By the late 1950s and early 1960s there were tabletop AM radios. They had plastic cases and were much smaller than the original radios, but they needed to be connected to household electricity. These radios still used vacuum tube technology. With such technology, radios were not made much smaller than the one shown.
The invention of the transistor allowed electronics to be made smaller. Transistor circuits can be designed to require less voltage, and to use less power than comparable vacuum tube circuits. This not only made electronics more portable; it made personal electronics possible. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, pocket transistor radios were popular. They were not as loud as table radios, but they were small. Because they ran off of a 9 Volt battery, you were able to use them anywhere. At the time most AM radio stations played music.
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