The Evolution of Car Stereos: A Journey Through Technology and Trends

FM radio had advanced circuitry for the time and was marketed as a premium aftermarket stereo with super sensitive tuning capabilities, but it wasn't the only thing being customized. Audio files were also swapping out, upgrading, and adding more speakers in their cars. Powerful amps that were too big to hide were put in the trunk along with subwoofers, and before long, you could hear the flatulent buzz of a sub from down the block.

In 1982, Sony and Philips debuted the compact disc, fun fact: a CD can hold 74 minutes of audio. Executives of both Sony and Philips loved Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in its entirety and wanted the format to be able to play it, but the compact disc wasn't much of a sales success right off the bat. It was met with widespread skepticism. Pioneer didn't listen to that noise though and saw the potential power of CDs in their car stereo systems. In 1984, they came out with the world's first car CD player, the CD x1. It was considered a luxury item at the time and wasn't affordable to most, but the sound quality was undeniable.

Drivers reveled in the 10-disc changers and loved that they could skip tracks with the press of a button. CD players were strictly aftermarket systems until 1987 when Lincoln installed the first OAM CD player in its 1987 Town Car. CD players slowly gained more popularity throughout the 90s as prices dropped and more people could afford to install them, but cassettes weren't going out without a fight.

In 2001, Apple came out with the iPod, do you remember those sweet commercials with dancing people? "I'll dance right" yeah. Oh, mp3 players had already existed since the late 90s, but none of them were easy to use or as aesthetically pleasing as the iPod. Plus they had a 5 gig storage capacity which meant you could hold all your Nelly Furtado albums and your mobiie albums on one device that's so convenient.

Car manufacturers were pretty slow to integrate mp3 connectivity into production cars, but that didn't stop car owners from buying aftermarket stereos with auxiliary ports. CD sales started declining, and rightly so, you could carry hundreds of CDs worth of music on a device as small as your phone. Radio had been passed up by cassettes and compact discs but it was about to make a comeback.

It took five years of lobbying the FCC and an additional five years to raise money to send satellites into orbit, but finally, satellite radio was launched. Sirius did this almost single-handedly now it is streaming services reigning supreme. Satellite is still offered in many new cars as a premium subscription service but car owners prefer services like Spotify and Apple music which have 40 million songs to choose from.

What the future of car stereo looks like is unknown, but one thing is for sure: music isn't going anywhere. We are born with every song installed in our heads we are legion we will conquer the stars. I'm needing glopro breakfast I gotta get in my spaceship I hope there's not space traffic it you should jams up a brand crap la 9 Dona pedia is it some planet I still ride for videos are smells now 50 episodes of wheelhouse thank you so much for watching I hope you guys like this one as much as we like making it it was a ton of fun hit that yellow subscribe button right there also big big thank you to Henry for directing this and just helping out with the music and all that check out this episode of wheelhouse check out this episode of up to speed thank you thank you thank you for watching be nice I'll see you next time

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhis rewind time the year is 1901 guglielmo marconi installed a telegraph and a steam carriage made by the three crafts company the system was pretty primitive and the antenna Wow but it opened people's minds to what could be possible with mobile systems in 1919 Popular Mechanics like Popular Mechanics is that old they wrote practical and useful radio equipment for automobiles is not far away and had visions of telephone poles on each of the cars four corners in 1922 Chevrolet came up with a super cumbersome way to bring radio to their vehicles the radio system had a huge control box external batteries that fit under the seats two large speakers that fit in the fact and an antenna that covered the entire roof of the car car radios were available in the 1920s but their high cost made them out of reach for most car buyers a young engineer by the name of Paul Galvin he figured if he could produce a tube amplified radio that was affordable he would become rich and fat and be able to light cigars with hundred-dollar bills and that's all anyone really wants alright Gavin found investors and built his radios with his brother Joseph then installed it in a Studebaker and drove 800 miles to attend the annual radio Manufacturers Association meeting in Atlantic City he turned his radio all the way up and stood on the back of his car taking orders for his new invention it worked because galvans radio cost less than half of the other radios on the market at the time two years later in 1930 the Galvin corporation came out with a newer battery-powered tube amplified car radio called the five t71 a portmanteau of motorcar and Victor Ola Motorola the number of cars that had radios went from 34,000 to over three million not everyone loved it though legislators from Massachusetts in Missouri proposed bans on radios in their cars and in 1934 a poll of the Auto Club of New York revealed that 56% of members thought radios were indeed a distraction brothers watch out radios the other the future for real we should probably try to put them in business I'm trying to be a hater but we shouldn't be in sales not to mention radios cost a lot but if you make them cheap then they're gonna buy them by the box we got the tech the funds let's stay that cost we failed three times this thing's gonna be the fault you is right yeah doping drink and you should show it off at that radio can grandia market in the front toons crank loud pop up on the hood and attract a whole crowd step right up I got something to say yo come and get your hands on this Motorola radio he's got a radio on a - drivers love already real of cash pumping and his Chevy's the bhima's and Vince went from selling 30 steps is selling three and radios everywhere drop-top sent troops in peril cars are made for driving not for Ella Fitzgerald but the car makers loved it was lovely that everything up into this point was AM radio it wasn't until 1950 that a German company by the name of L Punk came out with an FM radio FM is much higher quality than AM radio the blanked stereo was the first car stereo to offer FM but a company by the name of Becker stole their spotlight a year later with their Mexico car radio this AM FM radio was the first with a scan function that let the driver autonomously search through radio stations until they found one that they liked this function wasn't available on any other car radio until almost 10 years later if you wanted to listen to music in your car you will pretty much at the mercy of radio DJs that is until Chrysler debuted their highway hi-5 system this compact proprietary record player played Chrysler made 7-inch vinyl records but surprise surprise the highway hi-fi system eventually failed to sell enough treatments to keep producing it because it's a record player in a car it skipped like crazy oh and it also exclusively played records made by Columbia Records it was like the title of the 1950s the 1960s are when things started really taking off and i'm not talking about rockets to the moon in 1962 an entrepreneur by the name of Earl de madman months wanted to create a product that encompassed his two loves cars and music and came up with a four track cartridge the cartridges also known as stereo packs can play an entire album from start to finish and in skip play ads and they didn't need to be rewound the infinite loop cartridge was specifically made to be played in months as other invention the auto stereo the units were expensive but unique and state-of-the-art which made them wildly popular with celebrities at the time bill Lear owner of Lear Jets had bought some auto stereo units with the intent of distributing them and installing them in his Jets blend en and idea Lear had actually worked at Motorola decades earlier and re-engineered the auto stereo and came up with his own system the 8-track the guy who started Learjet also started a trap Lear system cut costs by making the cartridges less complex it was wildly successful and soon the 8-track was surpassing the more expensive and less impressive sounding for track there's that damn music madman once I'm a big celebrity I'm known for selling radios constantiy feasts and you let them video is plenty of fans but what if car owners can have musical demand to die look I made a tape the four tracks an endless loop of audio college stereo pack listen to your favorite slide female Ringo Starr with the auto stereo you can listen in your car broke names bill and I'll buy your four track sets I have plans to install them in my Jets here as in Learjets her to me I'm a big aviation industry see all this cash that you make off my jet setters so I'm stealing your idea and I'm making it better bill what the hell we're friends friends no businessmen stereos but they one more mile Ave tracks and be cheaper than yours compact cassette tapes debuted around the same time as the four track the cassettes produced by Philips were more expensive and less common than the four track or eight tracks but offer better sound quality and Dolby noise reduction eight tracks one the public over due to how inexpensive they were plus they had the backing of Motorola and Ford making them more readily available Bank acceptance in the early 70s cassette quality was improving massively and the differences in audio quality between cassettes and 8tracks was undeniable Plus cassettes had one big thing eight tracks can offer the ability to record customized mixes this proved to be the deal breaker that led to the eight tracks ultimate demise during the 70s and 80s the production of aftermarket stereo equipment exploded advances in technology led to many new products that improve on stock car stereo design car owners wanted bigger better louder stereos and they got them in 1976 pioneer introduced the KP 500 the creme de la creme of car stereos look at this thing glow this cassette / am/fm radio had advanced circuitry for the time and was marketed as a premium aftermarket stereo with super sensitive tuning capabilities the head unit wasn't the only thing being customized audio files were also swapping out upgrading and adding more speakers in their cars powerful amps that were too big to hide were put in the trunk along with subwoofers and before long you could hear the flatulent buzz of a sub from down the block in 1982 Sony and Philips debuted the compact disc fun fact a CD can hold 74 minutes of audio because executives of both Sony and Philips loved Beethoven and wanted the format to be able to play Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in its entirety but the compact disc wasn't much of a sales success right off the bat and was met with widespread skepticism pioneer didn't listen to that noise though and saw the potential power of CDs in their car stereo systems in 1984 they came out with the world's first car CD player the CD x1 it was considered a luxury item at the time and wasn't affordable to most but the sound quality was undeniable drivers reveled in the 10 disc changers and loved that they could skip tracks with the press of a button CD players were strictly aftermarket systems until 1987 when Lincoln installed the first OAM CD player in its 1987 town car CD players slowly gained more popularity throughout the 90s as prices dropped and more people could afford to install them but cassettes weren't going out without a fight yeah we ain't staying together right man yeah I Eilish oh no we're owning we pretty much the same thing right therefore so I'm so futuristic got a readme with the laser I made out of rainbows catch you in the teeth knock out your dental unschool your guts with a number-two pencil I'm up there David Lee you so beautiful either kids that they fingers inside a little I got that high fidelity your world is in danger me and the whole crew inside the ten disc changer shut up you played out time to flip your blood over look at your reflection bruh you look stupid I've gotta burn all that a teenager door yep good do CDs were on top that is until Apple came out with the iPod in 2001 do you remember those sweet commercials with the dancing people I'll dance right yeah Oh mp3 players had already existed since the late 90s but none of them were easy to use or as aesthetically pleasing as the iPod plus they had a 5 gig storage capacity which meant you could hold all your Nelly Furtado albums and your mobiie albums on one device that's so convenient car manufacturers were pretty slow to integrate mp3 connectivity into production cars but that didn't stop car owners from buying aftermarket stereos with auxiliary ports CD sales started declining and rightly so you could carry hundreds of CDs worth of music on a device as small as your phone Radio had been passed up by cassettes and compact discs but it was about to make comeback it took five years of lobbying the FCC and an additional five years to raise money to send satellites into orbit but finally satellite radio was launched Sirius did this almost single-handedly now it is streaming services reigned supreme satellite is still offered in many new cars as a premium subscription service but car owners prefer services like Spotify and Apple music which have 40 million songs to choose from what the future of car stereo looks like is unknown but one thing is for sure music isn't going anywhere upload complete it is the year three million ad we are born with every song installed in our heads we are legion we will conquer the Stars I'm needing glopro breakfast I gotta get in my spaceship I hope there's not space traffic it you should jams up a brand crap la 9 Dona pedia is it some planet I still ride for videos are smells now 50 episodes of wheelhouse thank you so much for watching I hope you guys like this one as much as we like making it it was a ton of fun hit that yellow subscribe button right there also big big thank you to Henry for directing this and just helping out with the music and all that check out this episode of wheelhouse check out this episode of up to speed thank you thank you thank you for watching be nice I'll see you next time