Our Transistor Radio

Reader Contribution by Arkansas Girl
Published on June 22, 2015
1 / 3
2 / 3
3 / 3

I was always curious as to how things operate and the transistor radio was no exception. Being country folks and not having electricity, our only choice for connecting to the outside world, and hearing what was going on, was through this small, hand-held contraption with the tiny, copper wires running through its little, almost flat belly. We knew what its insides looked like because whenever our radio went “on the blink,” we opened it up for an “autopsy.” But when we looked inside, we had no idea what we were looking at, nor what the problem was, nor how we could make the radio “talk again, once it went silent. It intrigued me that some bright mind could put together a device that allows people hundreds of miles from a radio station/tower hear what is being broadcast.

We had a transistor radio, not because it was all we could afford, although that was a factor, but because without electricity, we had no other choice. Since I was into my own little world, I don’t remember ever listening to the radio for anything other than gospel music – my favorite pastime. Back then, though there wasn’t that much religious music on the airways during the day. On Sundays nights from 9 p.m. until midnight, we “tuned in” to the best gospel music in the world on WLAC out of Nashville, Tennessee. Also, from Memphis there was station WDIA, from which we listened to good gospel music on early weekday mornings. And though the selections weren’t that great (from the local station, KXAR out of Hope), on Sundays, we listened to church programs, preaching, and a little gospel singing.

Photo: Fotolia/Ivonne Wierink

Online Store Logo
Need Help? Call 1-866-803-7096