Anybody remember their 1st transistor radio?

Got my first radio in 1961 Royal 125 I still have it and it works. Used to listen to Dick Biondi .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WCFL_(AM)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Biondi

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Had one of these in the early and mid 60's:

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I remember 3 things I did with it growing up in northern Indiana:

Put it under my pillow to listen to WLS - specifically remember hearing Lou Christie's "Lightning Strikes" at that time.

Had this on when my family was in the basement waiting out the 1965 Palm Sunday tornadoes. There was so much static you could barely hear the announcer, but fortunately the tornadoes did not hit my immediate area. I can assure you watching the sky turn black (And I mean BLACK, not just grey) in the middle of the day is rather disconcerting, though.

Took it to school to listen to the 1968 World Series - Go Tigers, my father was from Detroit.

I lived in Indy during the Palm Sunday tornadoes, I remember the pictures of Russiaville looked like WW2 bombed out cities.
 
Got my first transistor radio during a stop for gas on the way Up North for a family vacation. Don't recall the brand...might've been a "Candle" or something. Do know that it was emblazoned "Boy's Radio":). For $2.99 at a Holiday station what more could you expect. It actually worked fairly well. Years and years later I learned the story behind "Boy's Radios". Seems the US had put tariffs in place on Japanese transistor radios after the huge explosion in their popularity in the early 60s. But...if the radio had less than 6 transistors it was considered a "toy" and not subject to tariff. Most used a 2 transistor "reflex" circuit powered by the ubiquitous 006P 9 volt battery. Pretty much designed to be used for a summer and then discarded...and they're uncommon and quite collectible today. I think I have one in my menagerie of pocket radios.
 
Yep, 1961 and it was a no name Japanese radio with six, count em', six transistors and an appetite for 9 volt batteries! I used to take it to bed with me and see if I could wake up before the station went on the air not knowing at the age of five that they didn't sign off at night like the tv stations:dunno:

J.R.
I had a similar experience, except I just knew that it used something called transistors. And yes, they did eat the nine volt batteries. I remember we checked the batteries by touching them to our tongue to see how much bite they had. I would put mine under my pillow and go to sleep listening to it. Don't remember the exact year, but I was somewhere either side of ten years old, maybe 1960-1962.
 
My first transistor set was a Zenith Royal 125, the Zenith dealer had leftovers (and gave me that set when my late Grandmother got her second Zenith color TV in 1968). Had a few no name sets then my first Zenith Trans-Oceanic portable, a Royal 1000D (a new old stock leftover, got it below cost)
 
All I remember is a Bulova 6 Transistor model before I was old enough to really appreciate it. That would be the late 50's or early 60's.
 
I imagine the Japanese had vivid memories of flying bombs from WW2..

My be this battery was a symbol of things to come to dominate the electronics industry.

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Mine was a clock radio. Got it for my 12 birthday. It had a “satellite” speaker.

It was a “Longines Symphonette Society” radio. My dad bought several of their record collections and a few radios.
 
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My very first stereo system was a "Jet Emerson 888" with 8 transistors in it that captured the one local station, and at night I could pull in 2 distant stations about 120 miles away. Made of plastic, a dull brown colour, with an on/off button, and a volume one, along with one hearing aid-type ear bud. A wonder of small electronics , that amazed the world, including me! The only trouble was trying to get the money to buy the 9V batteries to feed it! Another downfall was that most singers sounded like Mickey Mouse.:D

As time went on, the transistor radios got bigger with more knobs, some with even a tone control, like the next for me being a Norelco, that was heavy but wouldn't break if you dropped it, because it had a leather cover. The sound was a lot better now.

Then, they added a cassette player into the fray, and I remember saving up and getting a... think it was a Panasonic with 2 speakers and 2 separate tweeters even! Not sure if they worked, but I could now brag about the enhanced sound. Right!:rolleyes:

I backed off when they got into the "Ghetto Blaster" stage, wherein you could get a work out, just carrying the thing around with at least 4 speakers, two cassette players, and more knobs/switches/meters you knew what to do with. They were massive!:eek:

Finally ended up with a German "Blaupunkt" that had the dual function of being able to use it as a portable or to be used 12V in a car. It sounded better than most fixed car stereos at the time.

Today, got the Walkman A45, high res DAP that puts all the past behind me. Ain't science great?

Q
 
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