Technical Explanations for the CB Radio Craze?

[Dan Albert]

I hope you CB experts can help me: I'm writing a book about car culture, which of course includes the CB radio craze of the 1970s (we bought ours in 1976!).

I know all about the external reasons -- 55 mph, Jonathan Demme film, etc. -- but I hope I'm not missing some technical change that might explain this sudden explosion. All I really know is that the FCC added to the 40 channels in 1977.

Did radios suddenly become cheaper thanks to some technical change?
Did they suddenly get easier to use?

 

[RatsoW8]

All those reasons plus. They were always easy to use but when the craze hit they became cheaper and easier to buy. You could buy one at any truck stop, Radio shack, JC Penny, Sears, Kmart, Montgomery Wards, etc. Everyone one was making them. My first CB had to be ordered directly from Lafayette electronics.

 

[Road Squawker]

yeah,.. I think that "Hot Coffee" was the real attraction,............... jus sayin

 

[fourstringburn]

The song "Convoy" and the Smokey and the Bandit movies are worth noting for popularizing CB use. That lead to the CB slag which sounds stupid today if you used it now on the air.

CB became easier to use when they became smaller during the solid state transistor explosion in the late 60's. This made it easier for portable and mobile use. If you look at older CB's like the Brownings, they were separate transmitter and receiver boxes. Now they are all one unit instead of 2 separate pieces, hence the modern term, "Transceiver".

The newer solid state radio's are cheaper to build and with mass production from many manufactures due to the public demand back then, made them easily affordable.

Here is a good link to read:

http://www.wearecb.com/cb-radio-frequencies-channels.html

 

[fourstringburn]

yeah,.. I think that "Hot Coffee" was the real attraction,............... jus sayin[/QUOTE

???

 

[Dan Albert]

???

Hot Coffee kis the hookers in Citizens Band the movie. When she complains business has slowed her last regular customer buys her an RV so she can meet truckers on the road.

 

[space cowboy]

sex. everything's about sex.

 

[Road Squawker]

Hot Coffee is the hooker in Citizens Band: the movie......

exactly!

 

[fourstringburn]

Hot Coffee kis the hookers in Citizens Band the movie. When she complains business has slowed her last regular customer buys her an RV so she can meet truckers on the road.

Never saw the movie or heard of it, sounds like I missed an Oscar winning picture back in the day.

Thanks for explaining.

 

[RatsoW8]

yeah,.. I think that "Hot Coffee" was the real attraction,............... jus sayin

And lot lizards ?

 

[Road Squawker]

Smokey and the Bandit was a movie that used CB radio.
Citizens Band:the movie was a movie about CB radio

 

[fourstringburn]

And lot lizards ?

Also called Recreational reptiles, coin operated Beavers, sleeper leapers, horizontal highway hostesses and probably a few more names out there I can't recall.

 

[fourstringburn]

Smokey and the Bandit was a movie that used CB radio.
Citizens Band:the movie was a movie about CB radio

You make want to hurry up home and see if CB radio the movie is on Netflix.

 

[space cowboy]

You make want to hurry up home and see if CB radio the movie is on Netflix.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handle_with_Care_(1977_film)

The movie was originally released as Citizens Band, and was later released in an edited version as Handle with Care. In the film, all of the cast of characters are known by their CB "handles" (nicknames).

 

[Road Squawker]

You make want to hurry up home and see if CB radio the movie is on Netflix.

actually, I am at home,.... and I already know how it ends, unless it changed in the last 30 or so years.