Mobile Car Audio history

de Forest took his radio to St Louis during the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in to show the audio magic.

The first radio as a factory-installed option in a regular production car may have been in 1923 by the Springfield Body Corporation, but it, too, was likely a hodge-podge adapted from a house radio.

Some car and history buffs will point to the 1927 "Transitone" as the first mass-produced car radio.

September 26, 1928, work gets underway at the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation in Chicago, IL. It's interesting to note it was only the day before when the company officially incorporated.

The last of the basic noise problems, allowing the radio to be powered directly from the car battery, were solved by about 1935, greatly simplifying installation.

Motorola introduced the first radio with push-button station presets in 1936.

By 1946 nine million cars on the road had built-in radios.

Gavin Manufacturing eventually changed the name of the company itself to Motorola in 1947.

By 1950, most car radios had all of their electronics in a single box that was mounted behind the dashboard, with an external speaker the only other component.

Then in 1952, the first FM car radio was introduced by Blaupunkt.

By 1953 motorists were introduced to the first AM/FM in-car radio with a station search button that was fully automatic.

Chrysler introduced an in-car phonograph for playing records in 1956 and went into partnership with Columbia Records to produce 7-inch records that could be played from a turntable that slid out from the dash.

Though cassettes were first introduced in 1964, it took at least a decade for them to begin replacing the 8-track in vehicles.

The biggest leap came in 1979 when the Sony Walkman was released, which cemented the audio cassette as the standard media of choice.

In 1981, after earning a college degree, Brettler started working for an electronics retailer, Pacific Stereo, based in Tacoma, Washington.

He spent a year at Pacific Stereo before leaving to join Northwest Auto Sound in 1982.

It was 1984 when Pioneer released the CD player for automobiles.

1987: The first Car Toys store opens in Bellevue, Washington.

Together, these stores generated $9 million in sales in 1991, the year Brettler redoubled his efforts to make Car Toys a leader in customer service.

In 1992 Sony released its "Minidisc". The only difference was the Minidisc was smaller than a regular CD. But the larger version was already too popular to stop.

Car Toys made its first move outside the Pacific Northwest in 1999, opening a store in Denver, Colorado, in March.

2000: One year after entering the Denver market, Car Toys expands into Dallas.

2004: Car Toys ranks as the fifth largest mobile electronics retailer in the country.