1954 – Texas Instruments announces the Regency TR-1, the first mass-produced transistor radio. The Regency TR-1 was the first commercially manufactured transistor radio, introduced in 1954. About 150,000 units were sold, due to the novelty of its small size and portability. Previously, transistors had only been used in military or industrial applications, and the TR-1 was the first to demonstrate their utility in consumer electronics. As a pioneering product of its time, surviving specimens are highly sought after by collectors. Bell Labs made the first working transistor in 1947. Despite its much smaller size and power usage compared to the vacuum tube, by 1954 the transistor had not replaced tubes in consumer electronics except in hearing aids, because of the new component's high cost of $20, compared to $1 for a tube. In May 1954, Texas Instruments (TI), previously a producer of instrumentation for the oil industry and locating devices for the US Navy, wanted an established radio manufacturer to develop and market a radio using TI's transistors. No major radio maker, including RCA, Philco, and Emerson, was interested. Previous vacuum tube-based pocket radios had been unsuccessful; some companies made their own transistors and did not want to use TI's. Ed Tudor, the president of Industrial Development Engineering Associates, (I.D.E.A), a builder of home antenna boosters, jumped at the opportunity to manufacture the TR-1, predicting sales of the transistor radios would be "20 million radios in three years." Many Americans were building bomb shelters, and the company expected that they would want a pocket-sized radio for emergencies. TI was not interested in manufacturing radios; its goal was to increase demand for its transistors so that the per-unit price would decrease from $10–15. The Regency division of I.D.E.A announced the TR-1 on October 18, 1954, and put it on sale in New York and Los Angeles on 1 November 1954.
