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My passion for Radio Shack runs deep.  I purchased my very first Tandy 1000HX from them around the age of twelve. It was the place to go when you needed that obscure electronic part for your homemade project or that adaptor to connect two pieces of seemingly unrelated technology.  Here’s a brief history… Founded by two London-born Bostonian brothers, Theodore and Milton Deutschmann, the young immigrant siblings wanted to provide amateur and ham radio equipment to the public; much of it was leftover military gear.  Radio Shack (a name suggested by one of the brother’s first employees, William Halligan, later the founder of Hallicrafters, was a term for the room that housed a ship’s radio equipment and was fitting since the store would supply the equipment for ship’s radio officers, as well as ham radio operators) started as a single store at 46 Brattle Street in Boston, MA in 1921.  In 1936, an advertisement boasted that they had “the largest stock of parts in New England.”  With tag lines like: “We know what you want” and “We have it – our prices are low our service unmatched,” Radio Shack had everything.  Ever wonder about the “Tandy” line at Radio Shack and where it came from?  In 1963, Charles Tandy, a businessman who rose to the top of his family’s leather craft stores, becoming president in 1955, purchased Radio Shack (then, a Boston-based chain consisting of a mere 9 stores) as it sat on the verge of bankruptcy for a mere $300,000.  At its peak 15 years later in 1978, it encompassed about 7,000 stores throughout the world and had sales over $1 billion dollars.  Remember those “do-it-yourself” Radio Shack kits?  Tandy got the idea from his family, who offered do-it-yourself leather craft kits!  I’ll bet that you didn’t know that the Tandy family of companies encompassed other store chains such as Pier 1 Imports and Color Tile, did you?  And the other well-known brands available only in “The Shack” included Archer, Micronta, Realistic, Duofone and, of course, the TRS-80 series of computers (recognize the “TRS?”  Yes, it stood for “The Radio Shack!”)   The CB (Citizen’s Band) radio craze of the late 70′s was inspired by Radio Shack and made them a tidy profit!  But Radio Shack’s fame was mostly due to their extensive catalog.  Talk about a “wish list!”  You could order just about anything from a Radio Shack catalog!  But here are some things you probably didn’t know about the famous publication.  Although “The Radio Shack, New England’s Oldest Amateur Distributor” had been in business since 1921, it did not release its first catalog until 1939.  And what a catalog it was!  This wholesale distributor catalog contained Radio & Electronic Equipment, Amateur & Communication Supplies, and Sound Systems and Service Parts.  Today’s catalog contains the remnants of all those adaptors, diodes, transistors, resistors, and capacitors (etc.) but, sadly, the stores do not.  Walking into a Radio Shack today is a different experience from even the 1990′s.  One notable difference is that they now seem to be scaled-down shadows of their former glory.  Store employees try to “sign you up” to the latest phone plan, instead of knowing anything about the myriad of components handled.  For us techies who used to love “The Shack,” it’s really depressing to see it turn into a cell phone store.  Where are you, Radio Shack?  Why did you leave, and will you ever come back???

See old catalogs and RADIO SHACK HISTORY here!