I'm trying to find the first (or only) R2R with a built in radio and not having any luck but I did just find this, the Radionette from 1971. I was starting to think that maybe the radio caused interference with R2R but I haven't found any supporting information. This does have a unique reel style, I'm not sure how it works.
Unfortunately there's no inside page for this but that's definately a very early 1969 boombox from Grundig!
This catalog is 1970, we'll give it a pass since it has the above boombox in it and it's a beauty, I bet these were big money back then. Thanks Alex Chernyak! No cassette deck but this is a killer looking radio!
Wollansak 4310 makes an entry! From 1969, I wonder who made it for them, some of their equipment was from AKAI back then.
Found over on ebay, it says 1969 but I don't know what magazine it came out of. Maybe JVC's first boombox?
This idea took about 30 years to catch on https://www.rewindmuseum.com/betamax.htm I suspect a large factor was cost. Back in 1969 either a radio or cassette recorder was a significant purchase. I have said before how in 1973 my mother decided she wanted a radio cassette (she actually got the Sanyo on the first ad on this page) after seeing one a student teacher had received for her 21st Birthday present. At £37 that was 1.5 weeks wages for the average woman back then. What was normal was to make recordings by sticking your cassette recorder microphone in front of the radio, record player, or TV. Especially the TV even when VCRs started to become popular it was unusual for large TVs to have any kind of audio output. Of course for less than the price of a VCR you could buy the next iteration from the radio cassette.
