TRANSISTOR RADIO DESIGN

This audacious Lafayette FS-91 was manufactured in Japan in 1959 for American company Lafayette Radio Electronics Corp. I’m unsure who manufactured this little jewel but Author Norman R Smith has a Lafayette FS-91 listed under the ‘Crown’ section of his excellent book ‘Transistor Radios 1954 – 1968’! It sure looks like the type of spectacular design that Crown would come up with. If anyone can confirm that Crown was the manufacturer of this radio then please let me know.

Established in the 1920s, Lafayette Radio Electronics Corp was a thriving mail-order catalog business supplying electronic components to amateur radio operators across the USA. Lafayette opened their first company store in 1968 and eventually closed up shop in 1981.

This is one transistor radio that the ‘Art Deco’ tag can truly be applied to! Its appearance looks to have been inspired by the famous art deco design era of the 1930’s. It features a large three dimensional under-painted face with offset pin stripes framing a valiant golden arch. It has a kickstand on the back for lounging. It’s a classic for sure!

 

   

This Lafayette FS-91 comes with a very cool black gift box, leather case, leather earphone case, earphone, schematic diagram and an old National Hi-Top brand battery made by Matsushita!

This Lafayette FS-91 makes use of 9 Hitachi transistors. The serial number of 091260 may translate to a manufacturing date of 1959 with the actual serial number being 1260, I could be wrong of course... I have seen the SAMS Photofact schematic diagram for this radio dated 1961 and this is a good indication that the radio was manufactured one or two years beforehand.