Today I want to talk about one of the first classic radios I added to my collection. This spiffy Emerson 888 transistor radio.
This gem immediately caught my eye when I spotted it nestled in among a crowd of other extremely cool vintage sets at one of my favorite antique stores, “Railroad Antique Mall” in Oregon.
The design of this “portable” form of entertainment was simply stunning. The cream colored dial goes nicely with the turquoise color of the plastic case. The silver mesh of the speaker completed the appearance and even went nicely with the small, gold colored knob.
Yay! A knob!
This wonderful coloring was complimented by Emerson’s unique and eye catching logo. A treble cleft with the words “Television and Radio” emblazoned underneath.
This set is a prime example of the merging of style and technology that could only be found in earlier decades. A look which has satisfied a yearning that nothing manufactured today could ever fill.
Needless to say I did not leave the store without my radio. I rushed home and inserted the required amount of AA batteries and discovered to my joy that it still worked!
The first words out of my speaker were “401-K Plan.” Not exactly 1950s material and I’m not interested in much that is broadcast on AM radio these days. For now I was happy that it worked, and now that it was home I had time to explore it at my leisure.
On the front, below the logo and offset to the right, was a set of numbers, 888. I don’t know exactly what they represent, but three rows of gold lettering on the back are crystal clear. The first announced the model line of the set, EMERSON 888. The second row proclaimed the name of this particular model, “EXPLORER.”
The final row said that this was a “NEVABREAK POCKET RADIO.” Now that I could believe. It would NEVA BREAK because it weighed a ton. Okay it really weighed one pound four ounces but it felt like a ton to me. This was solidly built, one reason it has survived from the mid-twentieth century to the early 21st.
Emerson’s final claim is a bit of a stretch. A “POCKET” radio this is not!
Of course I’m looking at this from a 21st century viewpoint. Compared to the early radios that were actual pieces of furniture, the 888 family were true transistor sets, lighter and smaller than their vacuum tube forefathers. A radio equipped with a swinging handle so you could take it on the go must have been an incredible innovation.
I assumed that was why Emerson called this radio an “Explorer,” because you could take it with you when you went exploring. Then I went online to do a little research on the set and found I was totally wrong. The history of the name was way cooler than that.
According to “Phil’s Old Radios” Emerson created a series of 888 transistor sets during the late 1950s and early 1960s. There were seven different models, each one named after a famous U.S. rocket or satellite. The Pioneer, Atlas, Galaxy, Satellite, Titan and Vanguard, as well as my wonderful Explorer.
Now, in addition to being a vintage tech geek, I’m a big fan of the early space race. So I was thrilled to learn that my stylish radio paid homage to the first successful satellite America put into orbit. This happened back in 1958. You can read more about Explorer’s come-from-behind leap into space here.
So it turns out that my radio is not only extremely good looking, it’s also a symbol of an era in this country when people looked forward with a sense of optimism. They believed that the future would be a wonderful place.
I now live in that future. In many ways it is wonderful. In other ways, not. But when I look at my radio and other tech like it, a feeling of wonder still fuels me. A feeling that the 21st century can be a wondrous place, and we can still make it so, as long as we have guideposts like the Emerson Explorer 888 to lead the way!
