Cool or what? A solar-powered transistor radio from 1957.Book review: Build your own transistor radios.It was the start of a portable audio trend that would include the boombox, the Walkman, CD players, the iPod and other MP3 players, and now smartphones. Some estimates suggest that there are more than seven billion transistor radios in existence. The transistor radio remains one of the most popular communications devices. Although its price was high in terms of 1950s dollars, nearly 100,000 of the pocket radios were sold in a year. When it went on sale on November 1, the Regency TR-1 cost $49.95. ![]() The 5×3×1¼-inch radio used four TI transistors and a TI subminiature output transformer, according to a TI press release issued on October 18, 1954. The new transistor radio would be introduced in New York and Los Angeles by mid-October to take advantage of holiday sales. Koch designed a feedback circuit that accommodated the tolerance of production-run components and let them be soldered directly into the boards without manual selection. Prototype transistor radios built prior to the TR-1 required manually selecting and matching electrical components to make them work, which in turn created a prohibitive cost per unit for large-scale production. You can view the patent and schematics here. The “transistor radio apparatus” was patented by IDEA’s Richard Koch in 1955. TI soon partnered with the Regency Division of Industrial Development Engineering Associates (IDEA). In the spring of 1954 and with a prototype in hand, TI searched out an established radio manufacturer to develop and market a radio using its transistors. Haggerty decided TI would develop the transistor radio business and the company’s semiconductor products division took on the challenge of developing a method for mass-producing germanium transistors. ![]() With these factors in mind, TI’s executive vice president Pat Haggerty “decided that the electronics industry needed a transistor wake-up call and that a small radio would provide it,” according to TI’s Web site.
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