Show Notes Episode 375: A Tandy Company
This week Host Dave Bledsoe throws a tantrum when he cannot find a single ¼ inch to RCA audio patch cable anywhere in Best Buy and has to have several drinks in a nearby dive bar to calm his nerves. (Always some excuse with this guy.) On the show this week we tell the tale of the early tech giant you probably bought your first cell phone from in the early 2000’s. (It is Nokia ringtone time!)
Along the way we learn that Dave never really fit anywhere as a kid. (Nothing ever changes with this guy) Then we dive right into the history of Radio Shack from their origins as a Boston radio retailer to the rise of the Tandy Company who bought them with money made from assless leather chaps. (To be honest, ALL chaps are assless.) Then we tell you about how Tandy Computers beat out some little fruit based startup in California to become the dominant computer in American homes. (For a little while)
Our Sponsor this week is Bert’s Battery Barn, if it holds a charge we have it! We open with a Tandy Commercial from their halcyon days and close with Popgun spotting a faded Radio Shack sign on the side of the road.
Show Theme: https://www.jamendo.com/track/421668/prelude-to-common-sense
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Closing Music: https://youtu.be/cEuZoIlTVvo
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Citations Needed:
Tandy Corporation
https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/economics-business-and-labor/businesses-and-occupations/tandy-corp
Inside RadioShack's slow-motion collapse: Why the fall of the 94-year-old electronics chain didn't have to be this way
https://financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/inside-radioshacks-slow-motion-collapse-why-the-fall-of-the-94-year-old-electronics-chain-didnt-have-to-be-this-way
Computer Changes In The 1970'S
https://www.thepeoplehistory.com/70scomputers.html
The Personal Computer That Beat Apple (For a While)
https://time.com/3968790/tandy-trs-80-history/
From hero to zero: meteoric rise and fall of Tandy computers
https://cybernews.com/editorial/from-hero-to-zero-meteoric-rise-and-fall-of-tandy-computers/
Uncited Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RadioShack
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_Corporation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_D._Tandy
https://www.nytimes.com/1978/11/06/archives/charles-tandy-60-industrialist-started-work-at-12-400-radio-shacks.html
https://financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/inside-radioshacks-slow-motion-collapse-why-the-fall-of-the-94-year-old-electronics-chain-didnt-have-to-be-this-way
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/tandy-charles-david
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_TRS-80_and_Tandy-branded_computers
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