Transistor Radio
It's from 1954, before you were born.
- Maker
- Regency / Texas Instruments
- Type
- Portable AM radio
- Debuted
- 1954
- Note
- First commercial transistor radio
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About
As of 2026, it's 72 years old.
The Regency TR-1 was the gadget that finally pried music out of the living room console and dropped it into your shirt pocket. Suddenly teenagers could listen to rock 'n' roll their parents couldn't hear, which is roughly the entire plot of the 1950s.
Powered by a 22.5-volt battery and a fistful of brand-new transistors, it cost about $50 (real money back then) and looked like a tiny modernist sculpture. It wasn't hi-fi, but it was yours, and it went where you went.
The transistor radio was the original personal device: tinny, pocketable, and revolutionary, it taught the world that a soundtrack should follow you everywhere.
