The Type 96 ku radio receiver (in the photo) were purchased by the Japanese Navy from Sylvania U.S.A. and marked U.S. Navy!

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1477911691035567&set=a.634513275375417

a Datsun dealership demo stand so new car buyers could expericence the difference between the factory optional radios... and it still works!

America's First Radio Tour departs from Detroit, in 1922, heading to the Pacific with Rickenbacker Six cars on the Lincoln Highway, but only 2 photos of that tour seem to exist online

along with a 200-foot loop antenna on the roof, a sign points out that TECLA was providing the radio, they claimed their receiver was able to pick up all American and Ship Stations from New York to Los Angeles.

 Rickenbacker automobiles equipped with radio receivers drove across the country, showcasing both the reliability of the cars and the emerging technology of radio broadcasting, though only 20 radio stations broadcast at that time

the best Tecla receiver was installed in the cars, it was the first car radio made for use on automobiles in motion and was available prior to 1922.

 It had three stages of radio frequency amplification, three stages of audio frequency amplification, a special tuner for aerial and ground, and a special loop to be used for reception without ground when the automobile was moving. 

Two Rickenbackers with advanced motors that minimized vibration were selected for the 2800 mile expedition over a 40-day journey from between June 1 and July 10, 1922.

Where possible, the cars stopped at noon and again every evening to give concerts for the onlookers. This was the first time a radio equipped vehicle crossed the continent and thousands of people were exposed to the experience of broadcast radio for the first time. 

Newspapers, especially the San Francisco Chronicle, carried headlines that let people know when the cars were in their city and advertised the event. America's "ace of aces" Eddie Rickenbacker was on hand in Detroit to see the cars off. 

Detroit businessmen and radio operators Wallace Blood and William Heinz and their wives were selected to be in charge.

Above they've reached Utah

Below, they were at the orphan's home in Boyle Heights LA

On July 10th in San Francisco Mrs Blood was quoted: "Every night we would tune in, no matter where we were along the Lincoln Highway. One night, when we were nearing Omaha, we listened to Eddie Cantor and Fanny Brice, who are with the Follies in New York. We had a vaudeville star for an entertainer nearly every evening."

While in Nevada alone they stopped in Ely, Eureka, Austin, and Carson City.

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/376/

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/linchigh/x-lhc2967/lhc2967

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?rgn1=ic_all&q1=America%27s+First+Radio+Tour&type=boolean&c=linchigh&type=boolean&view=reslist

https://teclausa.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Russ-Kleinman-Manuscript.pdf

https://tenwatts.blogspot.com/2015/01/

a radio station mobile broadcast truck!

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/613/

I found that there is a guy out there, the Radio Historian, who is collecting photos of radio station remote location cars

http://www.theradiohistorian.org/remote/vehicles.html

Who knew Ducati made radios? Not me

https://www.facebook.com/groups/424439588432854/permalink/1877795743097224

the Kia EV6 trunk-mounted "Meridian" subwoofer is wired backwards, from the factory. But it's a simple 5 minute fix rearranging four wires that power the subwoofer.

locate the Meridian subwoofer underneath the EV’s false floor out back, remove an orange clip, and swap the corresponding pairs of wires so it shows black-red-black-red from top to bottom rather than the red-black-red-black pattern you’ll find in unmodified examples.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/kia-ev6-owners-are-rewiring-their-subwoofers-because-the-factory-set-them-up-wrong

Stephen sent me a link to this cool radio, and the 53 Zodiac it's in... I've never seen one of these Ekco radios! This car was originally registered in Ireland, and that's a very rare country to get car info from! Thank you Stephen!

 

Really cool! In fact, I don't think I've seen a radio with a hinged front panel

https://www.carandclassic.com/auctions/1953-ford-zephyr-zodiac-nYxrmg

I saw two things this past sunday, that were at both the VW Revival, and the Steve McQueen car show, and I already posted the tool boxes used in interesting new ways, these boom boxes were the other item. It's great to find these are still desirable and fun to have

 

Sparkomatic bought Altec Lansing in the 80s... that David kicking Goliath's butt, and moving into Goliath's mansion

 read that ad, "earotic"  and  " bone shaking 45 watts" !

https://progress-is-fine.blogspot.com/2025/02/hello-ladies.html

80s car stereos... the good ol days

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1005815131589575&set=a.549249660579460

there was a "punch key" pattern you entered and you turned on an internal amp, and boosted your radio performance

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=915539617411388&set=a.555860870045933

Happy 50th anniversary to Crutchfield! One owner for all 50 years, Bill Crutchfield founded the company in his mother's basement, and created the first car audio mail order catalog!

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.

Bill Crutchfield founded the Crutchfield company, based out of his mother's basement, and created the first car audio mail order catalog in 1974!

seriously how damn cool is it to see the 1974 catalog?!!! !!!

But, compare that to 1975

https://catalog.crutchfield.com/SpringSummer-1975/22

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. 

At 15, he formed a tiny, one-person business of installing newly available stereo equipment in homes throughout the greater Charlottesville community, and ran that little business throughout high school and college.

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. 

After he got out of the military, he started restoring old 356 Porsches as a sideline venture and realized that cars would be sell better after installing modern (for the time) car stereos in them.

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.

https://www.crutchfield.com/learn/the-crutchfield-story.html

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! 

a Pace CB-166 23 channel CB radio with a plug-in walkie-talkie and a Pace 10-4U police scanner that was owned by Burt Reynolds and signed by him, offered as a single lot by Julien’s as part of their upcoming auction in November.

https://bid.juliensauctions.com/lot-details/index/catalog/502/lot/237320/burt-reynolds-signed-smokey-and-the-bandit-scanner-and-cb-radio

https://silodrome.com/burt-reynolds-smokey-and-the-bandit-cb-radio/

Panasonic’s headliner-mounted Cockpit, 50 years ago, it was an aftermarket upgrade radio

https://www.thedrive.com/news/panasonic-cockpit-vintage-stereo-for-sale

 

in the car radio news.... Sirius XM wants to compete with AM/FM by having a free, though ad supported, music service

SiriusXM, which has offered a subscription, ad-free alternative to terrestrial radio since the turn of the century, has launched a free, ad-supported service that’s only available in cars as it looks to gain ground on AM/FM alternatives.

The company quietly launched the service in the past quarter and addressed it in its most recent earnings call.

“This quarter, we introduced SiriusXM free access, our first-ever free ad-supported version of SiriusXM now available in select vehicles,” said CEO Jennifer C. Witz. “Free access allows us to engage potential customers…with an offering of a limited number of music and talk channels with ads.”

“Free access allows us to engage potential customers…with an offering of a limited number of music and talk channels with ads.”

The service is not available on a wide scale yet, but Witz said the company expects free access “to grow in future years, providing us an opportunity to increase trials, win back listeners, and explore the potential for a broader ad-supported tier of SiriusXM.”

The number of its satellite subscribers dropped by 173,000 in the second quarter, more than the 130,000 it lost in the second quarter of 2023.

SiriusXM has a dedicated base of users, but AM/FM still controls a 60% share of ad-supported and ad-free offerings in cars, and controls 86% of the ad-supported market.

The company has also faced increased competition in recent years from streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. That has made it more challenging for SiriusXM to convert trial users to paid subscriptions.

https://fortune.com/2024/08/08/siriusxm-unveils-free-ad-supported-service/

interesting!

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10225632584581625&set=a.1617402035143

only about 24 1958 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 Fiesta station wagons are still known to exist

J-2 tri-carb 371-cid Rocket V-8 engine, it sports power steering, brakes and antenna; roof cargo carrier, the K-5 interior trim package that included fancier carpet and seats, along with a padded dash; courtesy lights; clock; heater; glove box light; underhood light; windshield washer; fender skirts in back; and white walls. It has the aforementioned removable radio

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1958-oldsmobile-fiesta-wagon