But they were simple to operate and relatively cheap. The devices were notorious for fading out mid-song while they switched to the next stereo track and also for eating tapes. Ford and Motorola jointly introduced the eight-track tape player as optional equipment for 1966 Ford car models, and the design dominated car audio throughout the 1970s. Engineer Earl (Madman) Muntz transformed the mobile music world when he unveiled four-track audio tape-cartridge technology in the early 1960s. It was ridiculous, skipping tracks at every bump. The so-called Highway Hi-Fi came with a mini turntable mounted under the passenger side dash. Recorded music goes mobileĬhrysler brought recorded music to cars with the first in-car phonograph in 1956. Although radios were an option, by 1963, 50 million cars in the United States – more than 60 per cent – had them.
After Chrysler’s experience, automakers reverted to hybrid radios with a mix of transistors and vacuum tubes.įull transistor radios did not appear again until the early 1960s, when Becker unveiled a solid state radio with no vacuum tubes. That’s the equivalent of about US$1,500 today, so the uptake was limited. To get the radios out for service, you’d have to reach up under the dash to undo the screws.īy 1955, Chrysler offered an all-transistor Mopar radio as a US$150 option on its 1956 Chrysler and Imperial cars. Belanger said road vibrations would cause them to fail frequently. Radios were powered by hot, bulky and fragile vacuum tubes that needed to warm up before the radio would come on. “That’s what turned it for me.”įM grew steadily until its total North American audience finally surpassed that of AM radio in 1979. “It wasn’t until FM that I got interested in car radio because I liked classical music,” he said.
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