Aug. 3, 1977: The TRS-80 Is Bad, and That Ain’t Trash Talk

By John C Abell

1977:In a New York City news conference Tandy Corp of Texas announces that it will manufacture the first mass-produced personal computer. The TRS-80, lovingly called the “Trash 80”, would be an early rock star in the PC era and give the flagging Radio Shack franchise bragging rights as “biggest name in little computers.”

The TRS-80 was a desktop machine, woefully underpowered by today’s standards — 4 KB of RAM, (expandable to 16 KB!), a 12-inch monitor, a built-in cassette-based data recorder and BASIC interpreter. Oh, yes, it came with Blackjack and Backgammon.

But the Model I was a staggering success in its day, a time when your choice was either building your own computer from a kit or buying something for thousands of dollars. The Model I was yours for $600 ($2,160 in today’s coin), and all you had to do was plug it in, although it did require three separate AC outlets to power everything up.

This was the dawn of the personal computing age, and nobody quite knew what the rage would be, or even why. There wasn’t much your average non-techie could do or would want to with a computer. And yet, there was something in the air.

HP, IBM and Wang had personal computers out in the early 1970s. The Apple I and II were on the market. Commodore introduced the first self-contained computer earlier in the year and would years later introduce the Commodore 64, the best-selling single personal computer model of all time.

All of this set the table for Tandy, a 50-year-old firm which had only two years before it would shed all its non-core holdings to become exclusively an electronics company.

Radio Shack thought it would sell 600 to 1,000 Model I TRS-80’s in the first year. After all, it was the most expensive item Radio Shack stocked. Buyers had to pre-order, and put down a $100 deposit. But they took 10,000 orders in the first month. Instead of the weeks Tandy thought they’d need to start fulfilling orders, it took months to deliver the first machines. The company sold more than 200,000 units in four years...

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