Somewhat dating myself here, when I was a little boy, the thing we all wanted was a transistor radio. When I was 10 years old, my parents finally bought me one for $9.99, which was a lot of money in those days to spend on your kids.

A transistor radio is a small portable radio receiver that uses transistor-based circuitry, which revolutionized the field of consumer electronics by introducing small but powerful, convenient hand-held devices. Following the invention of the transistor the first commercial transistor radio, the Regency TR-1, was released in 1954. The mass-market success of the smaller and cheaper Sony TR-63, released in 1957, led to the transistor radio becoming the most popular electronic communication device of the 1960s and 1970s. Transistor radios are still commonly used as car radios. Billions of transistor radios are estimated to have been sold worldwide between the 1950s and 2012.[citation needed]

The pocket size of transistor radios sparked a change in popular music listening habits, allowing people to listen to music anywhere they went. Beginning around 1980, however, cheap AM transistor radios were superseded initially by the boombox and the Sony Walkman, and later on by digitally-based devices with higher audio quality such as portable CD players, personal audio players, MP3 players and (eventually) by smartphones, many of which contain FM radios. [Source: Wikipedia]

I wanted to share with you some photos of some of the styles of transistor radios that were available. Some are truly works of art in their beauty and style.

Enjoy!

Michael

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