It was November 1954 when the first hand-held transistor radios went on sale as the Christmas gift "everybody wanted". The same month that Red Robinson became Canada's first DJ with a daily Rock and Roll show.
The Top 10 Billboard Pop Charts for this month in 1954 included Shake, Rattle and Roll by Bill Haley. Ruth Brown, Faye Adams and The Charms had #1 songs on the Billboard R&B charts.
The radio was the Regency TR-1. Manufactured by I.D.E.A. Inc. (short for Industrial Development Engineering Associates) with transistors from Texas Instruments, who provided the original prototype radio. Argus Plastics provided the cases in the choice of colours shown above. 100,000 radios were sold in the first year, with an advertised price of $49.95. Not included was the 22.5 volt battery, listed at $1.15, fairly inexpensive as it was quite common for use in most hearing aids. The battery would last for 20-30 hours of radio use, which was three to four times as long as battery-operated tube radios of the era. Then there was the leather case for an extra $3.95. And $7.50 for an earphone!
The radio weighed 12 ounces and was 3" x 5" x 1 1/4".
The performance was poor enough that Consumer Reports magazine recommended against its purchase, citing high noise levels and instability on certain frequencies. To keep the price down, two transistors had been eliminated from the original Texas Instruments prototype, really reducing how loud the radio could be played.
On the positive side, the radio did have an automatic gain control. Part of the manufacturing process was hand tuning the Intermediate Frequency (IF) transformer to 262 KHz.