This week we mark the 38th anniversary of the first cell phone call. It was April 3, 1973 when Martin Cooper of Motorola called his competitor at Bell Labs just to prove he beat them to the punch. Cooper was on a New York street using a portable mobile phone. Cellular consists of towers that hand off the call as you travel. Keeping your call within those smaller zones means less power is used and your battery lasts a longer time. The first commercial cell call was made at Soldier Field in October of 1983 by the head of Ameritech Mobile. He called the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell. When I did talk radio as a youngster, around 1984, I’d get calls from people testing Motorola’s new system here in Chicago. When I interviewed Marty, I asked how long the talk time was on that early 2.5 pound phone. He said it was only 20 minutes, but that was OK, because even the strongest person couldn’t hold the phone up to their ear that long. Mike McConnell interviewed 82 year old Marty Cooper this week on WGN. You can listen to the interview here.

I bought my first cellular phone in 1986. It was a Radio Shack model that cost $1,500. Here’s a commercial for it, although it’s titled 1990.

I remember walking from WGN to the press conference for an exciting new Motorola product in 1994. Watch this commercial and tell me if the Star Tac doesn’t STILL look good for being almost 17 years old!