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Transistor radio

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

Regency TR-1.

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A transistor radio is a small transistor-based radio receiver. Historically, the term "transistor radio" refers to a radio that is monoaural and typically receives only the 540–1600 kilocycle^[1] AM broadcast band.

1 History
2 Decline
3 See also
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links

History

In 1952, Intermetall unveiled what was probably the first transistorized portable radio on the Düsseldorf Radio Fair. The first commercial transistor radio, the Regency TR-1, was announced on October 18, 1954 by the Regency Division of Industrial Development Engineering Associates of Indianapolis, Indiana and put on sale in November of 1954. It cost $49.95 (the equivalent of roughly $364 in year-2006 dollars) and sold about 150,000 units. Raytheon and Zenith Electronics transistor radios soon followed and were priced even higher. Even the first Japanese imports (in 1957) were priced at $30 and above. Transistor radios did not achieve mass popularity until the early 1960s when prices of some models fell below $20, then below $10 as markets became flooded with radios from Hong Kong by the mid to late 1960s. Texas Instruments was behind the Regency transistor radio. In May 1954, they had designed and built a prototype and were looking for an established radio manufacturer to develop and market a radio using their transistors. None of the major radio makers were interested. 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 put forth a production model. Sony, at the time still a small company named Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, Ltd., (aka "Totsuko"), followed soon after by releasing the Sony TR-55 in August 1955 as Japan's first commercially produced transistor radio.^[2] With its release, Sony also became the first company to manufacture a radio from the transistors on up, and to utilize all miniature components. Sony's first official import to the U.S.A. was the "pocketable" TR-63 released in March 1957^[3], a model which proved highly successful in that market. In January 1958, the company changed its name to Sony^[4], adopting the name that had previously been the reserve of its radio brand. The Sony TR-610 was released some months later, marking another resounding success and taking its place as the first transistor radio to sell more than a half-million units.

Sanyo 8S-P3.

The use of transistors instead of vacuum tubes as the amplifier elements meant that the device was much smaller and required far less power to operate than a tubed radio. It also ensured that the audio reception was available instantly, since there were no filaments concerned which could have taken considerable time to heat up. The typical portable radio of the fifties was about the size and weight of a lunchbox, and contained several heavy (and non-rechargeable) batteries: one or more so-called "A" batteries just to heat the tube filaments and a large 45- to 90-volt "B" battery to power the Cathode and rest of the circuitry. 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 specifically 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 resonance frequency of its small speaker enclosure. Most radios included earphone jacks and came with single earphones that provided only middling-quality sound reproduction due to the bandwidth limitation of AM (up to 4500Hz). 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.

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

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. The prefix "transistor" basically now means an old pocket radio; it can be used to refer to any small radio, but the term itself is today somewhat obsolescent, since virtually all commercial broadcast receivers, pocket-sized or not, are now transistor-based.

Decline

Transistor radios have declined in popularity with the rise of portable digital audio players, which allow people to listen to the exact music of their choosing and may include a digital radio tuner. This is a popular choice with listeners who are dissatisfied with terrestrial music radio because of limited selection of music or other criticisms. However, transistor radios are still popular for news, weather, soccer games, horse races and emergency alert applications. In addition, they enjoy widespread popularity in third world nations, where electricity is erratic, extended battery life is paramount, AM is still used as the primary radio band, and buying cassette tapes for a Walkman or clone is too expensive.

References

^ Kilocycles is an old term for what is today known as kilohertz. The hertz was adopted as the new unit of frequency in 1960 (replacing the cycle per second), and became common use in the 1970s.
^ John Nathan (1999). SONY : the private life. Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-395-89327-5. page 35
^ John Nathan (1999). SONY : the private life. Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-395-89327-5. page 35
^ John Nathan (1999). SONY : the private life. Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-395-89327-5. page 53

External links

http://www.pbs.org/transistor/materials/how-europe-missed-transistor.pdfPDF (946 KiB)
TI Information Bulletin First Commercial Transistor Radio October 18, 1954
Website 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 info on classic transistor radios from the US, Japan, and Europe.
RadioWallah Historical data accompanied by hundreds of images covering early transistor radios.
ChildhoodRadios.com Website with restoration resources and community message board operated by Ron Mansfield
Sarah's Transistor Radios Extensive website displaying over 1500 transistor radios and other information.
Regency TR-1 Transistor Radio History: website 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.
http://www.radioexpo.org is the source for the latest historical information about the Regency TR-1 & Regency Electronics
http://www.geocities.com/aldoandr/transistor.html Transistor radio directory
http://www.fiftiesradio.com is a site with many images of many transistor radios mostly from the Fifties
Arcane Radio Trivia Transistor radio design article