A transistor radio was the coolest thing a kid could carry in 1965 and, get this, it has six transistors for surely the finest kind.
In the modern context, the electronics are laughable since the new technology may carry a hundred or a thousand transistors in their integrated circuits but the transistor radio was the happening thing in 1965 and every kid had to have one. Just as kids walk about today with smartphones constantly holding their attention, kids in 1965 walked about then with transistor radios constantly pressed to their ears ... and likely their parents bemoaned the end of civilization as a result of it.
Having your own personal radio which was portable was high technology and something of a luxury but researchers found a way to make them affordable and then the boom was on. At least one of my sisters had one and maybe my memory is correct that it was pink. She would have been about ten at that time and I think that age group qualifies as tweens when they're not quite teens yet. That's the demographic which really went nuts over these radios.
Get some more of the history of the radio since the tuner is operated by the dial on the right but it only knew one band, AM. That radio band was starting to wobble in 1965 since this was the time of the advent of FM and that one became the infernal darkness of progressive music while AM was the home for soft rock throughout its life. A kid could hear The Monkees on AM but they would never appear on FM. For the Cincinnati historian, FM meant the arrival of Jelly Pudding with Michael Xanadu and AM offered nothing to freaks after that.
In the modern context, people don't even think of radio bands beyond names like Sirius and Howard Stern and so we observe evolution in action.
No comments:
Post a Comment