1954 – The first commercial transistor radio, the Regency TR-1 (pictured), was introduced in Indianapolis, Indiana, And yes, I seen one in early 1955. In 58 I had one, AM only, no speaker just an earphone, but wow I was with the in-crowd ! !
Jack
Regency began manufacturing the TR-1 in October, 1954. The manufacture was a collective effort of manufacturers around the country: The transistors and transformers came from Texas Instruments in Dallas. The capacitors came from International Electronics, Inc. of Nashville,[6] Erie Electronics of Erie, Pennsylvania, and Centralab of Milwaukee, WI. The speakers came from Jensen of Chicago, Illinois. The IF Transformers came from Vokar of Dexter, MI. The volume control came from the Chicago Telephone Supply of Elkhart, Indiana. The tuning capacitor came from Radio Condenser Co. of Camden, New Jersey. The Richardson Company of Melrose Park, Illinois and Indianapolis supplied the circuit board material to Croname of Chicago, IL who manufactured the circuit boards. The actual plastic case for the TR-1 was produced by Argus Plastics of Indianapolis, Indiana.
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