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.