![]() Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia have now banned text messaging while driving. ![]() By then, over one third of America’s radio listening occurred in the car.Īnd those anti-radio laws? Though a few were signed in small municipalities, they mostly went nowhere. Thanks to the transistor, both size and price came way down, so that by 1963, 50 million cars – over 60 percent – were outfitted with radios. Later in the decade, push-button tuning and presets helped drivers to select stations without taking their eyes off the road. It cost a whopping $200, and with an antenna that covered the car’s entire roof, batteries that barely fit under the front seat and two mammoth speakers attached behind the seat, it was about as convenient as taking a live orchestra along for a ride.īy the early 1930s, the less cumbersome built-in Motorola radios were standard features in cars. In their 1934 poll, 56 percent deemed the car radio a “dangerous distraction.” Arguing the other side was the Radio Manufacturers Association, who pointed out that car radios could be used to warn drivers of inclement weather and bad road conditions, as well as keeping them awake when they got drowsy.Ī little history on the car radio: The first one was introduced in 1922 by Chevrolet. According to automotive historian Michael Lamm, “Opponents of car radios argued that they distracted drivers and caused accidents, that tuning them took a driver’s attention away from the road, and that music could lull a driver to sleep.”Įven the Auto Club of New York agreed. ![]() In 1930, laws were proposed in Massachusetts and St. Is texting while driving total insanity or just one more inevitable tide of modern life? (Spoiler alert: It's total insanity.) But was the radio met with similar opposition when it was first introduced to the car? ![]()
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