Transistor Radios
When the first transistor radio was introduced to the American market during the 1954 holiday season, nobody recognized it as the precursor to a technological revolution. Apart from electronics buffs, consumers greeted the first transistor radios with a collective yawn. The initial development of transistors in the late 1930s was conducted by physicists working for Bell Laboratories, the research division of AT&T. They were trying to create an electronic device that could replace vacuum tubes, something much smaller that would consume significantly less electricity and generate less heat.
Initially consumers were slow to adopt transistor radios. After Word War II Americans wanted products that left behind the austerity of the war years. Automobiles and appliances were bigger and flashier. Tiny transistor radios resembling hearing aids did not fit the American shopper's self-image as a prosperous trendsetter. The price of the first transistor radios didn't help either. It wasn't until the end of the 1950s that the tiny portable transistor radios would strike a chord with American consumers. But it was the rock & roll revolution that fueled the increased demand for the pint-sized transistor radios teenagers could carry with them wherever they went. In 1955, Bill Haley and the Comets were the first to have a rock & roll record reach number one on the Billboard charts. Rock Around the Clock stayed in the number one spot for eight weeks and many historians mark that occasion as the birth of the rock & roll era. Radio stations quickly realized that teenagers were a large part of the audience and that they wanted to hear more rock & roll by artists such as Elvis Presley. Radio stations quickly adopted the Top 40 format. Thomas Watson, the head of IBM, was another who recognized the importance of transistors. After reluctant engineers made a little effort to incorporate transistor technology in computers they were designing. Watson also bought several hundred transistor radios and in 1958 ordered his engineers to cease making computers with vacuum tubes. When engineers complained he gave them transistor radios and challenged them to incorporate transistors into smaller computers. American radio manufacturers started building transistor radios in the 1950s with nearly 5 million radios produced. That same year the first Japanese transistor radios were sold in the US. The transistor radios were manufactured by Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company and they were looking for a shorter more memorable name to market their products in America. They finally settled on SONY. Perhaps you've heard of them. Before the end of the 1960s, Japanese manufacturers were exporting over 6 million transistor radios per year into the US. It was a highly successful and profitable launch to American consumers by Japanese manufacturers and it wouldn't be the last. It was just a harbinger for the future. By 1960 nearly 10 million transistor radios were sold in the US and that number would mushroom to nearly 30 million before 1970s. At this point, teenagers weren't the only ones buying transistor radios. They were ubiquitous and it seemed like everybody had one. Sports fans could listen to live broadcasts of their favorite teams and soldiers in Viet Nam listened to the Armed Forces network on their transistor radios. |
