Only a handful of companies have remained in business for 50 years. An even smaller number remain under the same ownership for this length of time. And a tiny, tiny subset remains under the same ownership and management for 50 years. That makes Crutchfield an exceedingly rare company.
In 1950, at 8 years old, he built a radio using the recently invented transistor, only slightly larger than a pencil’s eraser. It replaced a much larger vacuum tube.
Transistors represented a huge breakthrough in electronics.
An iPhone 15 Pro has 19 billion transistors.
At 13, he built what might have been the first stereo system in Virginia. It was 1955, and was two sets of speakers connected to two separate mono hi-fi amplifiers connected to a two-channel tape head mounted to an old office reel-to-reel tape recorder.
Since this was before stereo records and FM stereo broadcasts, the only available content was from a handful of prerecorded tapes. One was a demo tape which provided soundtracks of trains and airplanes going from left to right.
After graduating from the University of Virginia, he joined the U.S. Air Force officer training program, achieved the rank of Captain, and eventually commanded a Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile crew.
Since no local store knew anything about these new aftermarket products, he looked in car and stereo magazines to find the mail order retailers of car stereos. Finding that none existed, he started Crutchfield in March 1974 and became the first car stereo mail order retailer!
With only a thousand dollars and an old Porsche, he didn't have enough to get a business started, but he knew a bank president with an old Porsche, and pitched him the idea, and got a 25k loan! Back when, it was more based on proving yourself, then proving you had a credit score.
The 1975 catalog was a step toward the modern era, as it showed how to upgrade the car stereo system, and compared radios... and won over readers! One traded the artwork for the cover for a car stereo!
Ever since the 3rd catalog in 1975, a core competitive advantage of Crutchfield has been the wealth of information. In 1989, they started the laborious process of researching vehicles to accumulate what is surely the world’s most complete database of vehicle fit information.
Through the end of 2023, Crutchfield has researched 18,798 different vehicles. When you account for different versions of the same vehicle (2-door and 4-door cars, regular cab and crew cab pickups, etc.), this information forms a database that covers more than 37,000 specific vehicles. It is the backbone of the Vehicle Selector feature found on their website and ensures that their customers purchase car stereo products which perfectly fit their vehicles.
Awesome story, but GREAT look at the full line of 1974/75 car radios, 8 track players, AND cassette players!
And I got this posted just minutes before the year 2024 expired, so, technically, I got this posted just in time!
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