Ahh Christmastime and its misty memories…dads and us kids singing carols in harmony, door-to-door…hustling to Grants to get <$5 sumpum for first gf…brothers coming home from college with very long hair, and so on. But xmas 1954 (seriously pre-dating OMW) brought something truly wonderful and enduring to the world – the first consumer-orientated transistor radio.
Bell Labs (big surprise) came up with the transistor in 1947. Before that it was tubes…there were a few portable tube radios meaning portable by weightlifters. But Texas Instruments (it of the early calculator w/the weird red numbers…(held upside down, you could spell ‘hell(o)’) came out with the TR-1 in ’54, in time for the Holidays.
AM-only. But with modern additions, we’re still at it with the pocket radio, er, well I am. From early ‘70s Orioles games late at night to NOAA weather helping us gauge the surf to the backbreaking Niners-Packers this fall walking in Tilden Park, I’ve always had one nearby. Still a little frustrating with the reception but still a solid companion. All Hail!!
- Old Man Wrong
