| Before the Dot-Com bubble there was CB Radio Mania (May 10) |
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Are you are old enough to remember CB radio mania? Long before they had Text Messages, Emails, and Chat Rooms people tried meeting others over the CB radio. They pretended they were Truckers and instead of Text Message Slang, they had CB Slang and Call Signs instead of logon or user names. CB radios were seen in many movies, such as Smokey and the Bandit. Today in Qatar I heard the song “Convoy”, which reminded me of CB radios again. What really stuck in my mind was a date they mentioned in the song, which is actually my Birthday!
CB Radio really took off following the Oil Crisis in 1973. With fuel shortages and a 55 MPH speed limit imposed to save gas, truckers used it to locate fuel supplies and warn each other about speed traps. After seeing CB radios in movies and on TV it seemed like everyone wanted to own one. This is when the CB radio stocks started to take off; similar to Internet stocks in the late 90’s but not to the same extreme. I tried searching the Internet for examples of the ridiculous valuations some of these stocks reached, but since it was well before the Internet I couldn’t find any stories on it. I found out that Cobra Electronics (COBR) was one of the original CB Radio manufacturers, they have been making them for 40 years. Now they have a CB Radio with Bluetooth. The CB Radio craze went on until the early 80’s but then died out because there were too many users jamming the frequencies. A look at the price history of Cobra Electronics shows it peaked in 1983 and has never reached those heights again. On 1/4/80 COBR was $1.44 a share, on 7/26/83 it was $37.25, and now nearly 27 years later it is only $2.51 a share. There were no stock splits during that time. Today it’s a nasty day outside in Qatar. It was 97 degrees at 830 AM, and then by 1100 AM it was pouring down rain with very high winds. Someone said there was a little bit of a sand storm so that made it seem like it was raining mud for a few minutes. So with the horrible weather outside, and after hearing the song Convoy, I’m here inside and remembering the 70’s. So were any of you CB radio users or maybe you saw your parents using one? I wanted to use one myself at the time, but my parents never bought one. So I just had to settle for the Internet when it became available. Have a Nice Day and Keep on Truckin! |
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