This iconic 70s product was announced 50 years ago this month, in the July 1972 issue of Elementary Electronics.  The design is self-explanatory, as it simply combines an AM transistor radio (with a 9 volt battery inside, no doubt) with a toilet paper dispenser. As the article notes, if you need to absent yourself from the living room during a program, you’ll still be able to tune in. And the device also “enhances bathroom privacy,” which I assume means that you can turn up the volume to cover up any embarrassing noises.

I saw these radios advertised, but since I wasn’t in charge of purchasing bathroom fixtures for my household, I was never able to take advantage of this good idea. And shockingly, it appears that they’re not made any more. The closest I’ve been able to find are the shower radios shown below. I’m sure these are much better radios than the 1972 version, and the main feature is their waterproof construction. But I’d still like one of the 1972 versions. If you order one of the sets below, since you’re placing an Amazon order anyway, you may as well order the big package of toilet paper, just in case there’s another supply chain problem. But unfortunately, you’ll need to use your existing holder.

The product was offered by Mason’s Gifts of El Paso Texas.  Whoever Mason was, they were quite entrepreneurial.  The address shown is a residential address, so apparently Mason got their hands on a bunch of these radios, and prevailed upon the magazine to offer this free advertising.

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Shown here 70 years ago on the cover of Radio News, July 1952, is a way for the sound man to make some extra income, namely, the rental of small public address systems. According to the accompanying article, there was a time when the carnival barker depended on being leather-lunged, relying on the volume of his voice. But with a small PA system, voice volume was no longer important, and any desired crowd could be covered with little effort, even with high noise levels.

The article pointed out that “personnel using equipment of this type are non-technical, and consequently the equipment must be simple to operate and have a minimum of controls.” And the gear must be capable of rough handling, simple, and light weight.

The model shown here was model E-10 from the Newcomb Audio Products Company, and both the microphone and a phono input were included. A carrying case with self-contained speaker was available. The microphone shown here, a chest type, was the American Microphone Company model D4G.

This handsome travel clock radio, the Toshiba model 6TC-485, appeared in Popular Mechanics
60 years ago this month, July 1962. The six-transistor set featured a push-pull final audio stage, and had an earphone jack for private listening. The arrow in the picture points to a light to illuminate the clock or radio dial. (The switch for the light is being pushed by the thumb.) The set ran on 4 AA batteries, and featured a 2.5 inch speaker. In Canada, the RCA Victor model GP628C appears to be identical.

The price tag was $59.95. Adjusted for inflation, that works out to $520 in 2022 dollars. The modern version appears to be more affordable:

Eighty years ago this month, the July 1942 issue of Popular Mechanics showed off this completely self-contained transmitter and receiver. The magazine noted that the set weighed only four pounds and wasn’t much larger than the handset of a “French” telephone. The manufacturer was making it available to government agencies, utilities, and fire and police departments. Range of the battery powered unit was about a mile with a “fishpole” style antenna.

If you were the owner of a radio a hundred years ago, here’s an idea of what you would have been able to tune in, as listed in the Washington Evening Star, July 4, 1922.

Being the Fourth of July, it’s not surprising that most of the commercial stations have listings for patriotic readings and music. Of course, unless you were close to one of the cities with a station, it might have sounded a bit cacophonous, since all commercial stations at that time were on 360 meters (833 kHz). Naval station NAA in Arlington, Virginia, would have been in the clear, with its transmissions on either 2650 or 2950 meters (113 or 102 kHz).

The commercial stations listed are WGI Boston, KDKA Pittsburgh, KYW Chicago, WJZ Newark, and WJH Washington.

I’m not so sure that this little receiver is a good idea, but it is from the July 1962 issue of Popular Electronics. It’s a one-tube receiver covering 122-144 MHz, meaning that it mostly covers the air band. The problematic feature is that it’s a superregenerative receiver. And superregenerative receivers, in addition to being excellent receivers with great sensitivity, they also radiate a signal, in the form of a rushing noise, on the frequency that they are tuned to. So in addition to being able to hear airplanes in flight, the airplanes in flight might be able to hear you.

The author is aware of the problem, but asserts that “the power input to the detector is in the vicinity of 300 microwatts or less, so radiation should be of little concern.” That might be true, but I don’t think I’d want to risk it. Back in the day, I could hear my friend turning on his Heathkit Sixer a block away, since that receiver was also superregnerative. And if you used this receiver a block away from the airport, I bet you might have some splainin’ to do.

In any event, it’s a nice little receiver, which uses a 12EC8 tube. Since that tube was intended for use in car radios, it runs fine on 12 volts, and works well into the VHF range.

If she is still with us, the young woman wearing headphones in these photos is about 101 years old. This item appeared 100 years ago today, June 26, 1922, in the Bridgeport (CT) Times and Evening Farmer.

The young listener is the daughter of Charles C. Kolster, then the radio instructor for the First Naval District. He went on to become Supervisor of Radio for the Boston office of the Federal Radio Commission, and later Inspector in Charge of the First District of the Federal Communications Commission.

In this photo, the young Miss Kolster had the headphones placed on her head to her initial puzzlement. But this was quickly replaced by delight when she realized that she was hearing her father’s voice.

I’m sure this picture would be a violation of today’s traffic safety laws. At the very least, I’m sure it would result in a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt. But 85 years ago, it was a different story, and cooking breakfast in a moving trailer wasn’t anything to worry about.

But there was a matter of telling the driver that breakfast was ready, and the intercom shown here would solve that problem. The accompanying article, from the June 1937 issue of Radio Craft points out that there were 250,000 trailers in the country, and it was an untapped market for radio sales. The trailers were practically begging to have a radio installed. It would have to be a heavy-duty unit to survive the vibrations. And equipping it with an intercom would allow the driver of the car to listen to the radio (with the radio mounted away from the ignition system and its possible interference) and also communicate back to the trailer.