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 A portable transistor radio bought on the 13th of April 1962 from Woolworths in Oxford Street, Levin. With original box, user manual, warranty and sales card. Transistor radios were smaller and more reliable than the old valve radios and did not need a 'warm up time'. They first became popular in the mid 1950s and were soon the latest and greatest thing to have.

Autocrat made this model in New Zealand- but in the late 1950s these portable radios were hard to get. In fact, they were one of the most common items Customs found being smuggled into the country at the time! It wasn't the only illegal thing involving these little radios- teenagers would use them in their rooms to secretly listen to the 'pirate radio stations' of the 1960s.  

Identification

Object type
Image
Date
1962

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Creation

Created By
Place
Levin

Object rights

Taxonomy

Tags
mavtech museum,
Community Tags
1960s,
autocrat,
levin,
mavtech museum,
museum object,
museum of audio and visual technology,
object,
oxford street,
radio,
shopping,
transistor,
woolworths,

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Related items

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