One out of how many people?

[Old school Scott]

Fellow enthusiasts, Here is a question for all who can remember the trends of 1979 to 1984.
When I lived in New Haven Conn. {United States} in 1979, I went to an inner city High School and I can remember at least one out of every five people owning some kind of Boom- box. After I moved to Baltimore MD in 1983 to go to art college, I can remember no-one owning a Boom-box at my school ,but everyone had one of those non- mobile joints that look kinda like a big cheesy box but are for the house only. {no batteries or handle}
This could be for fear of being mugged on the street for your Boomer, and I know Boom-boxes were expensive back then so I'm taking a poll.
As far as you can remember from 79 to 84, One out of how many people that you knew owned a Boom-box?


Cheers OSS

 

[MasterBlaster84]

I was a standout in my neighborhood and schools because of my boombox so I would have to guess about 1 out of 100. Keep in mind my boxes were a Sanyo 9902, Pioneer SK-21, Panasonic RX-5100 so no big boys yet I was king of boomers. That's pretty sad and shows that boomers were'nt a big deal in my town.

 

[Fatdog]

Boomboxes weren't a big thing around my neighborhood growing up. Of all the people I knew, only four owned a boombox. In high school, I only remember seeing one other guy who actually brought his boombox to school. I don't remember what it was, but it was definitely bigger than my small Sanyo M9935. He had hooked up Christmas lights to the speakers so they blinked with the music.

 

[ViennaSound]

In Vienna boomboxes at the street were rare every time.

But i remember the holidays in italy at the beach...
Many boxes were around till the mid-90s.
The big boxes are mostly carried by young black people, dancing to the music.

But most of the soundmachines became SANDmachines.
The fine sand and the salty air are not good.

If you would carry around a big blaster at the beach now, wou would be looking like a alien.

 

[Boom Shaka Laka]

In the early-to-mid eighties, I was a middle-aged family man, living a wholesome and respectable life in Rugby, North Dakota.

I don't think I ever saw any boomboxes besides my own. -30°F can be rough on tape belts.

 

[Ken]

Living & going to HS in Naples, Italy as a kid, all the students it seemed had SOME kind of portable cassette player. My folks bought me my first gf-9090 at the Base Exchange. I'd say at least 1 out of every 5 military brats owned a big boomer.

JVC's were the most popular, followed by Sharps...

Turn them up (or DIN cord them together, even better) and you had an instant school dance!

 

[oldskool69]

I was a military brat and EVERYBODY had one of some sort. Didn't matter whether or not we were overseas. Difference was that we all had higher end units as the exchange prices were WAAAAAAYYY better than the civilian sector. JVC, Sharp, Panasonic, Fisher, Toshiba, Sanyo...it didn't matter. We also had the Pioneer's, Sansui's, Sony's et al that took batteries, had handles broke down ino sections but were meant to be at home.