At the end of the First World War, the car and the radio were rarely thought together. However, when broadcasting took hold in the early 1920s, enterprising drivers began installing home radios in their cars, creating the first rudimentary car audio. Unfortunately, there was so much interference from the car’s electrical system that they could only be used with the engine off, and the situation remained there for the remainder of the 1920s.
William Lear, a former US naval radio operator with an eighth grade education, ran a radio store in Quincy, Missouri in 1929. Always playing games, he and employee Elmer Wavering began experimenting with a radio that could operate while a vehicle was running. . Considering the temperature variations, road vibrations and electrical interference, it was not an easy task. Once they had a working prototype, they headed to a radio convention in Chicago, where they met manufacturer Bill Galvin. After they successfully installed a radio in his Studebaker, legend has it that he set off in the car for the 1930 Radio Manufacturers Association Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Too short of funds to buy convention admission and set up a booth, he parked outside and turned on the radio instead. It was soon able to get enough orders to allow the company to move forward with the first radio for use in a moving vehicle called the “Motorola.”
William Lear did not stay long at the new company. The hesitations remained, which helped develop the first mass-produced alternator and eventually became president of the company. But Lear was looking a little higher. In 1931, he bought his first airplane, a Fleet Biplane. The problems he encountered while flying led him to found Lear Developments, combining his love of flying with his love of radio. There, he produced direction finders, the first radio compass, and even autopilot systems, eventually receiving awards from the City of Paris and President Truman for his work to improve aviation safety.
It was not until 1963 that he began developing and building the first mass-produced commercial jet, the Learjet 23. Although Lear Developments had long manufactured radio systems for general and military aviation, here again, William Lear responded to the challenge of bringing music to a moving vehicle. At 500 miles per hour, commercial radio signals would be left far behind almost as soon as they were picked up. With an eye toward the automotive market, the company developed the eight-track Lear Jet Stereo cartridge, making 100 prototypes for automotive and RCA executives. Along with Motorola, RCA, Ford, and General Motors, Lear formed a consortium to standardize and distribute the new format, and by the late 1960s, car audio had entered a new era where drivers could finally select. your own music.
And if they were lucky enough to have a Learjet, they could take the tape and play it back on the plane. In Lear’s words, “Car tape playback will be the next big thing. I’m going to be in the position of a man with a boat full of life jackets following a ship that he knows is going to sink. He won.” I have no problem selling them. “Because the audio would never be the same again.