{"id":10122,"date":"2019-07-01T15:01:16","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T05:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vintagefm.wpengine.com\/?p=10122"},"modified":"2022-08-23T11:03:47","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T01:03:47","slug":"the-sony-walkman-turns-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vintagefm.com.au\/?p=10122","title":{"rendered":"The SONY Walkman Turns 40!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"713\" src=\"https:\/\/vintagefm.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/sony_walkman_010719.jpg\" alt=\"SONY Walkman\n\" class=\"wp-image-10132\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vintagefm.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/sony_walkman_010719.jpg 800w, https:\/\/vintagefm.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/sony_walkman_010719-600x535.jpg 600w, https:\/\/vintagefm.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/sony_walkman_010719-300x267.jpg 300w, https:\/\/vintagefm.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/sony_walkman_010719-768x684.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption>The Sony Walkman was introduced to the world on July 1, 1979.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It has been 40 years since July 1, 1979 &#8211; The day SONY released the &#8216;Walkman TPS-L2&#8217; in Japan. The portable stereo music playback machine could be held in one hand or clipped to a belt, held standard audio cassettes and changed the way we listened to music!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Walkman was not the first portable music system, however. Small transistor radios grew popular in the 1950s, but their main drawback was that the listener was only able to pick up broadcasted stations, meaning they had no choice on what they were going to listen to; it was whatever playlist the disc jockey had decided on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Walkman came about when SONY needed to create a way for their co-founder Masaru Ibuka to listen to opera music on his next international flight. Instead of starting from scratch, SONY took something of theirs already in existence &#8211; the TCM-100B Pressman tape recorder (mainly used by journalists), removed the recording circuitry, added stereo amplifiers and two headphone ports (so two people could listen together), plus a pair of lightweight, foam-encased stereo headphones &#8211; and the Walkman was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" data-id=\"10135\" src=\"https:\/\/vintagefm.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Sony-TCM-100B-Cassette-Corder-Walkman-Recorder-Kassettenspieler-working.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10135\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vintagefm.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Sony-TCM-100B-Cassette-Corder-Walkman-Recorder-Kassettenspieler-working.jpg 300w, https:\/\/vintagefm.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Sony-TCM-100B-Cassette-Corder-Walkman-Recorder-Kassettenspieler-working-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption>SONY Pressman Tape Recorder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"539\" height=\"733\" data-id=\"10134\" src=\"https:\/\/vintagefm.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/sony_tps-l2_01.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10134\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vintagefm.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/sony_tps-l2_01.jpg 539w, https:\/\/vintagefm.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/sony_tps-l2_01-221x300.jpg 221w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 539px) 100vw, 539px\" \/><figcaption>SONY Walkman in it&#8217;s leather case<br\/>Photo: The Walkman Archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It wasn&#8217;t always called a Walkman outside of Japan. In Sweden, it was named <em>Freestyle<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>Stowaway<\/em>&nbsp;in the UK, and&nbsp;<em>Soundabout<\/em>&nbsp;in the US. But on a visit to SONY in Paris, the SONY Chairman was asked by an employee&#8217;s children when they could get their&nbsp;<em>Walkman<\/em>, and the Japanese name stuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Did you have a Walkman? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It has been 40 years since July 1, 1979 &#8211; The day SONY released the &#8216;Walkman TPS-L2&#8217; in Japan. The portable stereo music playback machine could be held in one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":10132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[352],"tags":[864,336,859,857,863,861,860,858],"class_list":["post-10122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-864","tag-history","tag-pressman","tag-sony","tag-stereo","tag-tape-player","tag-tape-recorder","tag-walkman","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>On This Day: The SONY Walkman Turns 40! - Vintage FM<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It has been 40 years since SONY released the &#039;Walkman TPS-L2&#039;. 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