Who made the first transistor radio?
The first transistor radio was produced by a company called Regency Electronics (originally called I.D.E.A. Corporation). The company had been approached by Texas Instruments to use TI transistors to build the first commercially-produced transistor radio. This occurred only after the big players in the field (such as RCA, Emerson, and Philco) declined to take on the project. Regency was a maker of television antenna boosters at the time. The company designed a 4-transistor radio and quickly came up with a case for it. All the components barely fit the case; a screw on the tuning capacitor stuck out far enough that a small “dimple” had to be ground into the back of the case to allow the circuit board to fit. The radio was introduced in the Fall of 1954 as the Regency TR-1, and initially was offered in four colors: black, white, red, and gray. Later, two other colors were added: jade green and a mottled mahogany. There were also some pearlescent colors offered at a premium price–today,
