[BC] 1950s' transistor radios pointed to more tech changes

[Chip Fetrow]

My first radio was a Christmas present my parents gave me in 1958.  I  
was not yet three, but I wanted a radio.  The idea of voices coming  
through the air to a radio just fascinated me.  It was a Zenith Five  
Tube AC/DC table radio.  My fate was already sealed.

It was some years later before I was allowed to move it around on my  
own.  At about age five I figured out how to stick a finger into a  
small hole in the bottom of the case.  I found the chassis, and was  
barefoot on the concrete floor on the carport.  This was before  
polarized plugs.  It was NOT my first electrical shock.  I had plugged  
in a lamp with my fingers on the prongs at age two, and soon after  
that thought a selenium rectifier in the bottom of a record player  
looked cool.  Now, those early shocks may explain other things.

I wish I hadn't left that radio behind when I left home.

--chip

On Jul 13, 2009, at 9:24 AM, broadcast-request at radiolists.net wrote:

> Message: 6
> From: Mark Croom <croom.mark at gmail.com>
> 	changes
>
> Don't have much to add to the discussion except that my 9-transistor  
> Sears
> AM radio was my introduction to the world of broadcasting. I was the  
> same
> age as the number of transistors in the box when I received it as a  
> birthday
> present.
>
> Many nights were spent with the thing under my pillow listening to  
> faraway
> stations through the little white plastic earplug.
>
> It was all about the content, not the audio quality :-)
>
> Mark
> MN
>
> On Sun, Jul 12, 2009 at 11:44 AM, <FrankGott at aol.com> wrote:
>
>> Interesting column on the birth of the transistor radio - and Sony -
>> in this morning dead trees edition of the Sunday Pittsburgh
>> Post-Gazette.  This being 2009, it is also online.
>>
>> <http://postgazette.com/pg/09193/983146-96.stm>
>> http://postgazette.com/pg/09193/983146-96.stm
>>
>> Enjoy and discuss,
>>
>> Frank Gottlieb