Uploaded December 2024 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago
Oh, I like these radios. I like them so much that my top ten list of all-time favorites... has 50 radios on it!
And this is one of them. Oh my. It's kind of big for a shirt-pocket, and that is part of its charm. It's really trying to fit in your pocket. Let's just see how big it is compared to a Regency TR-1 from 1954. Oh, that's a little surprising. I thought they'd be about the same but the Emerson is significantly smaller. So, let's compare it then to a Sony TR-63 from 1957... These two are quite similar in size.
The Emerson Champion is from 1958 and it is Emerson's first pocket-size transistor radio. Well, I guess I should say SHIRT-pocket size since they referred to their earlier, significantly larger radios as pocket size. And by this, they must have meant "coat-pocket size." And a large coat at that. This is the Emerson 888 Pioneer.
The little Emerson Champion is a delight. It's cabinet is all molded plastic, even the grille--a grille much more sculptured than was used on the Regency TR-1 radio. Plastics were one of the key advancing technologies in the 1950s, along with the transistor and the printed circuit. An advanced state of all three of these technologies found a home simultaneously in this remarkable little radio. High tech? Well, I guess!
In an echo back to earlier times we see gold grille cloth being used behind the grille, protecting chassis and speaker and providing a nice bit of sparkle. The tuning knob is a luscious piece of underpainted plastic. As we've seen in other videos on earlier Emersons, underpainted plastic was definitely something they believed in, and excelled at, and it's great to see it continue on into the later '50s. Most other American brands, if they used it at all, had dropped the technique by this time. The only metal visible at all on the outside of this radio is the dial thumbscrew, a nice gold accent to this marvelous little package.
On the back, it's marked "Emerson Television and Radio," then "Emerson 999 'Champion.'" Then toward the bottom it says "Emerson Radio and Phonograph Corporation, Jersey City, N.J., USA.
Two tabs on the bottom, and two on top, are what holds the back on this radio. Inside we see a paper label with battery changing instructions. The battery connector is definitely old-school. As you can see, the chassis is mounted circuit board side out so the parts are kept from prying hands. Those of us 10-year-olds who had soldering irons back in the day could still attempt "improvements"--but, fortunately no one tried that here. I am loathe to put at risk anything as original and nice as this by dismantling it to see the other side of the board. But here it is as shown in the Howard Sams service literature for those who want to see it. Am I being too cautious here by not taking the chassis out? I don't know. I don't think so. You see, I WAS that 10-year-old with a soldering iron and I've grown a bit more conservative about such things in the years since.
Nowhere on this radio does it say how many transistors it contains. The knob on the front just says "All Transistor." I guess in this way they could put as many, or as few, transistors as they wanted to in this radio, and even change the number along the way in the model run. According to that Sams literature I referred to earlier, this radio has just four transistors. Well, I guess that's why they're not bragging about the number.
In 1958 the battle for dominance in the shirt-pocket radio market was just beginning to heat up. Sony's TR-63 with SIX transistors was about to make things very hot for Emerson and the other American-made brands.
The Emerson 999 Champion. Designed and built in the USA, it's a great looking radio. And lest you think it is all about the color, check out this gorgeous white one... and the black... this is a radio that, in any color, is one of the most stylish little transistor radios ever made.
Oh, I like these radios. I like them so much that my top ten list of all-time favorites... has 50 radios on it!
And this is one of them. Oh my. It's kind of big for a shirt-pocket, and that is part of its charm. It's really trying to fit in your pocket. Let's just see how big it is compared to a Regency TR-1 from 1954. Oh, that's a little surprising. I thought they'd be about the same but the Emerson is significantly smaller. So, let's compare it then to a Sony TR-63 from 1957... These two are quite similar in size.
The Emerson Champion is from 1958 and it is Emerson's first pocket-size transistor radio. Well, I guess I should say SHIRT-pocket size since they referred to their earlier, significantly larger radios as pocket size. And by this, they must have meant "coat-pocket size." And a large coat at that. This is the Emerson 888 Pioneer.
The little Emerson Champion is a delight. It's cabinet is all molded plastic, even the grille--a grille much more sculptured than was used on the Regency TR-1 radio. Plastics were one of the key advancing technologies in the 1950s, along with the transistor and the printed circuit. An advanced state of all three of these technologies found a home simultaneously in this remarkable little radio. High tech? Well, I guess!
In an echo back to earlier times we see gold grille cloth being used behind the grille, protecting chassis and speaker and providing a nice bit of sparkle. The tuning knob is a luscious piece of underpainted plastic. As we've seen in other videos on earlier Emersons, underpainted plastic was definitely something they believed in, and excelled at, and it's great to see it continue on into the later '50s. Most other American brands, if they used it at all, had dropped the technique by this time. The only metal visible at all on the outside of this radio is the dial thumbscrew, a nice gold accent to this marvelous little package.
On the back, it's marked "Emerson Television and Radio," then "Emerson 999 'Champion.'" Then toward the bottom it says "Emerson Radio and Phonograph Corporation, Jersey City, N.J., USA.
Two tabs on the bottom, and two on top, are what holds the back on this radio. Inside we see a paper label with battery changing instructions. The battery connector is definitely old-school. As you can see, the chassis is mounted circuit board side out so the parts are kept from prying hands. Those of us 10-year-olds who had soldering irons back in the day could still attempt "improvements"--but, fortunately no one tried that here. I am loathe to put at risk anything as original and nice as this by dismantling it to see the other side of the board. But here it is as shown in the Howard Sams service literature for those who want to see it. Am I being too cautious here by not taking the chassis out? I don't know. I don't think so. You see, I WAS that 10-year-old with a soldering iron and I've grown a bit more conservative about such things in the years since.
Nowhere on this radio does it say how many transistors it contains. The knob on the front just says "All Transistor." I guess in this way they could put as many, or as few, transistors as they wanted to in this radio, and even change the number along the way in the model run. According to that Sams literature I referred to earlier, this radio has just four transistors. Well, I guess that's why they're not bragging about the number.
In 1958 the battle for dominance in the shirt-pocket radio market was just beginning to heat up. Sony's TR-63 with SIX transistors was about to make things very hot for Emerson and the other American-made brands.
The Emerson 999 Champion. Designed and built in the USA, it's a great looking radio. And lest you think it is all about the color, check out this gorgeous white one... and the black... this is a radio that, in any color, is one of the most stylish little transistor radios ever made.
