TRANSISTOR RADIO DESIGN

The Regency TR-1 was of course the world’s first Transistor Radio making its debut in 1954. Not only was it the worlds first transistor radio it was also the first radio in my collection! I purchased it on Christmas Eve 2006. This example was not in good condition when it came into my hands. It had extreme sun fading to the front and top. I had to spend hours sanding it back and polishing the plastic. I think that it was well worth the effort! 

 

 

This really is a beautiful radio featuring understated minimalist design. Obvious highlights include the famous gold Regency logo, the regal gold tuning dial and the sparkling gold speaker grill cloth. Stunning!

The cabinet of the Regency TR-1 was designed by the Chicago firm of Painter Teague and Peteril. They came up with two designs, one with a perforated grill and one with a slotted grill. Ultimately the perforated grill was the accepted design and the plan for a slotted grill was discarded. Prototype TR-1 cases were machined not molded and there is some suggestion that before the slotted grill version was abandoned a machined version was manufactured... Now imagine stumbling across that at a garage sale!

 

 

According to ‘The Regency TR-1: 50 Years On’ an article by Paul R Farmer in the AWA Review Vol 17 the Mandarin Red colored TR-1 had an estimated production run of 19000 with probably 950 – 1900 in existence today!

The leather case for the Regency TR-1 was available to the purchaser for an extra $3.95. The earliest cases used a round cutout speaker grill pattern with later ones using a square pattern.

 

 

In this ad Regency touted the TR-1 as being the worlds first pocket radio. It was of course the worlds first commercially released transistor radio but it was not the worlds first pocket radio. Pocket size crystal radios were built by hobbyists in the 1920's and in the mid 1940's the Belmont Boulevard was released. It was a pocket size, earphone only radio that ran on sub-miniature tubes.

Regency also claims in this ad that the Regency TR-1 was "virtually service free... engineered for lifetime performance" Sadly this was not true...

Here is an interesting mock-up of this ad.

The transistors manufactured by Texas Instruments are clearly visible in the closeups with their painted tops. Presumably these were painted different colors for identification purposes.

This Regency TR-1 must have been sent back to the factory to be serviced as it has the 'after market' label inside. After being serviced the new labels were glued directly over the top of the old labels.