be just the thing to make a a big hit. TI built the transistors; Regency built the radio. On October 18, 1954, the Regency TR1 was put on the market. It was a small five inches high and used four germanium transistors. While the Regency sold out everywhere, it didn't stay on the market. Texas Instruments caused the sensation it wanted and then moved on to other things. But over in Japan, a tiny company had other ideas. A tape recorder manufacturer called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo had also decided to make small radios. In fact, they were going to devote their whole company to commercial products like that. Tsushin Kogyo was close to manufacturing its first radios when it heard that an American company had beaten them to the punch. But they kept up the hard work, eventually producing a radio they named the TR-55. When Regency quit producing the TR1, in the Spring of 1955, the Japanese company was poised to enter the US market. The problem was that the company name was unprouncable for most Americans. They needed to find a new name. Ibuka and his partner Akio Morita thought and thought. First, they found a latin word sonus meaning "sound." At the time, bright young men were referred to as "sonny boys," and that was a good image too. Combining these two concepts, they developed the name: Sony. And the rest, as they say, is history. This Is What they were Good For! With the transistor radio, music and information suddenly became portable. No matter how isolated you were, you could hear news of the world. And for teenagers who could suddenly listen to music anywhere they wanted -- far away from an adult's ears -- it sparked a musical revolution: rock n' roll.
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