Hey Bill, I guess we gotta talk to these guys about getting a GF-777. Thanks Dean, for presenting this TML Breakers family photo, circa 1983. The patriarch of course, is that silver square dude in the middle. Original photo courtesy of Jamel Shabazz.

Phil from across the pond offers this gorgeous system, a Sharp GF-575. Size may matter when talking about ghettoblasters, but you gotta appreciate the elegant design of this model. And boy, is it feature-laden. It offers AM/FM/SW and LW band coverage, Dolby NR and twin cassettes! Button location is totally up front, no controls on the top or sides. We’ve also got separate left and right mic jacks and additional speaker jacks in the back. Phil is proud to say he receieved this from family for free, and it’s in perfect working order. Looks to be near blemish-free, too. Thanks Phil.

Look familiar? That’s right…another Sharp, looks almost like the one above. The picture at left is a publicity shot for Wild Style provided by our buddy Dean up in Boston. He’s a terrific resource for several of the photos you see on the site and he’s a knowledgeable source for the subject. Original photo courtesy of Henry Chalfant/James Prigoff.

Toby, vintage synth aficionado has an appreciation for the likes of this Pioneer SK31. Features include line in/out, L&R mic in, mix mic in, wired remote jack, speaker out, tuning/level/bat meters, tape counter with start and end buttons, tape memory repeat, music search, ext antenna in. From Toby: “Rescued from a garage sale…unbelievably crusty dirty tape mechanism. Capstan looked like a totally rust encrusted mess. Nope, just an amazing layer of tape filth.”

The 1982 Docu-drama Wild Style is arguably the only classic hip-hop film in existence. This scene depicts a happy guy enjoying his boombox during a live concert at a private party. No, it doesn’t make sense to me either, but it does indeed depict the quintessential urban scene in the early ’80s. I wish I could’ve experienced it, but I was only 11 at the time and my Mom wouldn’t let me go into the South Bronx by myself. That stereo is one of the holy grails, a JVC RC-M70JW/C.

This Sharp is probably the most famous dual-cassette systems, having graced countless music videos, album covers and advertisements. The GF-777 (aka GF-777Z) graced the back of Run DMC’s debut album and has eluded us for quite some time now, placing it in the Holy Grails list. Bill provided this pic and a plea to find one–he’s an avid boombox collector and sells them occasionally, too. Check our classifieds area for more info. UPDATE (courtesy of Ed): “the GF-777Z had an earlier model, the GF-767 with less features and blue speaker covers (this was the actual radio that was captured on the back of Run DMC’s first album). Now most importantly its other REAL holy grail relative was the GF-909 which was the same GF-777 but it was a production prototype only sold in Japan. The difference was that system’s text was in Japanese and the speakers were all black.” Thanks Ed!

Incorporating TV audio into personal stereos was a short-lived fad in which I, too became caught up. Not until I spotted this Pioneer system up for sale in Japan did I realize the fad reached boomboxes, too. This SK-80 also uses some funky dials, rather than the traditional switches for mode selection.

What do you get when you mix Breakin’, Flashdance, Lorenzo Lamas, a troupe of awful actors and a 20 foot boombox? Well, you’ve got yourself the finest piece of cinematography of all time, the film that swept the ’84 Oscars, Body Rock.

Anyone who’s owned one of these magnificant systems will admit to the curse of the near-instantaneous consumption of batteries. Energizer naturally used a boombox to poise itself as the battery brand of choice for these systems. We were ecstatic to find this commercial lodged between late night movies on an old VHS tape. While we can’t determine the make or model on this system, it’s easy to see that boomboxes had reached mass appeal in 1983 when they wind up as the center of attention in a little girl’s slumber party.