Word: transistor
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Young Storz, who keeps tuned to his stations with a pocket-size transistor set and earpiece (see cut), promptly lopped off KOHW's "minority programs," e.g., classical and hillbilly music, closed down the station's unprofitable FM outlet. Aiming a barrage of popular music at "the average housewife," Storz soon concocted his first giveaway scheme. The station broadcast a street address at random, paid the occupant of the "Lucky House" up to $500 if he called the station within a minute. Storz copyrighted the idea, now earns $600 a week from other stations that he has licensed...
...Powered Radio. A transistor radio that gets its power from either batteries or the sun's rays was demonstrated by Admiral Corp. To convert the radio to sun power, a small box-shaped unit containing silicon is plugged into the back. The unit absorbs sun rays and transforms them into electrical energy. Placed by a window or in a sunny place, it can gather and store enough energy to operate the radio even on overcast days. The radio will go on sale next month at $59.95, the sun unit...
...answer, as explained in the Congressional Record last week by Illinois' Democratic Representative Sidney Yates: Hebert had been listening to a tiny transistor radio, tucked inside his coat pocket and hooked up with a hearing-aid-type earphone...
...transistor was developed only eight years ago by three scientists at Bell Telephone Laboratories. It amplifies electrical impulses just like the vacuum tube, but is free of the vacuum tube's limitations-fragility, bulkiness, high power consumption, short life. The transistor needs no warmup time, saves space, weight, heat and power, lasts 150 times as long, uses as little as one-thousandth the electric current...
Cost v. Vanity. But at $7.50 apiece it was so expensive that its first commercial use was in hearing aids. In 1952 Sonotone brought out the first transistorized aid at $229.50; it swept the field, and the race was on. Today 99% of hearing aids are transistorized; Zenith has a model selling for $50. As transistor production climbed from 100,000 in 1952 to a rate last week of 9,000,000 a year, the price dropped to about $2 apiece. Though they are still more expensive than most vacuum tubes, transistors are nevertheless conquering market after market...