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| This is part 3 in a series discussing car radios – a little history, interspersed with steps you can take to get the most out of these sets. So far weve pretty much covered AM radios from their beginning to the modern era. |
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Article By Gary E. Tayman
This is part 3 in a series discussing car radios – a little history, interspersed with steps you can take to get the most out of these sets. So far we’ve pretty much covered AM radios from their beginning to the modern era. Now we’ll move on to the newer innovations – FM, stereo, tape players, etc.
Let’s start with FM. For trivia purposes, the very first factory FM car radio was offered in the 1958 Lincoln. It was an add-on option to the AM radio, and not many were sold. Indeed, hardly anyone cared about FM for a number of reasons. For starters all the popular music and favorite DJ’s were on AM. FM was still somewhat experimental; used mainly by audio hobbyists who listened on the big hi-fi’s in their living rooms. The receivers were clumsy and quirky, reception drifted all over the place, and for all the fuss, most programming seemed limited to classical and easy-listening music. So FM at the time was not much more than a curiosity.
In 1961 a funny thing happened – the FCC introduced stereo radio. To the surprise of many, stereo was approved for FM, but denied for AM. So if you wanted stereo you had to buy an FM radio. The trick worked – soon radio programming began migrating to FM, people began showing an interest in the new band, and the radios themselves got better. By the end of the 1960’s, FM, and FM stereo, was the new way to listen to radio.
AM/FM radios began appearing as options in new-car brochures around 1963 for a few models, and by 1966/67 they began being offered across the board. By around 1980, AM-only radios became a thing of the past. Since many of our cruisers were made during the 1960’s, a lot of people today are seeking original AM/FM radios to fit in their cars. The bad news is that there are not enough of these to go around. More bad news – the early sets performed like crap, and were trouble-prone. Bottom line is that if you own a popular collector car such as a Chevelle, finding an original AM/FM radio could be as difficult as locating Bigfoot. If you do find one, prepare to empty your wallet, and then prepare to listen to an FM radio that hardly sounds better than the AM set you just removed.
Newer sets, say 1970 and up, are not as bad, but even into the 1980’s you’re not going to find an original FM radio or stereo that performs as good as a modern one. There are technical reasons why – and we’ll discuss them in a future installment.
Now let’s move on to media players. Did you know that record players were offered for cars back in the 1950’s? The most notable, and the only player offered as a factory option, was the Highway Hi-Fi offered by Mopar in 1956 and 1957. These required special records that you bought from your car dealer – and indeed, if you wanted to listen to Buddy Holly you were out of luck; you were stuck with whatever slim offerings they had. A few brands such as ARC and Phillips offered aftermarket players that accepted 45’s, but overall none of these players performed very well, and none were very popular. Today any such player is in big demand – which is strange because they are only a novelty at best. If for some reason you DO install one of these in your car, be careful with the records – keeping a record in a parked car in the hot sun, even for a few minutes, is bad news.
Cartridge tape players fared a lot better in cars. Beginning in the late 1960’s, the stereo tape cartridge became all the rage for a number of years. There were three contenders – the 4-track cartridge, the 8-track cartridge, and the Phillips Compact Cassette, all of which were introduced to the markets around 1963-64. The 4-track, trademarked “Stereo-Pak”, was a consumer version of the cartridge tapes used by radio broadcasters. Marketed by Madman Muntz, the format never caught on, and to my knowledge was never offered as a factory option in any car -- shameful because it was by far the best performer of the bunch. The “Stereo-8”, better known as the 8-track, was first offered by Ford in 1966 and was an immediate hit, becoming the format of choice for most of the 1970’s. The cassette was a latecomer for cars, but eventually replaced the 8-track and has been popular for years.
One aspect of 8-track tape players is outstanding, and shines to this day. The design is simple and dumb, with very few moving parts. As such they are reliable and easy to service. But there’s a downside – replacement parts (except belts) are nonexistent, and generally the tape cartridges themselves need to be rebuilt before playing them. If you have a radio with an 8-track player, more than likely you can service the player yourself. Clean the tape head and capstan with alcohol (or whatever the car’s owners’ manual says to clean it with), open the covers and lubricate the head mechanism (the head moves up and down to change tracks), and replace the belts. That’s about it. There are three major types of 8-track players; Motorola, Delco, and Phillips. Delco players, in all GM products, rarely need more than simple cleaning. Motorola players, found in Fords and some Mopars, are generally good but sometimes sound weak and muffled. If so, most likely the head is bad – and guess what? You’re not going to find a new replacement head. What to do? Go to a flea market and locate a crappy 8-track player – car player, home player, boom box – whatever. Pull the head and stick it in your Motorola. It’ll work. Now – the head might be slightly bigger or smaller, and might take a little creativity to make it fit, and in ALL cases you’ll need to adjust head height and azimuth after replacing, but all of these heads are electrically about the same and they are pretty much interchangeable. As for Phillips players, these are found in some 70’s Mopars – and to be honest I’ve rarely had to service one, which is probably good news.
Cassettes: These were introduced originally as a cheap, portable means of recording sound – meeting minutes, dictation, etc. They were not intended for music – but of course, somebody came along and improved it. Using creative tape chemistry, along with active audio processing such as Dolby, cassettes indeed began to be used for playing music. As for car players, the first offering that I know of was available in Mopars around 1970. These were actually recorders with a microphone – again, the purpose being dictation and such. By the mid 1970’s, stereo cassette players started being offered for cars, as alternatives for 8-track players. Eventually as we know, the cassettes took over.
Now for the bad news: unless you can find somebody who likes to rebuild 1970’s-era cassette players, you probably don’t even want to use it. Far more complicated than the 8-track, cassette decks are loaded with tiny belts, rollers, and other rubber parts that turn to mush over time. Insert a tape into one of these players and you’ll end up with a sticky tangled-up mess! Replacement of these rubber parts requires a lot of time and patience – and probably having some of the parts special-made. Better to leave it there for looks, and install some sort of docking station for your iPod if you want to listen to pre-recorded music in your car.
All this brings us to the modern age with the CD player. Indeed, CD players use media with NO moving parts. The players themselves are heavy on micro-electronics and light on mechanics. They generally only use two or three tiny motors – one to spin the disk, one to move the laser head back and forth, and possibly a third to kick out the disk when you’re done. Other than cleaning/lube and maybe a belt, there’s hardly any maintenance that needs to be done to an older CD player. But there is one aspect of these that is sometimes overlooked by those who tinker with car stereos – the CD player requires an opening that is bigger than a tape. Indeed when CD’s became popular the typical shape of a car radio changed from the two-knobs-and-a-dial format to the more modern “DIN”rectangular opening. Now for a pet peeve of mine – many cruisers who want modern sound get rather handy with a hacksaw, and jam a modern CD stereo in the dash of their classic vehicle. If you’re happy with this, fine – but to me these players look awful, and there’s no going back – once the dash is damaged, you’re stuck with it, so think twice. Even now, the CD is falling to the iPod, the USB port, and other solid media that DON’T require the bigger opening, and that “modern” player in a few years may very well be a detriment to the value of the car. Something to consider before you take such a plunge.
There’s one more variation you probably forgot about – the CB radio. Indeed, some late 70’s-early 80’s GM cars had radios with built-in Citizens Band included. Not much needs to be said about these, except: you need a CB license to transmit, and you need an FCC Radiotelephone license to service it. The antenna is matched to the set, so don’t go changing things around, or installing through-the-antenna accessories like iPod adapters or CD changers. Just leave it be.
So – in three installments we’ve covered history from the military radios of World War I all the way to modern CD car stereos. Next month we’ll shift gears a little -- discuss a few servicing tips you can do yourself, and also provide some advice if you are shopping for an original radio for your car. See you then!
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