“1983’s Big Dream”

I’ve been reading these blogs and seeing these collections and all I can say is “Much Respect”. Seeing these stereo’s brings back memories that just flood the mind. I see people’s blogs where they say “I Wish I Would Have Had The Chance To Buy One Of These Unit’s New”. Obviously age is a factor and if you’re in your 20’s or 30’s right now, you missed it. For me I guess being 40 does have one solid advantage. 26 years ago it was 1983 and I was 14 years old! Not only did I buy one of these monster boxes NEW, It lived with me as part of my life for many years. I can say for sure if it wasn’t for my blaster, I wouldn’t be a professional musician now! My Boom Box gave me access to music whenever I wanted it and in the golden age of personal electronics’, that was a big deal.

But my story isn’t the same 1983, New York City street corner bumping RUN DMC. I was living on the West Coast in the San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles where BMX bikes and Skate Boards ruled the streets and sidewalk surfing with a boom box BLAIRING Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne, Triumph and Rush was how I moved around!

The truth of the matter is, the same reason these monster battery eaters where popular for hardcore rap, was the same reason I loved mine. Shear Volume, and being a fan of Heavy Metal and the low tuning of guitars made the big bottom end sound of these Boom Boxes ideal for cranking up Heavy Metal.

But before I got my first radio I had the “Big Dream”. I had some friends in the neighborhood that had access to some radios. Usually it was their parents because at 12 and 13 years old none of us had $200-$250 to spend on a real Ghetto Blaster. I did my time with a small cassette player with single speaker all the while I was eye balling a Realistic SCR-6 at the local Radio Shack. To me it was a dream machine. It was only out for one year, 1983, before it was replace with the SCR-8. It was at the end of the “Sensible” stereo size. Back before companies started building for shear size. The SCR-6 was about 18 inches long. Really a medium sized Ghetto Blaster by the late ‘80’s standards. It was also one of the first stereo’s to offer “Song Search” to skip to the next song on a cassette. Once a week I went down to the Radio Shack to look at it in the glass case. I made the guy who worked there take it out and show it too me until he was sick of me!

I spent the full summer of 1983 working my ass off to try to get that radio. I mowed lawns, helped elderly people in the neighborhood, cleaned pools and delivered papers, whatever it took to save that money.

When I got close to the amount of money I needed I went to the Saugus swap meet with my folks and saw something even more intense then the SCR-6! A booth was selling the brand new LASONIC TRC-920. At the time of its release it was one of the largest portable radio’s made measuring almost 22 inches long! I had to have it. It was actually cheaper than the Realistic and I had my hard earned cash with me in my pocket. But the TRC-920 did lack in a few key features. No song search. No battery life indicator light. But what it lacked in features it made up for in style, size and pure VOLUME!

I literally lived with this box. It went to school with me (when I actually went). It was next to my bed at night and in my hands everyday. I skate boarded everywhere in the valley with it cradled in my arms pointed straight up at my face! It was so loud I couldn’t hear anything but music and most of the time a sharp ringing in my ears when it wasn’t on!

Being a 14 year old going to school in 1983 / 84 without a job made it tough. I was given limited funds per week by my folks and it was a tough choice between beer, weed and batteries! It was a tough juggling act to make sure I had plenty of power for my blaster while trying to swing some party materials!

We did find street corners to chill on and let the passerby’s have a full taste of whatever I was blaring at the time.

I remember distinctly watching the Output Level lights for fading, signifying the batteries were going low. Every stop I made at a friends house I was pulling out the cord and plugging in, but not turning off!

Every place I went I had a back pocket of the essential cassettes, Judas Priest’s - Screaming for Vengeance, Van Halen’s – Women and Children First, Triumph’s – Never Surrender, AC/DC’s – Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and Rush’s – Moving Pictures were among many that were main stay’s in my cassette player!

But you can’t use something that much and not have it wear out. I did my best to take care of it but I remember the very first thing to get broken on my radio. I was at a friend’s house in the summer of 1984 listening to 95.5 KLOS fm in Los Angeles. They were boasting all day that they were going to play the new Van Halen song “Jump” at 7:00 p.m. I was all ready and waiting with two friends of mine when one of them got up and accidentally kicked over my radio breaking off the “Stereo / Mono” switch. It wasn’t a switch I used often but I was so pissed. It was the first of many battle scars to come. I was even more pissed when I heard the new Van Halen. Their album 1984 sucked in my eyes!
Keyboards! !@#$%*&^$% KEY BOARDS!

So from there on out, I tried gluing on the switch, but it kept breaking off and then one of the antennas broke and then the cassette door snapped off and one of the speaker grills got dented. Then one of the handle ends broke and it was wrapped with tape. Finally the rubber drive wheel wore out and the cassette player stopped working. I retired the radio from travel and it found a permanent place on my dresser where I plugged in other components into it and it powered 2 more speakers. It wasn’t long before I got my first car and started messing around with car stereo’s and when I finally moved out of my folks house at age 18, my boom box was a busted down shadow of it’s former self. It went in the trash and off to a landfill somewhere outside of Los Angeles. Today, still buried under millions of tons of waste!

So here I am, 40 years old, 26 years later and I stumble across www.Stereo2go.com & www.Pocketcalculatorshow.com ‘s “Golden Age Of Boom Boxes” and BANG I see my TRC-920 for the first time in 26 years. It’s then I learn that all these people are not only collecting them they are genuinely keeping they’re greatness alive for others to see and hear!

So, now I have to have one again. The beauty part of today is rechargeable battery technology is to the point to make these battery eaters useable. I see some of the people on the message board have been Hot Roding their boxes. I might do some up grades as well. Like build a recharging unit into the stereo so whenever it’s plugged in it recharges the batteries, much like a cell phone or iPod.

So, I have decided to start collecting some of the favorite things I always wanted from the 1980’s!!!

I have already started!

The first thing I bought was my dream guitar. A 1981 Gibson Flying V just like the one KK Downing used to play in Judas Priest!

Second was one of my dream cars. It’s a 1983 Ferrari 308 GTSiQV. Red of course!

And now I want my LASONIC TRC-920! I’m looking for a top notch, clean working unit.

I have dug out my old cassette collection, 100 plus tapes of old school Rock and Metal.

Soon I’ll be looking for a Powell Peralta skateboard to bust my ass on!

Oh Yeah! Can’t Wait!

wow --cool story

those 920s were and are very popular -
so you can count on getting a good one soon-

and - if you get a clean, all original one there is
no good reason (imho) to mod it with an on-board battery charger.

HI TRC!
Thanks for such a complete story!

Actually there have been different versions
of the trc920 on the market

1.)


production span:83-85

2.)


production span 82-84

3.)


production span:83-85

About Yung FU ,lasonic trademark owner.


these "T" lasonics have fake tweeters:

but
jovie placed real ones!:

Good read bro.
Just like most of us ( me included )found this site.
Looking for the fountain of middle age, er i mean youth
I finally found my childhood box
The Rising SRC2015
child hood favorite car 1977 Trans am
and last but not least favorite guitars of all time.
Ibanez Iceman and Les Paul

Great thread...

A boombox... the forgotten 'must have' for pool skaters all over Southern California, early 1980's.

Welcome Lasonic! Great reading. I'm 41 and remember all the cool L.A. Rock stations from 1975-1980 when I was skateboarding in Pomona,CA. Great times to be a kid with my Evil Kenevil Huffy BMX bike for jumping those trash cans,etc.

This is definetly the way it happened for me as well. And since joining s2g I have been able to figure out the name of my childhood history bbx. Now because of finding out it was indeed a CEC bbx from my past I have a real nice box that I can listen too and admire. But this time it will stay in better shape because I wont be walking everywhere with it.

Thanks for posting this...it was enjoyable to read

-gsbadbmr

TRC --many of us send PMs when we spot an ebay box that we know a member is waiting for --

this one was on there for 7 days --and sold this morning --

was it not mint enough ?
or did you not notice it ?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-80...C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

also - just read that TA has posted this one for you on your want thread.

quote:

redbenjoe

, I did see this box, It has a broken switch and no battery cover. It's not far off and even thought about making a battery cover of stainless steel. I have a feeling "MY" box is out there somewhere

"yeah, in a land fill under los angeles!"

BTW, Here's the 1981 Gibson V


And the Ferrari

nice pipes

Nice Magnum PI style!!

That Gibson Vee is sweet as well
WOW

cool read, welcome aboard Lasonic!

JLF nice decks, i love to pool/bowl skate but my old bones do not.

Welcome aboard TRC-920! Thanks for the great story and I hope you find your radio!
I'm a firm believer in blasterkarma; if you want it bad enough you can make it happen by being positive, patient and giving.

I hope blasterkarma works in your favour for this one... and many more to come!



Rock On.

That story sounds way to close to my childhood story. Wow, SoCal, skating wood halfpipes(Alva was my fave), boombox... Mine was a Sanyo M9990 - and yes, I am keeping my eyes open for an ultra-clean one if I can find it.

The car is amazing, a buddy picked one up on eBay for a reasonable price. Yours looks exceptional.

Awesome story. Brings back the good ole days. Thank you.

Great sory and great car!!

quote:

Originally posted by SDBOBBYT:
That story sounds way to close to my childhood story. Wow, SoCal, skating wood halfpipes(Alva was my fave), boombox... Mine was a Sanyo M9990

Yep, thats how we rolled. Cranking up KLOS or KMET back in the day. I totally remember skating around with others with their boom boxes. It was the way we lived!

Welcome ! Great story . . I still skate now, since 1988 ! ! Love the cars boomboxes boards everything ! ! ! !

Stick around and I hope you get a nice minty 920 some point soon !

It's such a blast remembering your childhood especially for the love we have for these Ghettoblasters!

Welcome Lasonic feel right at home dude.

who remembers the 80s, did not experience them

FALCO

quote:

Originally posted by ford93:
It's such a blast remembering your childhood especially for the love we have for these Ghettoblasters!

Welcome Lasonic feel right at home dude.

Thanks Ford93, yeah it's really wild to think back after all these years. It's hard to say what path I would have taken with out my Blaster and the instant music gratification it provided!

And I agree TPR, if you were there, you wouldn’t remember!

BTW, anyone go to the US Festival in ’83?

quote:

anyone go to the US Festival in ’83?

i did!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by *TPR*:
who remembers the 80s, did not experience them

FALCO

Yeah Falco , never forget him .

Yeah, The US Festival, I olny went on Heavy Metal Sunday. That was a day I can't remember!

i went when the police and the english beat were there

i remember in the mid 80s we always took are boomboxes with us no matter where we or what we were doing . the music was always loud and most people thought we were nuts . it was fun fun times

quote:

Originally posted by SINISTER:
i went when the police and the english beat were there

Nice reading !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I still feel like a child because I'm 29 years old .
Seriosly ... when I was child, I used to dream with portable radios all the time. I remember that at the age of five I wanted a radio like no other thing.
My father had a Grundig C3150 Automatic. Love this Grundig machine, but when stop working, my father gave it one afternoon to play with it.
I remeber opening the radio without any idea of nothing (I had only five years), but I really enjoyed seeing the electronics inside .
I felt the same every time I open a boombox
Of course I cound't help that Grundig.
My mother decide it was a bit dangerous that a child were playing with a radio, so the Grundig went to the trash .

Some years after, when I became more carefull, my aunt allowed me to use her National Panasonic RS4300. The same boombox of my avatar that is still working and playing tapes from time to time at my aunts house .
And also started to use my Grandma National RF-520, that worked for a while because the belt splited. That was may first belt change !!

Also at this time I owned two recorders, both were mono and their quality were NASTY.
One was a philips (really HATE it), mono recorder without radio. It keeps breaking all the time . I used it a lot because it had DIN I/O for recordings.
The other was a Nippon-America egg-era recorder with radio. That player was annoying ... but had radio. It's mecha got stuck at the second day of purchased . NASTY I hate it too.

This two "recorders" make me love my aunt's National, which at this time was a professional recorder.

I've purchased my first boombox while a was working (at the age of 24). Of course, I was looking for a National Panasonic ... you know ...
I wait several months until a RX-5120 appeared. It was in mint condition, with sticker !!!
That's the way I've started

Nice story Success too bad for the Grundig now it's under tons of a garbage.

WICKED STORY! I'm so jealous I never got to experience it...

I don't think it will be the same for me when I'm 40, as I cannot imagine myself wanting an old i-pod etc... as it feels like around the late 90's we entered a new age of electronics, and software...music players will never be the same!

Hey Success, That’s cool you had the exposure thanks to your family to use these unique pieces of electronics’ history. It's both the evolution of electronics as well as the people who used them. I think that’s what I got most out of reading the www.Pocketcalculatorshow.com ‘s “Golden Age Of Boom Boxes”. For those of us that bought these new and saw them evolve based on customer reaction was an amazing thing to experience.

Basically you saw these Boom Boxes get bigger and more powerful at the same time you saw “Eye Candy / Bling” play a big roll later on with some of the larger later model Lasonic’s. They didn’t have the quality, but they had the shock value.

I think one of the things I respect most about the people on this site is that they found features that they liked that went beyond the “Eye Candy” and into the REAL functionality and usability on these units! The people that wanted power, sound quality and features. And if you look hard enough, allot of these unit’s had all of those things.

Reading JLF, Badbill and Thafuzz’s comments and the boxes the chose, it’s obvious that they were out to “BLAST” the world and to do it with the best sound quality they could get their hands on. Also with the story Success told, he was introduced to National’s from his family and a brand identification bond was formed. A loyalty.

It’s just an interesting history to look at.

And I also think your right Jackness, will people care about their iPod’s in 25 years? Make ya wonder.

And now we’re older and we can afford to play around and own as many of them as we want!

Any comments gsbadbmr? LOL

In the future EVERYTHING you need in life will be built into your cell phone.The idea of a dedicated MP3 player will seem quaint.They will become at least somewhat collectible.

quote:

Originally posted by Lasonic TRC-920:
Any comments gsbadbmr? LOL

I take the 5th

-gsbadbmr

Incredible story, and thanks for sharing it. Its nice to be a part of a group that is so in love with there boomboxes!

I've always wanted only one box an old GE, and Skippy and Ira helped me find that I do have a few extra ones too (the boombox bug bites hard).

Johnny

No different way down here either. My friends sister in 83 won a competion for a sanyo 9994 and we took that sucker everywhere,scateboards,and flip screen donkey kongs were always there as well. Great times. Only 5mths of my 30,s left boohoo....Welcome aboard Lasonic.

Great times indeed.

In honour of the original Donkey Kong dual screen I repainted my boring silver Nintendo DS in to the traditional Donkey Kong colour scheme.





Rock On.

Not bad Rick. I still have 2 of these.

Hey Weyland, don't worry about rollin' the odometer over to 40, once you do, you realize, "Who Cares". Beside, 40 is the new 14!

I remember Donkey Kong, the stand up machines. There was a place next to the Radio Shack that had the Boom Box I wanted. I played D.K. and dreamed of that boom box every day! Might have to get me a stand up machine too! LOL

WOW! Thanks for the read..
I grew up in socal a little later than you. I lived in long beach in 1987 and use to listen to 105.5 knac blaring out my Goldstar tsr-801.
Yep Klos.95.5
Didnt go to us festival was only 9 y.o. at the time but do remember driving up there so see all the people lined up for days and camping out for the heavy metal line up. Anybody interested in the complete van halen show video from that night? Believe it or not I have that as well as the complete motley crue show also.
Again thanks for the read.......

quote:

Originally posted by Lasonic TRC-920:
Hey Weyland, don't worry about rollin' the odometer over to 40, once you do, you realize, "Who Cares". Beside, 40 is the new 14!

I remember Donkey Kong, the stand up machines. There was a place next to the Radio Shack that had the Boom Box I wanted. I played D.K. and dreamed of that boom box every day! Might have to get me a stand up machine too! LOL

Well i have a full size 39 in 1 stand up as well and i can say that my friends love coming around for a few beers and a game oh with sounds blastin on boombox.. Its brilliant haha

Arcade machine,beer fridge,and a big Lasonic.A red ferrari would make the scene perfect hahaha Very jealous by the way.

Lasonic 920 - Great post and this is a fun thread. I know everyone will be happy when you find your 920. I am lucky enough to still have mine that I bought in '81 - a sharp gf-8686. I found st2go looking for parts to restore it a couple of years ago and now it's back to like new.

Hi Lasonic! Welcome, and great story! I am 41 now and also have a few stories about what boomers meant to me and I guess why I collect. I would love to hear more stories from folks involving their boombox memories if you don't mind me hijacking your thread?

Please EVERYONE tell your Boom Box Stories. Would really like to read them myself! I think it's killer that so many are like mine and would like to hear the ones that aren't as well!

quote:

Originally posted by *TPR*:
who remembers the 80s, did not experience them

FALCO

FALCO rocks. Even at this moment its 6.30pm sat night and the LASONIC935 is on the breakfast bar as I cook my wife dinner blasting out 80,s tunes sadly NICK KERSHAW at moment haha while my wife feeds my georgeous 9mth old daughter ALEXI . OH Fade to grey by VISAGE just came on.

quote:

Originally posted by Lasonic TRC-920:
BTW, Here's the 1981 Gibson V


And the Ferrari

Nice, the 308 has always been me favorite ever sense magnum pi .

quote:

Originally posted by Lasonic TRC-920:
Hey Weyland, don't worry about rollin' the odometer over to 40, once you do, you realize, "Who Cares". Beside, 40 is the new 14!

I remember Donkey Kong, the stand up machines. There was a place next to the Radio Shack that had the Boom Box I wanted. I played D.K. and dreamed of that boom box every day! Might have to get me a stand up machine too! LOL

I highly recommend getting one, nothing like a bunch of Arcade Games in the basement. Thanks for the post, real cool story there for sure. Let me know if you have any questions on getting a DK machine, here is my basement:

Awesome basement!! -Riddler .

they still make carpet like that

AWESOME arcade room Riddler! Can't wait to see your Ghettoblaster room!!



Rock On.

There is no doubt that is a sick gaming room. Reminds me of Super-Cade in Van Nuys, Cal. Very cool.