{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Dead Internet Almanac","title":"August 3: Radio Shack Sold the Future in a Mall","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":523,"description":"Radio Shack’s TRS-80 Model I arrived in August 1977 with little fanfare, overshadowed by bomb threats and evacuations in New York. But the small gray computer marked a quiet turning point: a complete personal computer package that ordinary shoppers could buy off a store counter instead of assembling from a kit. With four kilobytes of memory, cassette-tape storage, a monitor, BASIC, and a pair of games, it looked simple — but it invited people into a new ritual of typing, saving, loading, failing, and trying again.\n\nThe TRS-80 did not create the personal computer revolution by itself. Machines like the Altair, Apple II, and Commodore PET were already part of the wave. Its power was distribution: Radio Shack could place a computer inside familiar malls and electronics stores, where customers already came for batteries, radios, and parts. Born from Don French’s belief, Steve Leininger’s engineering, and a company’s uneasy gamble, the TRS-80 helped move computing out of hobbyist circles and into everyday American life.\n\nRead the original article: https://medium.com/@dia_91230/august-3-radio-shack-sold-the-future-in-a-mall-2ad43d5399da\n\nSubscribe to The Dead Internet Almanac: https://buttondown.com/dead-internet-almanac","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/0T0Z9X69zNfYqQ8Z8xV4SB06Vk-a5Z4I4iH6CPQMsiQ/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8yYmJj/OTNlYmM2M2UxYmZl/MDBjZTRiMDlhZTRm/MjI4NC5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}