What Happened to CB Radio - The 1976 Craze That Vanished Overnight

In January 1976, half a million Americans a month were mailing in forms — not for a gun, not for a passport, but for permission to talk on a little box under the dashboard. Twenty-three channels. Four watts. That year, Americans bought around eleven million CB radios. Truckers had them. Housewives had them. Even the First Lady had a handle. Then, almost as fast as it came, it was gone. And it wasn't the cell phone — not at first. The first blow came from Washington, from a rule that was supposed to save CB and instead had stores selling radios for less than they paid for them. From the 1958 birth of the Citizens Band and the nights of "skip," through the oil crisis, the 55 mph limit, Smokey, "Convoy" and the great CB fire sale of 1976 — this is the story of how America got on the air, and why it went quiet. What was your handle — and what radio did you run? Tell me in the comments. I read every one, and I bet some of you talked to each other back then without knowing it. The Garage Years: the stuff American boys built, rode, fixed and blew up between 1950 and 1979 — and why it disappeared. New videos every Tue · Thu · Sat. CHAPTERS 0:00 Breaker one-nine 1:13 Born in 1958 4:21 The 55 and the truckers 5:54 The craze 8:02 The rule that backfired 11:03 Still on the air