The birth of the Sony Walkman

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2020

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The portable cassette player that brought music-on-the-move to millions of people was launched in 1979. By the time production of the Walkman came to an end 30 years later, Sony had sold more than 220 million machines worldwide. In 2019 Farhana Haider spoke to Tim Jarman, who purchased one of the original blue-and-silver Walkmans.

This programme is a rebroadcast.

(Photo by YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:24.9	searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds.
0:30.9	Hello. Hello and thank you for downloading the Witness History
0:37.4	podcast from the BBC World Service with me for Hana Hiva.
0:41.2	Today we're going back to 1979 when the Japanese electronics giant
0:46.7	Sony launched the Walkman, the portable music player that revolutionized the way that fans listen to their favorite bands.
0:55.0	To have music on the move doesn't seem like a big deal now,
1:01.0	but the concept of personal, portable music didn't exist until the
1:05.5	Sony Walkman came along. It cost $150 and transformed the listening habits of people
1:11.7	around the world.
1:13.0	This is the latest from Japan which the maker say is the smallest stereo cassette player in the world.
1:22.0	They're just such lovely things.
1:23.3	It's this idea that the Japanese have of perfection in miniature.
1:26.7	And when you look at a walkman, it's so tiny,
1:29.1	but the pieces are all so perfect.
1:31.1	Walkman's are one of those things can only be appreciated when reduced to
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.