The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 97, July 1993 - April, 1994 Page: 80

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

from that of the initial design, it still proved to be quite adequate for a
small radio, and was easily heard across even larger rooms.
The Regency TR-1 did go into production as planned in October
1954, and thousands were sold before Christmas at a price of $49.95. In
fact, the popularity of the radio, one of which is on display at the Smith-
sonian in Washington, was so great that demand far outstripped supply
for several months. About 1 oo,ooo were eventually produced.
In response to the requirements for producing the Regency TR-1
miniature radio, component suppliers began developing whole new
lines of small components for use in transistor circuits. These included
miniature low-voltage capacitors, extremely small low-wattage resistors
and potentiometers, miniature variable capacitors (tuners), miniature
transformers, and small but efficient loudspeakers. The availability of
such miniature components led to and accelerated the development of
many other types of transistorized equipment common today, including
low-power TVs, VCRs, cordless phones, and cassette recorders.
Roger wrote an article on how to design IF transformers for transistor
circuits, and it was published in a leading electronics magazine. The arti-
cle turned out to be a classic: it became so popular that Roger received
inquiries about it from radio designers all over the world for many years
after it was published.
The present article is intended primarily to tell the engineers' story of
those first few days of endeavor to design and fabricate the feasibility
breadboard model of a transistor radio, a model that was to lead to the
first transistor radio on the market. I'm sure that Roger, Jim, and Dick
could tell some good war stories and greatly expand on this summary of
the Hoosier Connection phase of the program and the engineering that
went into the launching of the Regency TR-1, and maybe some day they
will do just that.
Because almost all transistor radios have been imported for many
years, most people, including a certain network news reporter, are un-
der the impression that the Japanese, specifically Sony, developed the
first transistor radio. Not so! The first commercially successful transistor
radio, and a pocket-sized model at that, was developed and placed into
production by engineers right here in the U.S.A. in 1954. Sony did not
produce its first transistor radio until a year later, and their first pocket
radio was not marketed until the spring of 1957.