The CB Radio Revolutionized Communication Between Vehicles, Now It’s Mostly A Forgotten Relic

Don’t you ever wish that you could talk to the drivers in the vehicles in the immediate area? Maybe you want to warn them about a speed trap, tell them about a danger on the road, or just have a voice to talk to during a lonely solo road trip. The technology to do this has existed for the better part of a century, but nowadays it is largely relegated to a niche. The Citizens Band radio revolutionized communications. Now, I’m willing to bet that some of our youngest readers have never even heard of this before.

Back when I was a kid, we “youngins” had a fun way to pass the time on a long trip. We’d grab the microphones of the Citizens Band (CB) radios in our parents’ vehicles and blast out our little squeaky voices into the airwaves. Usually, the recipients of our shenanigans would be truck drivers, and they were often happy to join in on the banter. Sometimes, we kids didn’t even have to say anything, and we just listened to truckers talking to each other. We’d learn some trucker slang and maybe even a few creative swear words along the way.

The CB radio seemed like a device that every car should have had. These were the days before the smartphone, so you didn’t have Google Maps or Waze to warn you about speed traps and hazards. But you did have a friendly voice crackling through your speaker, warning you of a crash ahead. Full dresser touring motorcycles even had CB radios, opening up a whole world of communications decades before helmet comms became a thing.

Despite this, the CB radio has fallen into obscurity. I cannot think of a single new consumer car or truck sold in America that even has the option to be equipped with a CB radio from the factory. I’ve even noticed that the used cars that I buy have fewer and fewer CB radios than before. I have a CB radio in my garage at home, but the only time I ever mount it into a vehicle is when I’m going on a Gambler 500 rally to communicate with other vehicles. By the way, if you have a Gambler 500 rally happening in your town and you have a CB radio, tune to channel 7 and enjoy the chatter.

Anyway, what happened? How did this once revolutionary technology fall by the wayside?

Airwaves For All

The brief nationwide fame and continued use of the Citizens Band radio happened only because of one Irving “Al” Gross. He was born in 1918, and he wasn’t even 10 years old before becoming obsessed with radios.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lemelson-MIT Program explains how Gross made his mark so early in life:

It began in 1927, when Gross was just nine years old, traveling aboard a Great Lakes steamer with his family. While exploring the ship, he came upon the radio operator’s cabin and was immediately intrigued by the radio equipment and crackling noises of the telegraph signals. Gross became hooked on wireless communications, which he foresaw as a vehicle for personal communications.

By 1938, Gross had developed and tested a small portable high-frequency radio with two-way communications features. Gross’s device, which he dubbed a “walkie-talkie,” caught the attention of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (now the Central Intelligence Agency), which recruited him to develop a two-way, air-to-ground radio system for covert use by troops behind enemy lines. These mobile “walkie-talkies” made it possible for the military to conduct a high level of surveillance throughout World War II.

After the war, he set up Gross Electronics Inc. to make 11-ounce walkie-talkie sets for private use. Gross continued to invent mobile personal communications devices, securing 12 patents and developing the discriminatory circuitry that made possible personal pocket paging systems as well as the forerunner of the cell phone and cordless phone.

It’s because of these advancements that Gross is often called the “founding father” of wireless communications.

After World War II, the Federal Communications Commission allocated a set of radio frequencies for public and personal use. Gross was at the forefront of what would become known as the Citizens Band radio, which operated on the Citizens Band Radio Service. Gross started the Citizens Radio Corporation in the late 1940s to develop smaller portable radios.

Early CB radios operated on the 460–470 MHz UHF band, but on September 11, 1958, the FCC created Class D, which designated 23 channels on 27 MHz for use by CB radio operators. Later, as CB radio gained traction, this was expanded to 40 channels across 26.965 to 27.405 MHz.

CB radio was a revolutionary invention. Now, just about anyone could have easy communication with someone else, usually situated no more than a few miles away. Despite that, CB radio didn’t exactly catch on at first. As Ellis County React Emergency Radio Communications writes, the Citizens Radio Corporation sold over 100,000 radios in the early days, mostly to farmers and the Coast Guard. Other buyers of CB radios included enthusiasts looking for an alternative to traditional amateur radio. By the 1960s, a large number of tradesmen and truckers had also adopted CB radios for short-range communications.

The ascension of CB radio was hampered in its early years by the high cost of radio equipment and the relatively low range of early units. CB radio operators also needed to have a license in the early days, though that’s not the case anymore.

Trucking And A Little Rebellion

The meteoric rise of the CB radio happened in the 1970s, and most of what made CB popular actually had nothing to do with the radio format itself.

The 1970s often come up in discussions about major forks in automotive history. By now, just about every car enthusiast can tell you that the United States was hammered by multiple oil crises in the decade in addition to fuel shortages, changing emissions regulations, and what we now call the ‘Malaise Era.’ But it wasn’t all emissions equipment-choked V8s, goofy [Editor’s Note: But effective! – JT] bumpers, and aggressive downsizing. America was also going through a deep trough thanks to a weakened economy, double-digit unemployment, the Vietnam War, and the Watergate scandal. You couldn’t even drive fast because of the then-new nationwide 55 mile per hour speed limit. Two nickels, that’s all you got.

As KRCU Public Radio writes, there were two major catalysts to the rise of the CB radio’s popularity. The first was that the advancement of solid-state electronics technology made CB radios much smaller and cheaper. Major retailers began slinging them to anyone willing to buy one. Soon, you were able to buy portable CB radios from RadioShack and walkie-talkie-style CB radios from Sears.

The second catalyst was the trucking industry. During the fuel crisis, truckers used CB radios to inform each other about where they could find stations that both had fuel and weren’t charging a fortune for it.

Then came the anti-authority twist. Understandably, trust in the government was low and the CB radio was used as a small form of rebellion. CB radio was controlled by the people, and it could be used against the government. Truckers informed any motorist they could about the presence of the Smokey Bear, or a state trooper, to save people from getting tickets. In case you’re curious, the reason why state troopers were called Bears was because their hats resembled the hat worn by the famed bear that tries to convince people to stop setting forests on fire.

In a way, CB radios became a part of what was then America’s counterculture movement, and the truckers who protected drivers on the road became legends. Suddenly, more people wanted in on this sensation, and a whole community and language were formed around the CB radio.

Everyone had a seemingly nonsensical CB radio alias (or “handle”) and an entire code was spoken over the airwaves. As KRCU Public Radio notes, you might have even heard someone saying that “There’s a Kojak with a Kodak at 111.” That’s a reference to Kojak, the police drama, and what would have been Exit 111 on that highway. It’s code to watch out for a speed trap in that area.

America’s CB radio fever pitch hit its peak after the 1975 hit ‘Convoy‘ by C.W. McCall. Pop culture ran with the CB radio fad and soon, Americans would find CB radios in the pages of magazines and books. Those sitting down in front of a screen got to see radios getting heavy use in The Dukes of Hazzard and Smokey and the Bandit. KRCU Public Radio notes that people even bought graphic tees with trucker CB radio lingo on them. The 1970s were a period when truckers were often seen as heroes, and that amplified the popularity of CB radio even more.

The radio station further notes that, along with the pop culture, Americans used CB radio to find connections with like-minded people to help them get through the rough 1970s. Everyone of all races, creeds, genders, religious identities, sexual identities, and more found some sort of home in CB radio communities. Remember, there was no Facebook or Instagram back then. So, if you wanted to share your day, you did it by physically someone, often on your CB radio. CB became so popular that it became a factory option in cars.

The Fall Of The Citizens Band

If this was so great, what happened? As Photojournalist Scott Loftesness writes, what made CB radio so great was also its downfall. CB radios got so cheap that anyone could afford them, and while there was CB radio etiquette, there really wasn’t anything enforcing it.

Some 25 million CB radios were sold between 1974 and 1977 alone. CB radios were so popular that they were a huge profit driver at electronics shops like RadioShack. Put that number against America’s population back then and you’ll realize that about 20 percent of the nation’s adults owned a CB radio. Eventually, this led to the airwaves being choked up by everyone talking at once and stepping on each other.

The CB radio also fell to the same kind of unfortunate circumstance that happens to almost anything that gets “too” popular. It attracted people who ruined the fun by spewing hate and profanity over the airwaves. There was nothing really stopping these people from being awful human beings, either, so if you listened to a CB radio in the late 1970s there was a chance you’d be blasted by hard racism or worse.

[Editor’s Note: Sounds kind of like another very public communications network I can think of. – JT]

Other people ran afoul of CB radio rules. As the Christian Science Monitor reported in 1983, the FCC had to deal with CB radio operators boosting transmitters’ power over the 5-watt limit. Others got their radios to operate outside of the Citizens Band. Both issues resulted in interference with devices outside of the Citizens Band. The FCC still required people to have CB radio licenses during this time, and found that countless people operating CBs in cars and trucks just didn’t have licenses.

A decline in CB radio usage followed. Casual users found the radios just not fun to use anymore. Meanwhile, the FCC faced budget cuts, which led to the end of the CB radio licensing system. As the 1970s became the 1980s, the CB radio trend began fading away, with only certain groups continuing to use them, including truckers and emergency services.

As for everyone else, they had largely moved on, especially as the cellular phone rose in popularity. I still have a Cobra CB radio gathering dust in my garage, only dusted off for Gambler 500 rallies. Be sure to check out this RadioShack ad before you go:

Thankfully, CB radio never truly died. Hobbyists and many truckers still use them, and as I noted earlier, you’ll still find CB radios heavily used in motorsport. You can still buy them for dirt-cheap in big box stores and online. But CB radio will likely remain a niche forever.

It’s a shame that such an important technological development has been relegated to such uses, but that’s the march of time.

The days of people in random two cars shooting trucker lingo at each other are largely gone, but you can still have fun with CB radios. The next time you take a road trip with a bunch of friends, forget the smartphones. Hook up some CB radios and chat with each other the old-school way.

Hat tip to Andrew Martin!