Uploaded October 2024 | Updated September 2026, 12 hours ago
Collectors know that THIS was the first commercially available transistor radio ever made. But what was the second?
This one. One of the 8TP series from Raytheon, introduced in February of 1955. It's an eight transistor, as compared to the four transistor Regency--and with a much larger speaker was a better performer in every way. But, of course, this one is NO WAY going to fit in your pocket like the Regency could.
Where the Regency's price was $50, the Raytheon's price was $80. The Raytheon came in a choice of four colors schemes, with a different model number for each. What we're looking at today is the 8TP-3 model. The 8TP-1 model is more of a tan color, the 8TP-2 is a dark brown, and the 8TP-4 is a two-tone red and black. And that's the one they show in this ad for the 8TP series. "Everybody's talking about it!" "Cuts yearly battery costs from dollars to dimes." "NO TUBES!" And this is a remarkable statement, "no tubes." Why? Because Raytheon was in the tube business. Most of the biggest players in American consumer electronics in that day, GE, RCA, Raytheon, and the rest, had substantial investments in their tube technology and manufacturing plants. This would account for some corporate dragging of feet when it came to embracing the transistor as the future of electronics. It was after all, two outsiders: Regency, working with Texas Instruments, to be the first to offer a transistor radio. Why wasn't that RCA? Or Emerson? Well, it wasn't. There was just ONE among all the establishment corporations in the vacuum tube business that went full throttle into the technology that would replace it. And that was Raytheon. In the early '50s, they were the first to produce transistors for commercial sale. By 1955 they had sold nearly two million transistors, more than all other manufacturers combined.
The company was founded in 1922 as the American Appliance Company. For their tubes they used the name "Raytheon" because "ray-theon" is a word construction meaning, at its roots, "light from the gods." In the early 20th century when radio was perceived as more or less a kind of technological miracle, seeing the warm orange glow of vacuum tubes sticking out of a radio, bringing in distant voices and music-- right out of the sky... well, there's your light from the gods.
Peering into the back of this historic transistor radio, we notice some interesting things. First, it looks as if it was built like military equipment and would survive for a month, under fire, in a muddy trench somewhere. And this example kind of looks like it already did! Second, there is no printed circuit board. We still find the old-style point-to point wiring being used here. Third, the transistors aren't soldered to a circuit board--because there isn't one, remember--the transistors are plugged into sockets, just like tubes would be. And there's a sizable 4-inch speaker in here, the same size and type as you would find in a table radio at home made in this era.
The cabinet is made... of wood. It's a wood box, upholstered with leather--rather like a suitcase. The leather is top grain cowhide. The radio takes four standard D-cell flashlight batteries for its power source, rather than the exotic and expensive batteries tube radios required, or the smaller and even more exotic batteries some of the other early transistor radios required. And the Raytheon was VERY efficient with its power consumption--they claimed that in normal use those four D-cells would last you a year.
Raytheon's first plastic transistor radio, their T-100, would came later that year, in 1955. You'll find a video about that radio on this channel. It was smaller than the 8TP, and had just four transistors, like the Regency. But it was nowhere near as small as the Regency.
For the radio buyer in 1955, the Regency TR-1 was incomparable. In-compare-able. There was nothing to compare it to--no other choice if you wanted a real radio to fit in your pocket. But in the larger, portable size like this Raytheon, you could get a comparable radio with tubes in it for just $30. The tube radio would burn through batteries faster--but you'd have a battery budget of $50 before you ever even got to the starting price of the Raytheon. So why spend $80 on the Raytheon? Well, we tell ourselves stories all the time to justify what we think and do. What we tell the spouse is... honey, think how much we'll save on batteries.
Collectors know that THIS was the first commercially available transistor radio ever made. But what was the second?
This one. One of the 8TP series from Raytheon, introduced in February of 1955. It's an eight transistor, as compared to the four transistor Regency--and with a much larger speaker was a better performer in every way. But, of course, this one is NO WAY going to fit in your pocket like the Regency could.
Where the Regency's price was $50, the Raytheon's price was $80. The Raytheon came in a choice of four colors schemes, with a different model number for each. What we're looking at today is the 8TP-3 model. The 8TP-1 model is more of a tan color, the 8TP-2 is a dark brown, and the 8TP-4 is a two-tone red and black. And that's the one they show in this ad for the 8TP series. "Everybody's talking about it!" "Cuts yearly battery costs from dollars to dimes." "NO TUBES!" And this is a remarkable statement, "no tubes." Why? Because Raytheon was in the tube business. Most of the biggest players in American consumer electronics in that day, GE, RCA, Raytheon, and the rest, had substantial investments in their tube technology and manufacturing plants. This would account for some corporate dragging of feet when it came to embracing the transistor as the future of electronics. It was after all, two outsiders: Regency, working with Texas Instruments, to be the first to offer a transistor radio. Why wasn't that RCA? Or Emerson? Well, it wasn't. There was just ONE among all the establishment corporations in the vacuum tube business that went full throttle into the technology that would replace it. And that was Raytheon. In the early '50s, they were the first to produce transistors for commercial sale. By 1955 they had sold nearly two million transistors, more than all other manufacturers combined.
The company was founded in 1922 as the American Appliance Company. For their tubes they used the name "Raytheon" because "ray-theon" is a word construction meaning, at its roots, "light from the gods." In the early 20th century when radio was perceived as more or less a kind of technological miracle, seeing the warm orange glow of vacuum tubes sticking out of a radio, bringing in distant voices and music-- right out of the sky... well, there's your light from the gods.
Peering into the back of this historic transistor radio, we notice some interesting things. First, it looks as if it was built like military equipment and would survive for a month, under fire, in a muddy trench somewhere. And this example kind of looks like it already did! Second, there is no printed circuit board. We still find the old-style point-to point wiring being used here. Third, the transistors aren't soldered to a circuit board--because there isn't one, remember--the transistors are plugged into sockets, just like tubes would be. And there's a sizable 4-inch speaker in here, the same size and type as you would find in a table radio at home made in this era.
The cabinet is made... of wood. It's a wood box, upholstered with leather--rather like a suitcase. The leather is top grain cowhide. The radio takes four standard D-cell flashlight batteries for its power source, rather than the exotic and expensive batteries tube radios required, or the smaller and even more exotic batteries some of the other early transistor radios required. And the Raytheon was VERY efficient with its power consumption--they claimed that in normal use those four D-cells would last you a year.
Raytheon's first plastic transistor radio, their T-100, would came later that year, in 1955. You'll find a video about that radio on this channel. It was smaller than the 8TP, and had just four transistors, like the Regency. But it was nowhere near as small as the Regency.
For the radio buyer in 1955, the Regency TR-1 was incomparable. In-compare-able. There was nothing to compare it to--no other choice if you wanted a real radio to fit in your pocket. But in the larger, portable size like this Raytheon, you could get a comparable radio with tubes in it for just $30. The tube radio would burn through batteries faster--but you'd have a battery budget of $50 before you ever even got to the starting price of the Raytheon. So why spend $80 on the Raytheon? Well, we tell ourselves stories all the time to justify what we think and do. What we tell the spouse is... honey, think how much we'll save on batteries.
