Japanese TR radio mini-history

JAPANESE TR RADIOS MINI-HISTORY ============================== Once upon a time there was this little Sony TR-55.....Like all good tales this one also starts with a humble beginning. After American Regency had brought out the TR-1, the very first transistor radio in the world, the Japanese TOKYO TSUSHIN KOGYO LTD. (as Sony used to be known at the time) managed to bring out, in August 1955, the very first Japanese transistor radio.This followed months of getting acquainted with new technology that Sony had bought from the American Bell Laboratories (the patent) and from Western Electric (the licence). Sony had already tried to build the first Japanese transistor radio (TR-52) in April 1955 but decided not to put it in production due to theething problems with plastics and glues.The TR-55, as it was decided to call it was a simple looking coat pocket radio (meaning that it was wider than taller and that it could not be carried in a shirt pocket like the TR-1 could). It was only sold in Japan and is therefore very difficult to find. There are only a handful known to be in the hands of collectors to-day. The second Japanese transistor radio was the TR-72 a wooden cased much bigger job which was also exported, in 1956, to Canada under the GENDIS label (from the Canadian distributor GENeral DIStributors). THE SHIRT POCKET SETS ==================== But what really took the world by storm was the SONY TR-63. At the time of its appearance (March 1957) it was the smallest set in the world (112x71x32 mm.). Instead of the mixture of old and new technology which can be seen in other radios produced at the time the SONY TR-63 was a real miniature set with all new miniature components. The TR-63 set the style and the standard by which all the subsequest transistor radios were going to be judged.The TR-610, the next SONY shirt pocket radio was an even smaller set (107x65x29 mm.) and an even bigger success. 436,952 were produced from November 1958 practically reducing the American production to the larger and easier to make coat portable market. By this year all the main American brands were beginning to fear for their life. On the trail of SONY's success many Japanese firms began producing and exporting their pocket model of what we could call the second wave of Japanese shirt pocket portables.From what I can remember at the time the most popular models were: the GLOBAL GR-711, the SANYO 6C-022, the AIWA AR-665, the WILCO 360, the HITACHI TH-666, the FLEETWOOD NTR-150, the STANDARD SR-F410 and, of course, the SONY TR-610 and TR-620. They nearly all used the ubiquitous 9 volt battery (model 006P) which was by then a sort of standard. Then came the third wave which did have even smaller components and a reduced need of power supply which allowed the engineers to use only two (1,5 volt) AA cells. This, of course, made the design and the building of smaller sets easier and so even more manufacturers entered this lucrative section of the market. Many big names like SHARP, TOSHIBA, STANDARD, NIVICO, MITSUBISHI, NEC, MATSUSHITA (NATIONAL and PANASONIC) and plenty of smaller firms like CANDLE, CROWN, STAR-LITE, NANAO, NEW HOPE, NIPCO, KOYO, MARVEL, SANYO SEIKO, YAOU, REALTONE started producing their shirt pocket models. THE COAT POCKET SETS ==================== This sector of the transistor radio production was, naturally, much easier to design and manufacture mainly owing to the greater space available to the engineers. But the consumers had made their choice and this kind of radio together with the table models did not enjoy such a great success as the very small shirt pocket ones.All the major (and even the smaller) Japanese manufacturers were at this point confident of their products and had all the immense American and European market at their feet. This meant that the great sales volume and the fierce competition pushed the price down so that the American firms were compelled to buy Japanese components or to have their products made entirely in Japan. By the mid-sixties they were forced out of the market. Japan had at least won THIS war. THE TRANSPORTABLES =================== These big, chunky sets were, not surprisingly, very much less successful than the little portable brothers and sisters. The whole point of the transistor radio revolution was to transform the radio from a piece of furniture (which you keep at home) to a personal accessory (which you take with you). Their size and weight prevented people taking them around in the leisurly way that they wanted to enjoy in the fifties. But what they did not offer in portability they sported in characteristics and performance. Some of the best world band receivers of all time were made in the sixties by SONY. THE SPECIAL SETS =============== One of the offshoots of the Japanese transistor portables was the micro-mini radio such as those made by STANDARD. These were real jewels of radios which were even presented in their jewel clamshell boxes complete with satin linings.Owing to their diminutive size STANDARD called these models MICRONIC RUBY (rubins). They enjoyed a popularity well above their modest performance and operating cost (they had tiny loudspeakers and used expensive button cells).TOSHIBA and MARVEL made some of the most appealing mini sets in this category while NEC, SONY and SHARP tried, in vain, to contrast STANDARD in their dominance of this particular sector of the market. Other firms were quick to jump on the transistor bandwagon producing all sorts of "novelty radios". You name them and they made them: radio+camera=the RAMERA, radio+tranceiver = BC-TELECON, radio+binocular = CANDLE OTR-20/30, radio+sunglasses = SPECTRA Radio-spectacles and so on.Some makers tried (and succeded) to demonstrate their technological superiority by producing small pocket sets powered by one single AA cell (Sony for one). THE TABLE MODELS ================ These big and heavy models must be the collectables of the future. Nearly all the big names had a go at them and SANYO and SONY managed, between them, to produce the most beautiful and interesting ones. As there were no size or weight restrictions designers did have a go at expressing the best of their creativity. DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY ====================== Since the beginning the Japanese firms had a particular way of presenting their production as they not only cared about the engineering of their sets but also spent a lot of time and money by making their sets attractive to look at and ergonomical to operate.This is demontrated by the fact that after the market boom ended around 1963 their design and production methods were sensibly lowered and the Japanese sets lost that particular attraction that they had had at the beginning of their life. By the end of the sixties the Japanese electronic technology was the best you could buy but the glamorous and exciting designs of the fifties were gone forever.So the tale is then at its end but like all good tales this one also has left us with an example to follow and an historical heritage which is well worth remembering and putting by for our descendants to learn and appreciate.I think that transistor sets deserve their place in the history of the radio as much as the valve ones. Lets save them from the rubbish bin! Copyright @1997 by Enrico Tedeschi

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