Christmas 1965 – Billy, Me and the Transistor Radio

It was Christmas, 1965. I was ten years old and in Fifth Grade. I’d figured out a year or two before Santa Claus wasn’t real, but my Dad made me promise not to tell my sisters. Even though Santa wasn’t real, it was still an exciting season.

For Christmas at our house, you’d typically receive one “big” present, several smaller presents, and of course clothes (ughhh). For the big present, you could petition Santa at the little Christmas House in downtown Ottawa, or more importantly, make sure Mom and Dad knew. Sometimes you’d receive the present, but just as often not. Money was typically tight at home, and Santa might, or might not come through.

In 1965, I wanted a Transistor Radio. They’d been around for a couple of years by then, and the price was starting to come down. Before the iPhone, iPod, Boomboxes, or the Sony Walkman, there was that first mobile music device – the Transistor Radio. The Beatles and The Stones both appeared on Ed Sullivan in 1964, but more importantly, Rock ‘n Roll was on the radio. If you were a kid growing up in Illinois at the time, that meant WLS out of Chicago. Everyone listened to WLS.

Unfortunately at home in the Hall household, if the big radio was turned on, it was tuned to WMAQ, also out of Chicago, which played Big Band, some Jazz, and “popular” (not Rock) music. Dad didn’t like Rock. He was strictly a Jazz/Big Band guy, and “those kids who only played four chords” weren’t going to be on the radio in his house. A transistor radio promised freedom, but from my view the odds of getting one weren’t high.

Christmas Eve finally arrived, and then came Christmas morning itself. We kids started waking around 3:30AM, making trips to the bathroom so we could see the Christmas tree along the way. Finally, around 5:30, Mom and Dad let us get up, and we started ripping into the presents.

Eventually, I found the battery. Dad showed me how to open the radio and we placed the battery inside. I turned it on…. and music! Wait, what’s this? It was old people music. Dad explained to me he received a special deal on this radio and it didn’t include WLS. It did however have WMAQ and their adult music. I was disappointed, but at least I had a radio.

Later that morning, I was in our backyard, sitting in a tree, listening to the radio as it played Christmas music from WMAQ. A car pulled into our driveway and out came Uncle George, Aunt Mary and my cousins. They all wished me a Merry Christmas and wanted to know how Christmas had been. I said pretty good and showed them the radio. Uncle George, Aunt Mary and the older kids laughed, waved and went into the house.

Billy looked at me as if I was stupid, and then exclaimed “Gimme that!”

I handed him the radio and he played with one of the wheels and all of a sudden – Boom! There were The Beach Boys singing “Little Saint Nick”! Whoa! It turned out I didn’t know about the frequency dial on the radio, and Billy had tuned it to WLS at 89 AM. (He was right to look at me the way he did. ;-). )

I raced into the house with the Radio. “Dad, Dad! The radio DOES get WLS! Billy showed me how to tune it in!” Dad looked at Billy and me, and I believe a small smile crept across his face. “What?! The salesman told me it wouldn’t receive WLS. I’ll have to talk with him”. He then made Billy and me go back outside “if we were going to play that Rock ‘n Roll”…

I recently talked with Billy about the story. He laughed at the memory and remembered thinking my Dad might kill him. He also remembers changing all the buttons in his family’s car to WLS for the drive home that day.

Having a good Christmas, and then your big cousin helping to make it even better – how cool is that?

I know with Covid, this Christmas will be different for many of us. Here’s hoping you make special memories to remember, and laugh about for years to come.

Addendum:

Dad grew to enjoy the Beatles. Many years later, we were talking after he and mom returned from a Jazz fest where a band played a medley of Beatles songs. Dad’s comment to me: “You know, those Beatles made some pretty good music”. Even old dogs can learn new tricks, or at least they could in Dad’s case…. 😉

If you want to read a couple of other Christmas memories from the Hall house, you can find them here:

⁃ The Christmas of 1967, when my sisters, Roberta and Tanya, found the hidden Christmas presents, and paid a price: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/11/the-christmas-morning-that-almost-wasnt/

⁃ The Christmas of 1963, when my Sister Roberta and I both receive Ice Skates… Roberta proceeded to skate circles around me: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2019/12/11/skating-at-varlands-pond/

⁃ The Christmas of 1933, with a story about my Dad, and Uncle Mick: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/21/a-hall-family-christmas-story/

The transistor radio really was the start of the revolution in portable music. You can follow the trail from Transistor radios to Walkmans, Boomboxes and iPhones. As it says in the referenced article, “The mighty transistor radio was the first piece of technology that gave young people complete musical freedom from parental disapproval.” Read more here: https://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/internet/retro-tech-the-transistor-radio-11363937910884