Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 6 hours ago
Today we're opening up a vintage transistor radio made in America. Unlike the fancier display boxes we've seen with other radios on this channel, the simple corrugated box here gives no indication of what a terrific little radio it contains.
And here it is, in the box, the 1960 model Silvertone pocket transistor radio in mint green. Like pretty much anything from Sears Roebuck, it was a little less sleek than the competition in size and styling, yet was unquestionably well-made. Sears, for your grandfather, was going to be the choice for things like this... maybe not so much for your cool uncle... you know, the one with the sports car.
Silvertone is a Sears brand, of course, first used in 1916. Here's the 1961 Sears catalog, showing the radio we're looking at today. It's $3 off as a Sears Jubilee Value. We see it is offered here in just two colors: black, and the mint green. Red examples have been spotted around, in the hands of some of the cooler kids, but red isn't a color option in this catalog. A leather case is listed as an option for the radio, at 89 cents, and an earphone for 95 cents.
Here's a receipt I found in the box... from a Sears Roebuck store in south Los Angeles, for $37.59. The price tag on the box shows the radio priced at $16.88, so perhaps the $37.59 was for two of them, plus tax.
And it's always good to have the owner's manual, even if you never read it. On the front it says it is for model numbers 1202, 1203, and 1204. Now these aren't different radios, these are the different colors of this radio--the 1202 being black, the 1203 being the mint green, and the 1204 being the red color that the catalog doesn't mention.
In the box is also the technical manual--I don't know if this was included in the box of all of Sears's transistor radios, but it sure is in this one. It folds out to four 8-1/2 by 11 pages and includes instructions for ordering replacement parts. It shows what's available in the way of cabinet parts,... and there's the radio's schematic diagram,...a list of chassis parts,... a parts placement diagram,... and alignment data.
In a recent video on Arvin, I talked about their role in making radios for Sears--and indeed this radio was made for Sears by Arvin, in Columbus, Indiana. While Arvin MAY have made all the Silvertone radios in this era, they did not make ALL things Silvertone. No. For example, the Silvertone branded guitars Sears sold weren't made by Arvin but by several other manufacturers, including Danelectro, Harmony, and Kay. Even with all these different makers, Sears guitars all had a kind of similarity or "family resemblance."... Why is that?
"Brand" and "manufacturer" are two words often used synonomously, but they do not mean the same thing. A company CAN be both, as on this radio, where the manufacturer, and the brand, are both Arvin... But this is not so with Silvertone. A brand has a stake in its public reputation that a manufacturer does not. A manufacturer makes its products not for the public, but for the brand. The manufacturer can make products at any level of quality, from the best they know how to do... down to whatever it takes to barely get by. It's the brand owner who decides the look, and the quality level on which they'll put their brand. And that's how the look and feel of Sears's radios and Sears's guitars, though made by entirely different people, have that Searness about them: a little less sleek perhaps than the competition, but at a reasonable price and well enough made to reliably do the job. Your grandfather was right, of course, but then so was your uncle.
Today we're opening up a vintage transistor radio made in America. Unlike the fancier display boxes we've seen with other radios on this channel, the simple corrugated box here gives no indication of what a terrific little radio it contains.
And here it is, in the box, the 1960 model Silvertone pocket transistor radio in mint green. Like pretty much anything from Sears Roebuck, it was a little less sleek than the competition in size and styling, yet was unquestionably well-made. Sears, for your grandfather, was going to be the choice for things like this... maybe not so much for your cool uncle... you know, the one with the sports car.
Silvertone is a Sears brand, of course, first used in 1916. Here's the 1961 Sears catalog, showing the radio we're looking at today. It's $3 off as a Sears Jubilee Value. We see it is offered here in just two colors: black, and the mint green. Red examples have been spotted around, in the hands of some of the cooler kids, but red isn't a color option in this catalog. A leather case is listed as an option for the radio, at 89 cents, and an earphone for 95 cents.
Here's a receipt I found in the box... from a Sears Roebuck store in south Los Angeles, for $37.59. The price tag on the box shows the radio priced at $16.88, so perhaps the $37.59 was for two of them, plus tax.
And it's always good to have the owner's manual, even if you never read it. On the front it says it is for model numbers 1202, 1203, and 1204. Now these aren't different radios, these are the different colors of this radio--the 1202 being black, the 1203 being the mint green, and the 1204 being the red color that the catalog doesn't mention.
In the box is also the technical manual--I don't know if this was included in the box of all of Sears's transistor radios, but it sure is in this one. It folds out to four 8-1/2 by 11 pages and includes instructions for ordering replacement parts. It shows what's available in the way of cabinet parts,... and there's the radio's schematic diagram,...a list of chassis parts,... a parts placement diagram,... and alignment data.
In a recent video on Arvin, I talked about their role in making radios for Sears--and indeed this radio was made for Sears by Arvin, in Columbus, Indiana. While Arvin MAY have made all the Silvertone radios in this era, they did not make ALL things Silvertone. No. For example, the Silvertone branded guitars Sears sold weren't made by Arvin but by several other manufacturers, including Danelectro, Harmony, and Kay. Even with all these different makers, Sears guitars all had a kind of similarity or "family resemblance."... Why is that?
"Brand" and "manufacturer" are two words often used synonomously, but they do not mean the same thing. A company CAN be both, as on this radio, where the manufacturer, and the brand, are both Arvin... But this is not so with Silvertone. A brand has a stake in its public reputation that a manufacturer does not. A manufacturer makes its products not for the public, but for the brand. The manufacturer can make products at any level of quality, from the best they know how to do... down to whatever it takes to barely get by. It's the brand owner who decides the look, and the quality level on which they'll put their brand. And that's how the look and feel of Sears's radios and Sears's guitars, though made by entirely different people, have that Searness about them: a little less sleek perhaps than the competition, but at a reasonable price and well enough made to reliably do the job. Your grandfather was right, of course, but then so was your uncle.
