Realistic (brand)

Realistic "Navaho Pro" Base Station Citizen's Band Transceiver with built-in Clock Timer/Alarm

Realistic STA-240 receiver with a Nikko TRM-800 amplifier

Realistic was a brand produced by Radio-Shack, a division of Tandy Corporation, to market audio electronics for home use. The brand name is no longer in use by RadioShack and was largely discontinued by the early 1990s. The company's most notable products under the Realistic brand included the extensive line of TRC series Citizen's Band Radio Transceivers, which dominated the CB Radio market during the 1970s, and included the famous Navaho series of CB Base Station units. A 1977 motion picture entitled Handle with Care was actually sponsored at the time by Tandy Corporation, in part to showcase the Realistic line of CB Radios. Also notable were their 8 Track recorders under the TR- model line and their compact cassette decks under the SCT- model line. They are also the company responsible for the famous Realistic Mach speaker line. A very wide range of products was marketed under the Realistic brand. These included stereo receivers, cassette decks, ham radios^[1], musical synthesizers and a few quadraphonic receivers. The brand was officially discontinued in 2000 after RadioShack entered an agreement with RCA to market their products; however, the marketing of the brand was very little since the early 1990s. The brand began in 1954 under the name realist, but subsequently changed the name after being sued.

Optimus

In the early 1990s, the brand began to change their name to Optimus. Both Realistic and Optimus have since been discontinued.

References

1. ^ http://www.repeater-builder.com/radio-shack/radio-shack-index.html

External links

• RadioShack / Realistic Catalog Archive (1939-2005)

• http://www.audiocircuit.com/index.php?c=REA