The Early Marriage of Radios and Automobiles
by Leigh Scott

Today, radios in cars seem like a natural fit, but in the early days of the automobile, it wasn’t always so.

When radio was first introduced, drivers of early automobiles instantly recognized the potential of having news and entertainment at your fingertips, but making it happen was quite a challenge.

The first attempt at car radios was rather dismal. You couldn’t play the radio while the car was running due to interference from the motor and the electrical system. Inventor William Lear, of Lear Jet fame, and his friend Elmer Wavering found a way to shield key radio elements from sources of interference. They also developed a more efficient package, but they faced an even bigger challenge....finding the money to put their car radio into production.

Their car radio idea languished until Lear met Paul Galvin of Galvin Manufacturing. Intrigued, Galvin let Lear and Wavering install a radio in Galvin’s personal car, a Studebaker. Soon after, Galvin purchased the rights to the car radio from Lear and put the radio into production in 1930 calling it “Motorola.”

When the Motorola 5T71 went on sale in 1930, it cost about $100, not including installation. This was during the Great Depression when you could buy a brand-new car for about $700 (Taking inflation into account, that same radio would cost about $3,000 today.) It took a couple of men several days to put in a car radio. The dashboard had to be taken apart so that the receiver and a single speaker could be installed, and the headliner had to be cut open to install the antenna which covered almost half the roof. The early Motorola’s ran on their own batteries, not on the car battery, so a place had to be found in the car to accommodate them.

By 1933 car radios, despite the cost, had become the “had to have” accessory. Ford offered them as factory installed in the 1933 Model “A” with other manufacturers soon to follow.

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