This Radio Data System (RDS) demonstration car radio was used in a 1995 ceremony on Capitol Hill marking the establishment of the 100th RDS-capable broadcast station, WKYS-FM in Washington, DC. RDS technology consisted of an inaudible text data stream transmitted from specially-equipped FM stations. The data included artist identification, community-service bulletins and traffic information. The demonstration receiver also includes a cassette tape deck with Dolby noise reduction. Engineer Ray Dolby designed a “sound compander” in the mid-1960s to improve audio output quality of recordings while working at Ampex and later founded a company to improve this technique.
The Scott model 2560 Casseiver combined an AM/FM stereo receiver with a cassette tape deck. Scott, a manufacturer of high-end radio receivers, adopted the cassette format invented by Philips in 1962. Philip’s cassette was one of several on the market. After its introduction in their Norelco line, the company offered free licences to other manufacturers who adopted the format. The original price on this Scott Casseiver was about $300, about $1700 in 2012 dollars.
Radios, like this Eveready model 2, provided many families of the 1920s with a new form of home entertainment. Amateurs began making home radios to transmit and receive messages early in the 1900s. But using these radios called for engineering skills and a license. Early receivers, called "crystal detectors," while relatively easy to make, required some technical skill and were low in power.
In 1916, David Sarnoff proposed that American Marconi Company sell broadcast transmitting equipment and "radio music boxes" that could receive the broadcast signals. After World War I, Sarnoff and his idea became part of the new Radio Corporation of America (RCA). A 1920 prototype radio designed by Alfred Goldsmith featured a few simple controls and needed no technical training to operate. RCA and other companies established AM (Amplitude Modulation) stations and began selling receivers. Stereo broadcasts were unknown, so radios needed only one speaker.
Listeners were entranced by this new medium that delivered both local news and nationwide "network" programming. Since radios could operate on batteries, reception spread beyond cities. Unelectrified rural areas began tuning in, making farm life seem less isolated. Families began to gather around their radios in the evenings to hear music, sports, comedy, drama—and the commercials that paid for "free" programming. The voices of political leaders and entertainment celebrities reached millions of Americans.
Elaborately styled cabinets, usually of wood, disguised technical components and allowed the radio to blend more easily with other home furnishings. This Eveready model is unusual. The cabinet is metal instead of wood, and can accept optional legs that permit the radio to be converted to a floor-standing model. Radio quickly became popular with Americans, so much so that statistics indicate only two electrical items sold well throughout the Great Depression: light bulbs and radios.
America embraced a new technology in the wake of World War One: radio. The wide availability of affordable receivers allowed people across the country to access both local and national programming. Radio became so popular that even the Great Depression could hardly slow sales. Philco manufactured this model 16B “cathedral” style radio around 1933. The model 16B was an eleven-tube superheterodyne with two wave band receivers that could pick up broadcasts from as far away as Britain. The front of the case consists of a single speaker with four knobs—the station selector, tone control, wave band switcher, and the power and volume control.
Broadcast radio grew into a major industry in the decade following the First World War as inventors refined the technology and entrepreneurs established supporting companies. By the 1930s, so many people wanted radio that the Great Depression slowed but could not stop the industry’s growth. Radio engineering became an attractive field for people interested in advanced technology and research laboratories like that operated by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) pushed advances in components and circuit designs.
Materials research also affected radio, as seen in the plastic casing of this Emerson radio receiver from about 1937. The so-called tombstone design was popular in the 1920s but the receivers typically were made of wood. Aside from being flammable, wood cases could warp and split, and the finishes scratched and stained easily. This radio’s case, made with a plastic called catalin developed by the American Catalin Corporation in the late 1920s, resisted heat and incidental damage like water stains. Available in a variety of colors and designs, catalin radios remain popular with collectors.