In the afternoon of December 23, 1947, Bell Labs,  a communications research lab owned by AT&T, now known today as NOKIA Bell Labs, announced to the world the birth of the transistor, a cutting edge piece of technology that marks the advent of computers, LED lights, and what we’ll dive deeper in today, transistor radios.

The transistor can be used as an electrical switch, which is utilized in computers giving us endless information from 1s and 0s (on and off) , or an amplifier, which gives actually amplifies the electrical currents and allows sounds (in the instance of radios), to be produced more efficiently.

In the early 1950’s, the race to implement transistors into radios began. Texas Instruments, the company most associate with high school algebra, accomplished this feat by creating the first portable radio in 1954. Though Texas Instruments had the first mover advantage, it wasn’t the company to profit most by the invention; that company was the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation, known today as Sony.

Masaru Ibuka, the founder of Sony, saw the potential of transistor radios in 1952, and reached out to AT&T for the license that same year. by 1955, Sony had created their own transistor radio – the Sony TR-55. This radio and its contemporary, the Sony TR-63 took the world by storm, with over 100,000 units shipping to the United States.

Since the invention of the transistor radio, more popular means of consuming entertainment on the go have been created, like the rise of MP3 players.