There have been hundreds of thousands of different makes and models of transistor radios. Every once in a while I find one unique enough to write about. I recently discovered the Concept 2000 Bike Radio which has an interesting form factor. In researching it I found there was a very specific era when Bike Radios were notably popular, relatively speaking. This is different from motorcycle radios which date back much earlier, to at least 1915. To define terms I'm looking only at radios which can be installed on a bicycle, and are marketed primarily at a children demographic. I did not expect at the start of this that I'd find the inventor of the bike radio or that it even had one... but it did. But let's start with that first bike radio that started me on this quest:
Concept 2000 made an odd selection of radios, from high quality table radios to plastic children's novelties. They had multiple Mickey Mose, Big Bird and Cookie Monster radios. This one lands somewhere in the middle, having some novelty in the category but it's size distinctly also made it functional. You can see how it works immediately. The two flanges slot into the back of the radio, and clamp tight on the handle pars. the compass-like dial is a simple enough AM radio. The radio inside the box looks exactly like the picture on the outside. I've seen the circuit, it's nothing to write home about. Inside is a simple and very short ferrite rod antenna. It takes a 9 volt battery and it works.
Apparently this was not their only foray into bike radios. In the early 1970s they came out with an AM/CB radio which clamped to the handle bars but was a bit bigger, with a contoured shape. It looks very 1980s, like something you'd attach to a plastic kids seat at Burger King (below). Notice that foot tall flexible coil antenna? I'm sure no kid ever hit the handlebars and took that whip antenna right in the eyeball.
More complex devices were also available beyond that CB/radio. Siemens had one in the sixties. Westinghouse made at least one Bike radio-headlight which was advertised in 1968 through 1970. A later version re-appeared in 1989 Boys life. The one picture I found has an amber strobe amber light on top of the device. Fanon, a name I know as a maker of cheap walkie talkies, was selling their own Bike Radio in 1978 called the "Spokesman" which also incorporated a CB. It had a completely different form factor and would have looked more at home on a desk than a bike. It may have been repurposed from some other design.
I found an issue of Boys life from august 1971 which had yet two more Bike radio products: an Archer Bike radio of a completely different design, available from Radioshack. But also a whole feature on a bike radio bracket by Glen Wagner which merely clamps your standard pocket transistor radio to the handlebars. The Archer model continued to appear sporadically through June of 1972. A second maker of the bracket "Buddy Bike Radio" was for sale in the classifieds for $5.99 and included a 6-transistor radio from Gentile Sound Enterprises. Their address was PO Box 147, Fairport NY 14450. It's a Rochester suburb; the company advertised it only in 1972.
As you would imagine, Radioshack had their own Bike Radio by December of 1974, SKU 12-193. It was simply called the "AM Bike Radio". It looks highly derivative of the Archer model with a more contoured chassis. Kmart had one that was almost identical. Arvin sold a model in 1971 which also looked identical and was sold through at least 1984.
In the mail order scam world J.S.C.A. was selling a combination radio/horn/light combo from 1965 through 1972. Olympic Sales club was still selling a no-name Bike radio in 1989. As horrible as those were, the Discover American Sales Club had a combo Bike Radio, Siren Megaphone which obviously no parent would think was a good idea. You might notice these later bike radios have some safety features. These were listed as fire resistant, and water proof, and had lights built in. This was probably an acknowledgement that they were actually marketing to the parents.
Most of these ads are from the late 1960s and early 1970s. That's your golden era of the bike radio. The latest models I've found were in the 1990s. In 1992, a green no-name GPX AM/FM radio still being sold by the Olympia Sales Club in Boys life. Nintendo also notably made a "sport" AM/FM bike radio with a built-in clock and light in 1998. It came in a few colors. You can still pick those up on eBay for about $25. Purportedly Hasbro made a pink Barbie Bike radio as late as 2002.
You can still buy a "bike radio" today but it's more of a Bluetooth speaker than a radio. But JBL still makes one that clamps to the handlebars; a descendant of the originals marketed more at motorcycles and with the modern soft rubbery exterior that breaks down so quickly.
The earliest references to bike radios are from Popular Electronics which advertised "How to Build a Bike Radio" as early as 1954. This was advertised in Radio & Television News, Popular Mechanics, and Flying Magazines but I've never found that article nor the kit. The image below is from 1956 and I had thought that was it. But World Radio History has a scan of the October 1954 issue with the original Bike Radio instructions referred to in all those advertisements. [SOURCE] That's pictured at the top of the page. That's the first ever issue of Popular Electronics by the way.
That How-to article was authored by Louis E. Garner Jr., a prolific writer, editor, and frequent contributor to Popular Electronics for over 25 years. Before Popular Electronics Lou wrote articles for Electronics Illustrated as early as 1961. He also wrote for the National Parks Service, Popular Science, Radio and Television News all the way back to 1950. [SOURCE] He also wrote texts for Coyne Electrical School, Tab Books, and the infamous Gernsback Library. It's also interesting to note that he also wrote prose, contributing to Quanta, the Washington Science Fiction Association zine starting in 1949. (Note: There have been at least 3 different publications by the name Quanta) [SOURCE] So there you have it, Lou Garner, engineer, writer, PhD, and unassuming resident of Silver Springs MD, the granddaddy of them all.
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