Transistor radio

This article is about an electronic device. For the fourth studio album by M. Ward, see Transistor Radio (album).

A transistor radio is a small portable radio receiver that uses transistor-based circuitry. Following their development in 1954 they became the most popular electronic communication device in history, with billions manufactured during the 1960s and 1970s. Their pocket size sparked a change in popular music listening habits, allowing people to listen to music anywhere they went. In the 1970s their popularity declined as other portable media players such as boom boxes and portable cassette players took over.

Background

A five-transistor radio with back open, showing parts.

Bell Laboratories demonstrated the first transistor on December 23, 1947. The scientific team at Bell Laboratories responsible for the solid-state amplifier included William Shockley, Walter Houser Brattain, and John Bardeen. After obtaining patent protection, the company held a news conference on June 30, 1948, at which a prototype transistor radio was demonstrated.

There are many claimants to the title of the first company to produce practical transistor radios, often incorrectly attributed to Sony (originally Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation). Texas Instruments had demonstrated all-transistor AM (amplitude modulation) radios as early as 1952, but their performance was well below that of equivalent vacuum tube models. A workable all-transistor radio was demonstrated in August 1953 at the Düsseldorf Radio Fair by the German firm Intermetall . It was built with four of Intermetall's hand-made transistors, based upon the 1948 invention of Herbert Mataré and Heinrich Welker. However, as with the early Texas Instruments units (and others) only prototypes were ever built; it was never put into commercial production. RCA had demonstrated a prototype transistor radio as early as 1952 and it is likely that they and the other radio makers were planning transistor radios of their own, but Texas Instruments and Regency were the first to offer a production model.

Sanyo 8S-P3 transistor radio, which received AM and shortwave bands.

The use of transistors instead of vacuum tubes as the amplifier elements meant that the device was much smaller, required far less power to operate than a tube radio, and was more shock-resistant. Since the transistor base draws current, its input impedance is low in contrast to the high input impedance of the vacuum tubes. It also allowed "instant-on" operation, since there were no filaments to heat up. The typical portable tube radio of the fifties was about the size and weight of a lunchbox, and contained several heavy, non-rechargeable batteries — one or more so-called "A" batteries to heat the tube filaments and a large 45- to 90-volt "B" battery to power the signal circuits. By comparison, the "transistor" could fit in a pocket and weighed half a pound, or less, and was powered by standard flashlight batteries or a single compact 9-volt battery. (The now-familiar 9-volt battery was introduced for powering transistor radios.)

Listeners sometimes held an entire transistor radio directly against the side of the head, with the speaker against the ear, to minimize the "tinny" sound caused by the high resonant frequency of its small speaker enclosure. Most radios included earphone jacks and came with single earphones that provided only mediocre-quality sound reproduction. To consumers familiar with the earphone-listening experience of the transistor radio, the first Sony Walkman cassette player, with a pair of high-fidelity stereo earphones, would provide a greatly contrasting display of audio fidelity.

The transistor radio remains the single most popular communications device in existence. Some estimates suggest that there are at least seven billion of them in existence, almost all tunable to the common AM band, and an increasingly high percentage of those also tunable to the FM band. Some receive shortwave broadcasts as well. Most operate on battery power. They have become small and cheap due to improved electronics which has the ability to pack millions of transistors on one integrated circuit or chip. To the general public, the prefix "transistor" means a pocket radio; it can be used to refer to any small radio, but the term itself is now obsolete, since virtually all commercial broadcast receivers, pocket-sized or not, are now transistor-based.

Regency TR-1 — the first transistor radio

Regency TR-1.

Two companies working together, Texas Instruments of Dallas, Texas and Industrial Development Engineering Associates (I.D.E.A.) of Indianapolis, Indiana, were behind the unveiling of the Regency TR-1, the world's first commercially produced transistor radio. Previously, Texas Instruments was producing instrumentation for the oil industry and locating devices for the U.S. Navy and I.D.E.A. built home television antenna boosters. The two companies worked together on the TR-1, looking to grow revenues for their respective companies by breaking into this new product area. In May 1954, Texas Instruments had designed and built a prototype and was looking for an established radio manufacturer to develop and market a radio using their transistors. None of the major radio makers including RCA, Philco, and Emerson were interested. The President of I.D.E.A. at the time, Ed Tudor, jumped at the opportunity to manufacture the TR-1, predicting sales of the transistor radios at "20 million radios in three years". The Regency TR-1 was announced on October 18, 1954 by the Regency Division of I.D.E.A., was put on sale in November 1954, and was the first practical transistor radio made in any significant numbers. Billboard reported in 1954 that "the radio has only four transistors. One acts a combination mixer-oscillator, one as an audio amplifier, and two as intermediate-frequency amplifiers." One year after the release of the TR-1 sales approached the 100,000 mark. The look and size of the TR-1 was well received, but the reviews of the TR-1's performance were typically adverse. The Regency TR-1 is patented by Richard C. Koch, US 2892931 , former Project Engineer of I.D.E.A.

Raytheon 8-TP-1 — the second transistor radio

In February 1955 the second transistor radio, the 8-TP-1, was introduced by Raytheon. It was a larger portable transistor radio, including an expansive four-inch speaker and four additional transistors (the TR-1 used only four). As a result the sound quality was much better than the TR-1. An additional benefit of the 8-TP-1 was its efficient battery consumption. In July 1955, the first positive review of a transistor radio appeared in the Consumer Reports that said, "The transistors in this set have not been used in an effort to build the smallest radio on the market, and good performance has not been sacrificed." Following the success of the 8-TP-1, Zenith, RCA, DeWald, and Crosley began flooding the market with additional transistor radio models.

Pricing

Prior to the Regency TR-1, transistors were difficult to produce. Only one in five transistors that were produced worked as expected (only a 20% yield) and as a result the price remained extremely high. When it was released in 1954, the Regency TR-1 cost $49.95 (equivalent to $567 today) and sold about 150,000 units. Raytheon and Zenith Electronics transistor radios soon followed and were priced even higher. In 1955, Raytheon's 8-TR-1 was priced at $80 (equivalent to $910 today). Sony's TR-63, released in December 1957 cost $39.95 (equivalent to $434 today). Following the success of the TR-63 Sony continued to make their transistor radios smaller. Because of the extremely low labor costs in Japan, Japanese transistor radios began selling for as low as $25. In 1962 American manufacturers dropped prices of transistor radios to as low as $15 (equivalent to $151 today).

Japanese history in the market

While on a trip to the United States in 1952, Masura Ibuka, founder of Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation (now Sony), discovered that AT&T was about to make licensing available for the transistor. Ibuka and his partner, physicist Akio Morita, convinced the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) to finance the $25,000 licensing fee (equivalent to $286,842 today). For several months Ibuka traveled around the United States borrowing ideas from the American transistor manufacturers. Improving upon the ideas, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation made its first functional transistor radio in 1954. Within five years, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation grew from seven employees to approximately five hundred.

Other Japanese companies soon followed their entry into the American market and the grand total of electronic products exported from Japan in 1958 increased 2.5 times in comparison to 1957.

TR-55 and TR-7

In August 1955, while still a small company, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation introduced their TR-55 five-transistor radio into the U.S. market, under the new brand name Sony. With this radio, Sony became the first company to manufacture the transistors and other components they used to construct the radio. The TR-55 was also the first transistor radio to utilize all miniature components. It is estimated that only 5,000 to 10,000 units were produced. Coupled by a lack of advertising the result was the failure in the market of this initial attempt. In 1955, in addition to the TR-55, the TR-7 was introduced in the United States by Sony through trade magazines, but was equally unsuccessful.

TR-63

The TR-63 was introduced by Sony to the United States in December 1957. The TR-63 was 1/4" narrower and 1/2" shorter than the original Regency TR-1. Like the TR-1 it was offered in four colors: lemon, green, red, and black. In addition to its smaller size, the TR-63 had a small tuning capacitor and required a new battery design to produce the proper voltage. It used the nine-volt battery, which would become the standard for transistor radios. Approximately 100,000 units of the TR-63 were imported in 1957. This "pocketable" (The term "pocketable" was a matter of some interpretation, as Sony allegedly had special shirts made with over sized pockets for their salesmen) model proved highly successful in the market. With the visible success of the TR-63 Japanese competitors such as Toshiba and Sharp joined the market. By 1959, in the United States market, there were more than six million transistor radio sets produced by Japanese companies that represented $62 million in revenue.

In popular culture

Transistor radios were extremely successful because of three social forces — a large number of young people due to the post–World War II baby boom, a public with disposable income amidst a period of prosperity, and the growing popularity of rock 'n' roll music. The influence of the transistor radio during this period is shown by its appearance in popular films, songs, and books of the time, such as the movie Lolita. Starting in 1954, transistor radios took on more elaborate designs as a result of heated competition. Eventually, transistor radios doubled as novelty items. The small components of transistor radios that became smaller over time were used to make anything from "Jimmy Carter Peanut-shaped" radios to "Gun-shaped" radios to "Mork from Ork Eggship-shaped" radios. Corporations used transistor radios to advertise their business. "Charlie the Tuna-shaped" radios could be purchased from Star-Kist for an insignificant amount of money giving their company visibility amongst the public. These novelty radios are now bought and sold as collector's items amongst modern day collectors.

Transistor radio decline

The emergence of Hong Kong in the transistor radio market resulted in the decline of Japanese participation in the late-1960s. Japan continued to dominate the electronics and semiconductor markets, but now shied away from radio manufacturing leaving production to not only Hong Kong, but also Korea, Taiwan, and other Pacific Rim countries who picked up where Japan left off. Currently, China is the foremost producer of transistor radios. In 1970 the last assembly line producing transistor radios in America shut down. The Zenith Trans-Oceanic 7000 was the last American-made transistor radio.

Rise of digital audio players

A modern transistor radio (Sony Walkman SRF-S84 transistor radio, released 2001, shown without earphones)

Use of air signal only radios (AM/FM) have declined in popularity with the rise of portable digital audio players, which allow users to carry and listen to the music of their choosing and may also include a radio tuner. This is a popular choice with listeners who are dissatisfied with terrestrial music radio because of a limited selection of music or other criticisms. However, transistor radios are still popular for news, talk radio, weather, live sporting events and emergency alert applications.

See also

• Broadcasting

Further reading

• Michael F. Wolff: "The secret six-month project. Why Texas Instruments decided to put the first transistor radio on the market by Christmas 1954 and how it was accomplished." IEEE Spectrum, December 1985, pages 64–69
• Transistor Radios: 1954-1968 (Schiffer Book for Collectors) by Norman R. Smith
• Made in Japan: Transistor Radios of the 1950s and 1960s by Handy, Erbe, Blackham, Antonier (1993) (ISBN 0-8118-0271-X)
• Unique books on Transistor Radios by Eric Wrobbel
• The Portable Radio in American Life by University of Arizona Professor Michael Brian Schiffer, Ph.D. (The University of Arizona Press, 1991).
• Restoring Pocket Radios (DVD) by Ron Mansfield and Eric Wrobbel. (ChildhoodRadios.com, 2002).
• The Regency TR-1 story, based on an interview with Regency co-founder, John Pies (partner with Joe Weaver) "Regency's Development of the TR-1 Transistor Radio" website

External links

• http://www.jamesbutters.com/ Focusing on the history and design elements of early pocket transistor radios.
• Web site about the first transistor radio by Dr. Steven Reyer, a Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the Milwaukee School of Engineering.
• M31 Galaxy of Transistor Radios Transistor radio site with photos and information on classic transistor radios from the U.S., Japan, and Europe.
• Radio Wallah Historical data accompanied by hundreds of images covering early transistor radios.
• Sarah's Transistor Radios Web site displaying over 1500 transistor radios and other information.
• Regency TR-1 Transistor Radio History: Web site with many historical references on the web and in published literature
• 1954 to 2004, the TR-1's Golden Anniversary. In depth coverage of the Regency radio.
• The Transistor Radio Directory.