The secret six-month project: Why Texas Instruments decided to put the first transistor radio on the market by Christmas 1954 and how it was accomplished

On a steamy day shortly before the July 4 weekend in 1954, Richard Koch and his boss, Raymond Morris, boarded an American Airlines flight from Chicago to Houston, Texas. Morris, who was chief engineer at an Indianapolis, Ind., electronics manufacturer called IDEA (Industrial Development Engineering Associates), had told Koch they were simply going to change some parts in UHF converters stocked at IDEA's Texas distributors. But soon after takeoff, Morris settled back and revealed the main purpose of their trip. After stopping in Houston, they would meet with Texas Instruments (TI) engineers in Dallas to begin manufacturing an all-transistor, shirt-pocket radio. This would be the first commercial transistor radio, and at a time when one could buy a table model vacuum-tube radio for $15, it would sell for $49.95.