The Last American Portable Radio

From about 1920 to 1940 radio was the most common electronic device familiar to the general public.   By the early 1940s radio was so popular that hardly an American family didn’t own at least one.  After WWII the public was exposed to television, radar, two-way communications, and a host of lesser publicized electronic devices.  Many entertainment electronic devices competed with radio, especially television.  But, despite the competition the public still found radio useful.  By the 1950s transistor portables and car radios sparked a true renaissance in radio listening with on-the-go portability being the catalyst. 

During all this time a few big companies and many smaller companies supplied the American appetite for radios of all types.  The big names in radio included Philco, RCA, Emerson, and Zenith.  Zenith was an old line radio company dating back to the 1920s.  It considered itself a “premium” radio supplier.  One of their slogans was, “The quality goes in before the name goes on”.   Zenith radios were a “cut above” the other radios on the market.  One of their most popular radios was the Transoceanic portable.  The Transoceanic was a large portable radio capable of receiving many stations other than the usual stations on the AM dial.  Originally, the additional stations were on the so called “short wave” frequencies.

           

The original Transoceanic was known as the Clipper Transoceanic and was introduced by Zenith prior to WWII.  The radio was ahead of its time for a portable.  The war years gave it a lot of positive publicity.  With its short wave capabilities it provided world wide coverage of news and entertainment.  And so, was in great demand by overseas soldiers. After the war Zenith redesigned the Transoceanic and sold many versions of it until 1980.  That’s almost forty years for a radio that was continuously improved by Zenith culminating in the twelve band R7000 version.  Over the forty year life of the Transoceanic its panache as “The Royalty of Radios” kept it in the top tier of portable radios for those wishing to own the best.  Many considered the Transoceanic portable a status symbol. But, that was not to last very long.

In 1953 the Sony Corp. made a fortunate move when they bought a license for use of the recently invented transistor from the Western Electric division of AT&T.  The rest is history.  Sony and then many other Japanese companies went on to design and sell transistor radios at prices that American radio manufacturers could not match.  Consequently, by the late 1950s most American radio manufactures ceded the radio market to the Japanese.  Zenith Corp. was one of the few continuing to make radios in the U.S.  But even Zenith was moving away from radio production into more lucrative and complex electronic devices such as television and military electronics. 

The last version of the Zenith Transoceanic was introduced in 1979.  Known as the R7000, it was just a refinement of the previous Royal 7000.  But, the refinement was minimal.

The “famous” Zenith Transoceanic model R7000

In the meantime the Sony Corp. was improving their multi-band radio technology.  And, in 1980 Sony introduced the ICF-2001 radio, a truly revolutionary radio and represented a great leap forward in radio technology.  The ICF-2001 had a sophisticated phase lock loop (PLL) tuning mechanism with digital display.  Stations could be tuned to the exact frequency of the desired station.  Sony priced the ICF-2001 at $299, which was much less than the $395.95 Zenith asked for an R7000.  The  Sony radio was not only cheaper, it was lighter, more compact, and more “modern“ looking compared to the staid design of the Zenith R7000.

The equally famous Sony ICF-2001

Of course the inevitable happened.  The Sony ICF-2001 massively outsold the Zenith R7000.   The Zenith Transoceanic was obsolete and essentially a commercial flop.  Sony went on to design and sell a constantly improving family of portable multi-band radios.  And is still producing and selling them to this very day.  Zenith gave up on radio and a few years later had to give up on most consumer electronics including television.  By 1999 Zenith filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  It was an ignominious end to one of the great American electronic manufacturers.  In 1981 Zenith’s last R7000 radio was assembled in Korea from American parts.

Collect and Preserve Them before They’re Gone

The parallels between old pottery and old electronics might take some explaining.  We’ve had pottery for thousands of years.  It became essential to our way of life and proliferated around the world.  When it became old and broken it was discarded and replaced with new pottery, possibly of superior design or function.  But, as time went by, the previously cast off yet rare, historic, or beautiful old pottery became appreciated and desirable.  Unfortunately, not much survived.

Electronics seems to be taking the same route.  True, electronics haven’t been around for thousands of years, but electronic devices have become essential to our current way of life.  And old electronics, it seems, is following the same pattern as old pottery.   No matter how great the electronic device is, when it becomes old or broken, it’s discarded.

In the bygone days we used to send worn out or obsolete electronics to the third world.  So, the old and broken radios, TV sets, and computers would just “disappear”.  Nobody wanted them, probably not even residents of the third world. 

Technology has moved at a fantastic rate.  Beginning with the radios, TV sets, and computers a few years ago, we now have literally an indescribable list of electronic devices.  Probably the most in number are the portable devices.

With the current proliferation of portable smart phones, digital cameras, pads, and laptops, the electronic residue is being carried to the far corners of the earth.   It’s hard to imagine life without world contact, information, and entertainment anytime anywhere with just a single portable electronic device.  Yes, hard to imagine and almost as hard to imagine how and when it all started.  Many history books mention the invention of telephone and radio, but seldom trace the details or describe the impact on society.

Most people know that all electronics can be traced to the invention of radio.  Radio matured during the 1920s.  By 1950 radio was being eclipsed by television.  Many radios from the earliest period (1920 to 1930) are recognized as rare and collectible.  Not many were made back then and few have survived the ravages of time.  So, what’s left is preserved and collected by museums and serious collectors.  But, there are a number of radio types that were rare at the time and are almost extinct today.  Many of those were not too popular and not recognized at the time as being historically significant.  After all, that history hadn’t happened yet!

 The very early portable radios such as the RCA Radiola 24 and 26 fit that description.  Today, even those portable radios are sought after by collectors.  Few were made (expensive at the time) and few survived (portables took a beating!).  Consequently, today the RCA 24 and 26 are very expensive, that is if you can find them.

The portable radio never caught on during the 1920s, or the 1930s.  Besides being expensive, most were heavy, batteries didn’t last long, and the performance was not too good.  It wasn’t until some technological improvements in tubes and batteries made portables both practical and affordable.  In 1939 the first of the “second generation” portable hit the market just in time for the lead in to WWII.

The 1939 Philco “Little Pal” started the portable radio renaissance.  It was the first commercial portable capable of being played while being carried.  Despite this, these early “suit case” portables are not recognized by the collecting community.

The war curtailed all radio production in 1942 (except military radios).  Compared to plug-in radios, portable radios were not made in great numbers before the war.  The battery shortage caused by the war, resulted in most portables being put in storage for the duration.  Few portable owners knew the dangers of damage to the radio caused by old leaky batteries.  Many stored portable radios were destroyed and many more were discarded to be replaced by new post war sets of better design.  So, few survive.

The prewar portables are very rare today.  They are historically significant.  All our well loved portable devices owe their existence to the idea of a portable radio.  A few prewar portable radios show up from time-to-time on eBay, at flea markets, and at antique shows.  So, please collect and preserve them before they are gone. 

A few Thoughts On Portable Radio Collectability

The current interest in collecting portable radios seems to stem from the recent profusion of portable electronic devices.  This profusion includes smart phones, MP3 players, tablets, etc.  For some time radio collectors have realized that the origin of portable entertainment, communication, and computation devices originated with the portable radio.  Other than this historical fact, there may be other reasons for the current interest in collecting portable radios.

There are lots of old portable radios out there.  Many were stored in bottom drawers, attics, basements, and some forgotten corners.  They often turn up at flea markets, garage sales, and especially on eBay.    On a recent day eBay had listings for more than 20,000 portable radios.  Most of those radios were transistor sets dating from the 1960s onward.   Of those on eBay over 2,000 radios were listed as “collectables”.  Needless to say, most of the so called “collectables” were of little interest to collectors or even to anyone in need of a cheap portable radio.  It’s not surprising that the people listing those radios on eBay know little about collecting portable radios.  The number of serious collectors is a very small fraction of people owning portable radios.  So, to most people any old radio thought to be useless may be considered as “collectable”.

Despite this common misperception, any portable radio is not necessarily a collectable portable radio.  Even if there is no information about an old portable radio on the Internet or to be found in reference books, the radio may not be rare or collectable.   There were so many portable radios produced that many of the less interesting ones are simply ignored by collectors and the media.  If the radio is both unreferenced and nondescript it is probably not collectable. 

Now, the seriously collected portable radios fall into several general categories.  There are the early tube sets, the prewar tube portables, the post war tube portables, and the early transistor radios.  A few radios such as novelty portables or the WWII military RBZ portable, fall outside those categories.  But, most collectors are interested in radios falling in the four categories listed.  Of course, condition of any radio greatly affects the value to a collector.  Radios in poor condition are collected mostly for parts.  The ideal radio is “as new in the box” and is valued the highest.

 

 

The RBZ portable radio is popular with the military collectors, but is seldom of interest to main stream portable radio collectors.

 The early tube portables are very collectable and very rare.  Portable radios built between 1921 and 1929 were very large and are seldom complete as found.  They are difficult to restore because their components are almost non existent.  Consequently, many early sets in poor to fair condition are cannibalized to restore better sets.  This, of course, increases their rarity.  Also, many of these early portables were damaged by rough transport and from battery leakage.  The prices are very high for some of these portable due to rarity and design.  But the number of collectors interested in these early portables is limited and decreasing yearly as collectors that relate to those sets pass on.  For the mainstream radio collector, they may not be very collectable in the future.  Rare: yes, collectable: to be determined.

The ultimate collector for these early portable sets will probably be museums.  Only museums have the resources needed to properly preserve and document the older portables for posterity.  But, the number of museums interested in the radios may be limited by the number of people interested in the history, which will no doubt be few.

            From the late 1920s until about 1938, the number of portable radios sold was on a steady decline.  The portable sets of the late 1920s were portable more in name than reality.  Their batteries were expensive and battery life short.  Most of the portables offered during the early 1930s were really battery powered radios for the farm.  Few farms at the time had electric service.  Few true portable radios (designed to be operating while being carried) were available during this period.  Those that were available were expensive and performed poorly.  Consequently, they were not very popular then and therefore are not considered very collectable now.  Popularity often indicates collectability.

The pre WWII portables are an interesting mix of battery only sets and sets that operate from batteries or house current.  The turmoil in Europe during the late 1930s renewed the public’s interest in portable radios.  In 1938 the public wanted a radio they could take anywhere to could keep abreast of European war news.  That demand was met by several manufacturers.  But, the “suitcase” portable radios offered in 1938 and 1939 were still too large and too heavy.  The smallest 1939 radio was a rare three tube personal radio made by Majestic.  That radio was not a great performer, but it whetted the public’s appetite for better small personal sets.  Still, due to its novelty and history, many portable radio collectors would consider this radio very collectable.

The Majestic personal portable of 1939 is unique, historic, and rare.  Consequently, it should be considered collectable.

 In 1940 RCA and several other manufacturers offered radios based on newly developed miniature tubes.   Some of those radios were small enough to fit in overcoat pockets.  Many sold well; some sold extremely well, like the RCA Personal Radio (BP-10).  But, for the public small size was not an over riding factor for the pre war portables.  Due to the small size, personal portables had short battery life.  There was simply no room for large long life batteries.  So, before the war the public usually compromised and bought portables that could run from batteries or house current.  These portables were generally larger than the small personal portables, but the larger size was offset by the power supply flexibility.  They outsold the personal portables by about five to one.  Surprisingly, their prewar popularity does not make them very collectable.  Many of the portables that could run from batteries or house current were rather plain and very similar.  For the most part, collectors have ignored them.

Most radio collectors know that, with the exception of military radios, no U.S. radios were produced during WWII (1942 to 1945).  This hiatus resulted in a big difference in both the quantity and appearance of tube based portable radios available after the war.  From 1945 on, postwar tube portables were produced in tremendous quantities (along with just about everything else).  And, portable radios took on a more artistic appearance.  Plastic was used extensively to add both color and form to radios that were once rather utilitarian.  The public loved them at the time, but collectors shun them today.

The majority of the postwar tube portables were designed to operate on battery and house current.  The portables designed to operate only from battery were not very popular.  A small number of manufacturers tried to interest the public in small battery portables, but most attempts failed.  Only the smallest of the post war tube portables seem to be of interest to collectors.  An example would be the Motorola Pixie of 1955.  It was one of the last tube based personal portable radios and is fairly rare.

The 1955 Motorola Pixie was small, but not as small as transistor radios of the same era.

            Strangely, there is also some U.S. collector interest in Japanese tube portables produced after WWII.  Most of the Japanese portables were the same electrically (four tubes), but their enclosures were inexpensive plastic of exotic appearance.  Apparently, the fragility, rarity and wide variation in maker labels make them of interest.

            The next big thing in portable radios was the portable transistor radio.  Transistor radios form another large and interesting collectable category.   Starting in late 1954 with the Regency TR-1, the number of transistor radio models mushroomed to and almost uncountable number.  Transistor portable radios were produced initially in the U.S., then Japan, then the rest of the world.   

            There seem to be several collector interests for transistor radios.  Early historic first generation transistor radios are collectable, because they were the first transistor portable radios and most were made in the U.S.  Some are fairly rare, but most were made in huge numbers.  Transistor radio collectors seem to gravitate to the radio of rare color or unique design. 

            By the 1970s, with the exception of the Zenith Transoceanic, no transistor portable radios were produced in the U.S.  So, collectors with interest in less expensive (i.e., newer) transistor radio looked to radios from Japan, Hong Kong, etc.  The color, style, and rarity, of the Japanese transistor radios are big draws to a large number of the transistor radio collectors.  Some early Japanese radios were not imported and are rarely seen in the U.S.  Later radios were quite sophisticated in style and performance.   It looks as if the future of portable radio collecting will be in transistor radios.  The wide range of portables from novelty radios to very exotic looking radios provides something for every collector.

 This is a small “boom box” typical of the 1980s.  It’s very common, very gaudy, very inexpensive, and not very collectable.

 
             

 All that being said, collectors themselves decide what is or is not collectable.  Just because a portable radio is rare, unique, historic, or esthetically pleasing does not make it collectable to every collector.  As with most collectors, true portable radio collectors collect what they like.

Music in a Suitcase: The Portable Radio Renaissance

Before 1938 the number of portable radios available was rather small.  The Great Depression was in full swing and most people had little money for an extra radio.  Despite the economic situation there were a few small radio manufacturers and some hobbyist building portable radios.  Most of those early portable radios, offered commercially during the early 1930s, were housed in nondescript wooden enclosures.  That changed in 1938.

In 1938 Philco Radio Corporation came out with what their advertisements called “An entirely new kind of radio, invented by Philco engineers”.  Well, it wasn’t all new, but it looked rather snazzy housed in a wood enclosure covered in “airplane cloth” which was similar to the covering used on luggage of the period.  Airplane cloth was so called because it resembled the fabric covering used on early airplanes.

Typical suitcase of the 1930s and 40s.

The earliest known portable radio covered in “airplane cloth” was a home built portable radio featured in the September 1936 issue of Popular Science magazine.  It was called a “Picnic Portable”.  The author of the article, Arthur C. Miller, had his home built radio housed in an enclosure built and covered in luggage cloth (airplane cloth) by a “neighborhood trunk shop”.  It’s not known if this is the first radio made to look like luggage, but it was not the last. 

 

The 1936 home built Picnic Portable radio.

The portable radio advertised by Philco in 1938 as “An entirely new kind of radio…” was known as the “Little Pal”.  It started a portable radio renaissance.  The overall look of the “Little Pal” was copied by almost every major radio manufacturer at the time.  From 1938 through 1940 many portable radios were offered in luggage size packages.  The earliest were designed to operate only from batteries.  But, that changed some time around 1940 when it was possible to add house current operation to the portable radio package.

  

Two “suitcase” portable radios of the late 1930s, the RCA Pick-me-Up radio on the right and the Philco Little Pal radio on the left

After that most portable radios were capable of battery and house current operation.  The exceptions were the so called personal radios.  Those were built rather small to facilitate easy portability.  As a consequence they were too small to include the parts necessary for house current operation.   Suitcase size portable radios operating only from batteries generally went away after 1941.  There were a few post war attempts to market large portable radios operating from batteries only.  Most of those were not popular with the public.   But, the idea of a suitcase size portable did not die.  The idea of a large portable radio was famously revised in the 1970s as the “boom box”.  Most “boom boxes” were not exactly suitcase size nor did they appear to be luggage.  So, sadly the music was no longer in a suitcase, just in a large plastic box.

Where did all this stuff come from?

Today we have smart phones, tablets, MP3 players, and lots of other portable electronic devices too numerous to name.  A few years ago we also had pagers, personal data assistants, portable CD players and others.  It would seem that all these portable marvels must have originated with the ubiquitous transistor radio of the 1950s.  But, that’s not exactly correct.  It really started much earlier.  As far back as the early 1920s some speculators suggested that a portable radio might be possible.  It  was possible and happened quickly.  In 1924 Zenith introduced the first fully contained (radio, batteries, antenna, and speaker) portable radio.  It was suitcase sized, but it was portable.  In 1925 the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) offered their portable model 24 Radiola and Westinghouse and others followed with similar self contained portable radios.  Thes portable frenzy did not last long. 

All of the first generation portables were expensive compared to their non-portable brethren.   They also were heavy.  Battery consumption was high and they were very bulky, too bulky to carry and play.  Some improvements came with time, but public interest waned.  Slowly but surely the number of portable radios sold dropped year by year.  So, that by 1937 not a single major radio manufacturer offered a battery operated portable radio.   

There was still a market for portable radios.  But, it was apparent that the radio buying public wanted improvements in battery life, weight, and reliability.  That didn’t happen until 1938.  That year Sylvania introduced a new line of low power tubes.  Less costly batteries also became available.  The result was a portable radio renaissance.  By late 1939 just about every significant radio manufacturer was offering a portable radio.  But they were still big.  Most were still the size of a small suitcase.  To offer something more compact required further reduction in the size of tubes, batteries and other radio parts.  Fortunately that didn’t take long.

In 1939 RCA introduced a line of miniature tubes and compact batteries to power them.  This led to the small personal portable radios available prior to WWII.  RCA’s model BP-10 set the standard.  Others copied the idea.  The figure below shows an RCA BP-10 with several prewar personal sets from other manufactures.   Although popular at the time, they were still not very good on battery life, size and reliability.  Until the invention of the transistor they were about as small and portable as a radio could get.  Unfortunately, WWII stopped the production of all radios for civilian use.   The three year war hiatus cooled the public interest in personal sets.  After the war RCA, Emerson, and a few others tried to market battery portables, but they didn’t sell well unless they could also operate from house current. 

In 1954 a small company called Regency offered a transistor radio just in time for the Christmas sales season.  Although it was not a great radio it sold well and sparked a revival of public interest in radios that could be played while carried, i.e. personal portables.  As they say, the rest is history.  After transistor radios there were portable tape players, pagers, calculators, leading to all the modern portable devices we now can’t do without.

 

Personal Portable Electronics: The Beginning

Personal Portable Electronics: The Beginning

It’s not difficult to pinpoint the time period when personal electronics first appeared.  It happened just prior to WWII.  Before then electronics consisted only of radios and phonographs neither of which was either very personal or portable.  By 1938 it was possible to build radios that could be carried and used as a personal set, but few manufacturers were selling them.  Magazines such as Popular Science and Popular Mechanics featured several “build it yourself” articles for those wishing to have a radio primarily for use by one person.  Radio manufactures pretty much ignored the idea.

In 1938 the new low power radio tubes supplied by the Sylvania Corp. allowed most radio manufacturers the opportunity to design personal radios.  Very few did.  One of the few was the Majestic Radio Company.  In 1939 they built, advertised, and sold a very small (for the time) radio that could be carried on the shoulder like a purse.  It used three low power tubes and was self contained (radio, battery, antenna, and speaker in one unit).   No one could argue that the radio was anything other than a personal radio.

Majestic advertised the radio as similar to a camera, which at that time most people understood as a small box handing from a shoulder strap.  The camera comparison was copied by a number of competitors including RCA, DeWald, Admiral, and General Electric.  By 1940 these radio manufactures and many others were producing and selling “camera style Personal Radios”.  Many of these personal sets were battery powered and intended for use by one person often while walking.  Thus personal portable electronics was born. 

Since their cases were made of pressed cardboard few, 1939 Majestic “Personal Radios” survived.

Public Perception of the BP-10 Personal Radio

In the late 1930s radio sales were primarily for table top and floor console radios in fine wood veneer cabinets.  They were pieces of furniture as much as they were entertainment devices.  Cheaper sets in plastic were available, but they were considered inferior even though almost all of the sets sold could be plugged into the wall.  A few could be run from batteries, but those were primarily for the “farm market”.  Most farms back then had no electricity.  So, when RCA introduced the BP-10 personal portable radio in 1940 it met some resistance from radio salesmen.  It was not in a pretty wood cabinet and it did not plug into the wall.  The price was also higher than some of the cheaper small radios that could be plugged in, but too cheap to be profitable to the radio salesman. 

A battery only radio was somewhat of a novelty in 1940.  A few battery only sets had been introduced in 1939.  But, those were large “luggable” sets designed primarily to be taken from place to place not played in transit.   In fact the manufactures of the 1939 radio covered their radio cabinets in so called “airplane fabric”.  This was the same fabric used to cover travel suit cases of that era.

With all that considered it was anyone’s guess as to how the public would react to the BP-10 radio.  RCA’s David Sarnoff (CEO) was confident that a true “on the go” small portable would be a hit with the public.  The rest of RCA was not so sure.  Nevertheless, RCA pulled out all the stops promoting the new BP-10 Personal Portable radio.  The BP-10 was advertized in magazines, newspapers, movies, and just about every other way possible in 1940.  Public acceptance was dramatic.  With over 200,000 sold in less than a year the BP-10 was one of the most recognizable radios of the era.  The radio was so successful that the art deco black and chrome look was copied by Emerson, Motorola, Westinghouse, and other radio manufacturers.  In fact the black and chrome look persisted right up through the transistor radio craze.

 

The original black and chrome 1940 BP-10 radio on the right with a 1962 Silvertone transistor radio on the left.