The Regency Story

The idea for what would turn out to be the world's first commercially produced transistor radio, the Regency TR-1, was first conceived by Patrick E. Haggerty, on May 21, 1954. Mr. Haggerty worked for Texas Instruments, one of the few companies licensed to produce transistors. Mr. Haggerty would later become the vice president of Texas Instruments. He assigned his new idea, a mass-produced and profitable transistor radio, the worlds' first, to an engineering team of Jim Wissemann, Paul Davis, and as Paul Davis himself has stated, "a few other management level people". T.I was in the process of developing high frequency transistors capable of working at the standard broadcast frequencies of 550 kHz to 1600 kHz. Mr. Haggerty believed that due to advancements in transistor design, that the company would be able to produce the higher operating frequency transistors in quantities required for a mass-produced transistor radio. This product would be a widely accepted consumer product, so Mr. Haggerty believed, that would begin to move the world away from using vacuum tubes and into the explosion of the information age. The transistors for such a device would, of course, utilize as many components from Texas Instruments as possible, expecially the transistors. For detailed information on the interesting story of the four day race the engineering department of T.I. faced while meeting Mr. Haggery's deadlines every step of the way, see the July, 1993 issue of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, and the article written by Paul D. Davis.

On Tuesday, May 25th, after completing their initial breadboard design, then days later packaging the radio in a procured Emerson 888 radio case (this radio used peanut vacuum tubes) the radio was delivered to Mr. Haggerty's office right on schedule. Mr. Haggerty would take the prototype radio with him on a business trip "to the East Coast" to show off the new invention, in order to attract a major radio manufacturer to actually produce and market the radios. It isn't clear at this point exactly where he went or who he met with, but the fact is that there were not any companies such as RCA, Phico, Sylvania, and probably more willing to take a chance on such a cutting-edge product, especially when business was doing well selling radios with vacuum tubes. At some point during this time, Mr. Haggerty would notice an advertisement for TV signal boosters, and the company advertising them was the Regency Division of I.D.E.A.! Here was another company to try to sell the idea of making transistor radios to, and the rest is history. Paul Davis and Roger Webster, another part of the transistorradio design team from Texas Instruments would learn shortly that someone from this Indianapolis-based company would be visiting to determine if this company would be the one to manufacture the set. As it turns out, sometime between May 26th and late June, 1954 I.D.E.A., Inc. would be the company chosen as Texas Instrument's partner. Paul Davis' group would learn in late June of 1954 that I.D.E.A. corporation would be the company who would complete the design work, market it, and produce the world's first commercially produced transistor radio. The engineering team would travel to Indianapolis, and bring their original engineering prototype called the "red box" so that they could refine, and most importantly, reduce the number of components necessary for a profitable mass produced set.

A man by the name of Dick Koch was the lead engineer on the project from I.D.E.A.'s side of things, and Roger Webster would be the point man from the Texas side. The engineering team from T.I. would travel to Indianapolis to begin working closely together to tweak the circuit design, and attempt to reduce the number of transistors further to lower production costs. Roger and Dick would continue to work closely after T.I's engineering team returned to Dallas.

Dick Koch would provide one of the most important ideas toward making the radio a success (profitable) by designing a feedback circuit allowing one of the six remaining transistors to be eliminated. This discovery would allow one transistor to handle the amplification of both the mixer and local oscillator circuits. This was Dick would eventually earn a patent for his feedback circuit design. One additional transistor would be eliminated from the audio stage, bringing the total number of transistors needed to four.

Haunting the Regency TR-1 would be two stinging reviews, first in their July, 1955 issue, and again in of all things their 20th anniversary issue of May, 1956! The radio didn't even get a serious review and appeared dead last in the article. The funny thing is, the Mantola 1101 (Mitchell Manufacturing Company, Chicago, IL was listed just ahead of the Regency TR-1, and also got an awful review. It ought to have as even Consumer Reports recognized that the TR-1 "appears to be substantially the same" as the Mitchell. The 1101 was indeed a re-branded Regency TR-1, but in a leather case. An image of a Mitchell 1101 appears in the collection above. Although not intending to insult the TR-1, the June,1957 issue of "Popular Electronics" would tout an electronic project with the title of "Amplifier Peps Pocket Radios". There is a pretty girl on the cover holding a mandarin red TR-1 next to a completed example of the project.

From late June of 1954, to October of the same year, Regency and T.I. engineers would work in tandem, to finish design work, and 1954, the press release officially announcing the advent of the world's first commercially produced transistor radio was made in this written statement. Just fourteen days later, on November 1st, the actual production of the radios commenced. The radios would be in stores for a significant portion of the Christmas shopping season, and once the radios went on sale, demand quickly exceeded supply.

The radios would be offered in four different colors initially: Mandarin Red, Cloud Grey, Ivory, and Black. All but one of the primary colors can be seen above. Probably within weeks after production began, two secondary colors known as Mahogany and Jade Green were added. Almost one year later, and just in time for Christmas, 1955, the radios were offered in extremely rare "pearlescent" cases and marketed through such upscale department stores such as Nieman Marcus, located in New York and Texas. Radios with this style of case cost $54.95. It is possible Regency ordered Argus Plastics to come up with a test batch with these special colors, and decided to try to sell them in a couple high dollar markets. These colors are said to include Orchid and/or Lavendar, Pink, Meridian Blue, and Lime Green, with the latter color thought to be the rarest of the pearlescents as only one has been confirmed among collectors..

Do clear-cased sets exist? Absolutely! Some sets were produced and distrubuted to retail outlets with clear backs on them, and are thought to be point of sale demonstration sets to show the absence of vacuum tubes, and the presence of the four transistors. An example of a Jade or Forest Green TR-1 with a clear back is shown above, and was recently obtained from the Dave and Sarah Lowrey collection. There is no proof at this time that these clear-back sets were ever marketed to the public.

Perhaps the rarest of the case types for the TR-1 are the completely "clear-cased" sets, such as the one pictured above, which were probably the final engineering prototypes built in Indianapolis, by Regency engineers. Since all of the jigs and tooling were set up at the Indianapolis plant, and all of the parts were being delivered there, this theory makes sense. The all clear sets were probably constructed sometime sometime between August and October of 1954. It has been reported that one of the last components to become available for production were the cases, so this would tend to back the time frame back in time. These specific prototypes are totally different that the prototypes constructed by engineers of Texas Instruments, the first one being built in an Emerson 888 case, and another built in a clear case and sporting an Emerson 888 red tuning dial knob. Best guesses are that this radio was the one presented to uninterested executives from the major radio manufacturers, that is until I.D.E.A. was introduced to T.I.'s proposal. As far as the final "engineering prototypes" are concerned, there are only three of these sets known to exist. One is on display at the Smithsonian. This radio originally came from the archives at Texas Instruments, according to Mr. Ed Millis, a retired engineer from T.I and who was at one time in charge of the archives at Texas Instruments. The third clear-case set which probably preceded the other two examples, should probably be labeled as number one. This one remains in the moth-balled T.I archives. I was lucky enough to "discover" this set for Ed and Texas Instruments, while on a special tour given by Mr. Millis himself around 1995. He thought up until the time of the tour that the archivist before him had given both of their all clear sets to the Smithsonian, until I discovered "number one" in an old brown cardboard box that was partially full of miscellaneous TR-1 parts, components, and a couple of case halves! This radio has a speaker frame constructed of brass, which probably made for easier tooling in the first pre-production design. This is also the only clear-case set which has grille cloth crudely glued on the inside of the case, in its rightful place behind the speaker holes. The third example is in my collection, and is currently on display at the Indiana State Museum. Both of these sets appear to be copies of each other, at least as far as one can tell with the photographs available from the Smithsonian. The top left-had picture is an image of the display where it currently resides, at the Indiana State Museum. The all clear set can be seen in the showcase closest to the camera, and is the radio on the extreme left hand side of this case. A high resolution picture is available in the Regency collection pictures just before the beginning of this story. A short story of how I aquired my set, and a brief account of my tour of the T.I. archives with Ed Millis can be read here. High resolution pictures of this set can be viewed above, as well as some excellent photos taken of this radio by vintage radio collector Michael Feldt, and are available for viewing at his website, www.indianaradios.com

Specialty sets known as the "Michael Todd" gift sets, were presented by movie producer Michael Todd, to actors, actresses such as Shirley McLaine, and key individuals such as Arthur Miller for their work in the movie "Around the World in 80 Days". These sets are housed in special custom-made wood cases, with a leather covering, and were made to simulate the appearance of a book. Did Arthur Miller, also famous for his love of woodworking, have anything to do with the construction of the bookcases? Even if he didn't, I am sure he approved of this special gift he received!

Genuine leather cases were sold as an accessory for $3.50, and were known as "Tuck-Tites". The first cases had the holes for the speaker in a round configuration, while later cases were primarially in a square configuration. There are high serial number radios that came with the earlier style cases, and vice-versa, so it is possible that both case styles were being produced at the same time. The trend has shown that the majority of the earlier TR-1's that have the cases accounted for have the speaker holes in a circular hole pattern.

An earphone was sold as an accessory for the TR-1, at a cost of $7.50, and was given the logical designator of EP-1, probably meaning "earphone one". As it turns out, this earphone was also sold by Regency for use with several other all transistor radio receivers, including the somewhat rare Regency TCR-2. This radio was special in that it had the ability to be patched into Regency's ATC-1, the worlds first amateur radio transistorized converter, and receive signals on the 10 to 80 meter bands.

This just a start on the amazing story of the Regency TR-1 and Regency Electronics. I had planned to write after I finished all of my research and exhausted all of my options talking to people that worked for Regency Electronics. But, if I do this, then I probably will never get the story documented. As I found out below, someone could email me at any time and provide me with a flood of new information. Check back again to see what has been added to the story of Regency Electronics alot more details about the radio itself. Thanks!

If you or someone you know worked for the company, please let me know the best way to make contact so I can continue my research and gather the most accurate information. Thank you! Email me!