listening to music in the car? Of course, when you read this text, memories will immediately come to mind. Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” for the first time on the Autobahn. The collected CDs that were listened to on the way to work. Songs that ran after (or were rudely cut off from) the traffic bulletins. The car radio quite simply changed listening to music because it provided the soundtrack for personal mobility and freedom.
The first car radio sounded exactly 100 years ago, on May 5, 1922, in a Ford Model T. George Fost, Chairman of the Lane High School Radio Club in Chicago, came up with the idea and implemented it himself. However, with signs that seem a bit odd today. So he put the radio with long and short wave in the door of the vehicle.
The first car radios were outrageously expensive
A rather clunky affair, which is why it took another five years before the device went into series production and was then installed in the trunk. Motorola manufactured the first models.
The fun wasn’t cheap either. Up to 15 percent of the car price (!) was added for the car radios. It was not until the late 1940s that the sound machines had shrunk so much that they also found space in the front of the driver.
However, the car radio only became a mass product at the end of the 1960s, when stereo VHF was available. There was another boost in 1983 when the first CD players found their way into car bodies.
Digital evolution then began in 2001, when it became possible to play MP3s in cars using tiny devices. And despite streaming via smartphones in the car, car radios – now equipped with every conceivable technical gadget – continue to enjoy great popularity.
<!–
–>
<!–
–>