To show that I am not always right & that knowledge is progressive
and to support the idea that JAMBOX is a regional word, or belongs to an idiolect, or that it is a term with ephemeral success -- so that at some point it disappeared from usage and wasn't registered by authoritative dictionaries --, it occurs to me to have once seen a Crown CSC 945 referred to as "il giamaicano", i.e., "the Jamaican".
It was a local ad and with that term the seller addressed the units we used to bring to the beach when reggae was all the rage. Such was the success of Peter Tosh, Bob Marley and especially The Police, that in the late 70s/early 80s Italian popstars started singing in like fashion. See the following 1979 hit, the first Italian reggae according to the interviewer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5MawD6KSIY
Speculation: if a connection between "jambox" and the Italian "giamaicano" can be established (for instance, via a partial calque from the American term), then JAM- in jambox would stand for JAMAICAN rather than for JAM as in JAM-SESSION -- which was what I thought of at first, since a boombox invites people to "jam". In other words, the jambox would be the Jamaican box: "il giamaicano."
More speculation: if the above is correct (but remember: so far it's just folk-etymology), and if the term, no matter the incidence of its circuation, was in use in the late 70s when today's midsize boxes were known as Jumbos -- or even Super-Jumbos --, then after all Fun Factor H.O.T. may have a point when he maintains that, at least for him, "boombox" applies only to the big units of late 80s/early 90s:
Contec 8912, late 70s and almost the same size as the Crown CSC 945. One of its aka, the Irradio 8912, is dubbed "Super Jumbo".
Or shoud it read Super Jambox?
The plot thickens and so much is still obscure. For instance, whereas I remember the reggae fever, I have absolutely no memory of any "giamaicano". The ad where I read the term was from around Roma, if memory assists me. Why did the seller use the word? Was he American? Or was he an Italian who had been in contact with somebody (from the US?) who used the word? And so on.
More research is needed, since cultural history is complex. As with the case of an Italian synonimous of boombox I have never come across elsewhere. At least in Sicily, circa 1977-79, people occasionally used the term "satellite" ("satellite"), one may be tempted to say because a box on the shoulder "circles" around his owner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXdwvDjxOkM
Yes and no: given that satellites circles around their planets, here the term must be eponymous. It probably derives from the Grundig Satellit series -- especially the Satellit 4000 Professional, a gorgeous unit and a proper boombox, since the previous models were just radios. Not a common sight in the States, but a familiar one in continental Europe and certainly in Italy, where Grundig was an extremely popular brand back in the day:
Grundig Satellit 4000
To be continued...?
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To be continued!
Look at what Roy Shucker (a real shocker!) writes in the 4th edition of his
Understanding Popular Music Culture. New York and London: Routledge, originally published in 1994 (the quotation is online and can be found via books.google):
So there is more than just one Jamaican connection with the boombox... food for thought...