First MAGNAVOX transistor radio - 1956 - hand-wired, made in USA, first and only Sentinel transistor
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- What was the first transistor radio made by Magnavox? If you guessed this one, you'd be right! See, that was easy.
It's the six-transistor Magnavox AM-2 and it is from 1956, or maybe even as early as 1955. In what we call a horizontal coat-pocket configuration, this is a good looking radio. We're going to look at two of these today--this red one which is a little bit later in the production run of this model, and this white one, which is one of the earliest ones produced. You'll notice some differences between the two in the tuning knob and, at the bottom of the front, the way the Magnavox name is applied. Also, on the earlier model, the words "All Transistor" appear on a separate metal plate.
Magnavox has a long history, going back to the Commercial Wireless and Development Company founded in 1911 in Napa, California. Napa Valley you may know from the wines made there. Anyway, the founders sobered up enough to move to San Francisco a little while later, then settled in nearby Oakland in 1916. They found success with their invention of a kind of moving-coil loudspeaker which I think you can best describe today as a kind of an earphone with a horn attached to it. The horn acoustically amplifies the sound. Before such horns, all radio listening was done with headphones. So since Commerical Wireless and Development was in the business of making things louder, they decided to change their name to "Big Voice." Which would have been a pretty crummy name if they hadn't had the good sense to translate it to Latin, where "big voice" comes out Magna-Vox. Magnavox.
Like the Regency TR-1 and most of the rest of the first American transistor radios, this one has no vents on the back. I don't know why they didn't think they needed them. Or why they soon thereafter decided they DID need them on later models.
Opening it up, we see the label--on which is illustrated a diagram of the parts layout. There's mention there of the Civil Defense frequencies, and a list of suitable 4-volt batteries to power the set. Then we get a list of things not to do, like setting your radio on top of a heater. And, it says here that the Magavox Company is now in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Magnavox covers the chassis with a piece of fiber board inside the back. And here's another difference between the early and later models. You can see on the earlier one that this chassis covering is plastic rather than fiber board.
We are reminded how new the printed circuit was in electronics at the time. We are reminded of that because... there isn't one. This radio is wired, probably by hand, the old-fashioned way, called "point-to-point wiring." No printed circuit board. Only the earliest transistor radios were made this way, and not many of those. For example the first Zenith pocket transistor Royal 500 had point-to-point wiring, but by the following year the newer version of the Royal 500 had a printed circuit board. And indeed this AM-2 model from Magnavox was followed by an almost identical looking AM-5 model which had a printed circuit board.
Here's an ad for the Magnavox AM-2. You'll notice that the illustration of the radio in the ad shows the earliest version. This ad appeared in Holiday Magazine in July of 1956 and would be the first, or at least one of the first generation of ads introducing this first for Magnavox, a transistor radio. The same early-version AM-2 is shown on the owner's manual. I'll give you some quiet for a moment to let you look over both sides of this owner's manual in peace.
I'm sure there are also some circuitry differences between the earlier and later versions of this radio. But you know, I think that can probably be said for any and all transistor radio models ever produced.
And here's the nice leather case that came with the AM-2. It's full grain saddle leather. But since it's a 70 old piece of leather at this point, I'm not going to go bending it around. It has a nice soft finish on the inside and doesn't scratch the radio, much. In the bottom of this case is another compartment for an earphone and maybe an extra battery. What will they think of next? Well, I'm thinking this might just pull right off of here if I try and open it so, no. We will just leave what's in here, if anything, to our imaginations.
And what is this? It's the Sentinel IE500 and it is a rare one. Sentinel was an old radio manufacturer out of Evanston, Illinois, near Chicago. Their main business was making radios for other private label brands. Today, I think, we would call Sentinel an OEM. I suppose it is an irony that this transistor radio--their only transistor radio--would be made not BY them for someone else, but FOR them, by Magnavox. It is essentially a Magnavox AM-2 that is branded "Sentinel." Who made what is an assumption we are making here, based on who survived. It's conceivable that it was Sentinel who made both Sentinel and Magnavox transistor radios. But we assume Magnavox was the maker because Magnavox acquired Sentinel...
Thanks so much for a great memory and sharing vintage radios.
This overall radio collection is incredible to me. It is a focused and well documented set of artifacts. I hope it will stay together as a testament and witness to a specific time in human industrial history!
I agree and we are fortunate to have a good record of the collection and commentary on YT
$732 today ! wow it goes to show how much we take for granted the technology we have.
I can almost smell the formaldehyde and shellack here in the UK . As a young lad I had a seven transistor radio made in HongKong bought with tokens my Mum collected from Kellogg Corn flakes. I can still remember the late night tunes it played way after my bed time.
Thanks for another lovely walk down memory lane. Best wishes.
fantastico amigo!!esse radio tem a minha idade!! somente em 1967 e que meu pai comprou o primeiro radio de mesa.
@@cristovaomartins5201 1967, 9 years younger than I, we both treasure these memories. I really enjoy 'collectornet' his presentation and historical narrative takes me to a nicer time. I think he should do 'audio books' as his style is very calming. best wishes to you.
It's expensive because it's made in U.S.A.
@@knife-wieldingspidergod5059 Not that much more, my point was that technology of that time was very expensive and a luxury item. Its not just inflation.
My first transistor radio was $10. I paid half and my mother kicked in the other half. I bought it at Woolworths.
In the mid 1950's, they hadn't mastered the art of consistently producing quality transistors. In fact, about the best they could do was 1 out of 10, that worked, so they tested each transistor by hand individually, to find the one which worked & threw away the 9 bad ones. This tedious process was, why transistor radios were so expensive at first. It wasn't until the mid 1960's, that the manufacturing issues were solved & transistor radios got inexpensive enough to begin to overtake vacuum tube radios.
Well I used to work for Magnavox and Sylvania and Phillips.. Hansom radio. ....PS I just got a real find a craftsman 5 band radio. Made 1969. For the paltry sum of $7.99 via good will. Little labour good radio goes to show...they built them to last.😊😊
"Magnavox" is one of my favorite brand names even just AS a name. Being that it was first was applied to a loud speaker makes perfect sense, It means "Big Voice"! But it ALSO would have sounded "high tech" back then as well. I always considered the name "Panasonic" to be sort of an homage to the name "Magnavox": Panasonic = "Wide Sound". Both names give me the same "vibe" no pun intended...Or WAS it intended. 🤔😊
Magnavox bought Sentinel in 1956, they kept the brand as a cheaper line into the early 1970's.
That was Susan Hayward on that one ad.
Leather oil and oil on the snap that case would work fine.
I was getting interested in radio around then. I was in grammar school. Still interested in retirement after a long career in electronics.
N1KHB
$64.50??? When I bought my first transistor radio, about a decade later, it was all of $10! 🙂
nice radios
Thats a nice looking Philips..
Was this a professional production? The narrator, I'm sure I've heard that voice doing TV ads.
Nosir, this is an entirely amateur operation.
@@collectornet Amateur ! , we think's not.
$64.50 in 1956 would probably translate roughly to $1161.00 if you figure the cost of gas then 25 cents/gal versus today's $4.50 a gallon. 6 transistors (7 or 8 if there was a tuned RF stage) were all that were necessary to make a top performing AM radio. I always get a chuckle out of those pocket radios with an insane transistor count and most of them are out of circuit, used as diodes or purposely shorted just to use as a "wire".
@@DM-hk8gz Let the man speak. He's done nothing offensive.
Tube radio manufacturers did the same thing with otherwise unconnected tubes that did nothing but glow from the filament power.
The transistors used in those radios were often seconds, that had been rejected from more important production lines. Back in those days, the most important use for transistors was aviation and missiles, with computers starting to use them.
@@James_Knott If so, they were still within spec for the purpose assigned. Computer usage is very forgiving. Not a problem to use under spec components there for the most part.
3:57 $64.50 is about $742 US dollars today.
👍🤠
i believe the radio is a real model, but i am not convinced this isn't entirely computer generated. i'm kind of impressed, if terrified. but i suppose to standardize all that way of doing things in such a way considering what it used to all lead to isn't the worst thing in the world. After all, its still things made by people for people and if we can have the computer teach people living in the 21st century about this kind of stuff we keep alive without having to stay in gray rooms on led screens to do so ourselves then everybody wins and the history & its story live on.
Everything in this video is real, written and produced by yours truly-- a genuine human being and a collector. TH-cam needs to force videos made with AI to be so marked. I resent having my creations suspected of being "computer generated." I don't blame you. I watch TH-cam too and have seen a sharp uptick in AI. And often it's hard to tell. AI content needs to be labeled as such so that those of us who want fresh content from the brains and hearts of human beings can distinguish at a glance between that and the regurgitations of compiled data.
I have one in black, doesn't work.
It could be Edward Everett Horton. He narrated the Fractured Faiy Tales cartoons in the 60's. Buuuut maybe not. With a name like Suckers, its got to be good.
I got it! Mason Adam's. Ya, that's it.
well, power them on please.
Why don't I play the radios? Three reasons:
1. You would not really be "hearing" the radio itself at all. Think about it. You'd be hearing my microphone, a lot of electronics between me and you, and eventually your own speakers or earphones.
2. What about the radio's performance? Well, we judge a radio's reception by how it performs compared to others at our location. Is it really meaningful to compare a radio's performance in a video at MY location with the reception you experience at yours? It may be a nice bit of theater to turn on a radio and hear it play but when you think about it, other than theater it doesn't mean much. And then there's the risk:
3. Any amount of any random thing that comes out of any radio I would play in a TH-cam video can be claimed as copyrighted material by its creator (music, ball game, etc.). This can cause any number of hassles from demonetization all the way up to and including the video being taken down.
Given all that, in my judgment the risk to this channel and subsequently its viewers is just not worth it.
@@collectornet i agree. but it's mesmerizing to see the old machines still full of life, even after all those years.
a feeling very difficult to express.
@3:00
probably wired, by hand. lol
Probably! I don't know what sorts of automation were available and in place in that era, in that factory, do you?
WOW, $64.50 in the 50's. What would that be in today's dollars. Today $64.50 could get you a Chinese radio with multiple bands, external antenna jacks, digital tuning, stereo headphone sound, and maybe even SSB. WOW, how things have changed.
That was almost an average week's pay.