Sixty years ago this month, the June 1959 issue of Popular Science explained how the ubiquitous clock radio worked, using a General Electric model as the example.  This model included a sleep feature which let the radio play when going to bed.  In the morning, the radio would first come on, followed by a buzzer ten minutes later.  It also included an outlet at the back for a small appliance.

According to the magazine, the clock radio first came out in 1947, and in the previous year, 2.3 million of the sets were sold by 25 different manufacturers.