As Time Goes By: Car Radio and the Travel Experience in Twentieth-Century America

Abstract

In a May 1922 issue of The New York Herald, David Sarnoff, then director of the Radio Corporation of America, elicited shocked responses from readers when he predicted the eventual widespread use of commercial radios in a range of seemingly unlikely devices. “It is reasonable,” Sarnoff argued, “to expect [radio’s] eventual application to automobiles, trains, and in some cases, to individuals” (1922, 1). It was a bold statement, not only because of the relative newness of commercial car ownership, but also because America had not yet happened upon the golden age of radio. At the time of Sarnoff ’s declaration, radio was just beginning to make a place for itself in the homes of the American public, battling poor operating quality and problems with mass production. But in spite of the widespread skepticism levied toward Sarnoff ’s ideas, radios were introduced into automobiles by the end of the very same year. The first car radio, an option in the 1922 Chevrolet, was the Westinghouse Radio Sedan, a “$200 extravagance” with an antenna that covered the car’s entire roof, huge horn speakers, and batteries that filled the space under the front seat (Fisher 2007, 67). Describing these first years, broadcaster Frank A. Seitz vividly highlighted the pitfalls associated with the early models he himself was confronted with in 1931: