Jerry Petraglia

“Hey there good buddy, you got the shortstop here with the hammer down on the Grand Central headin’ to that Jackson Heights town.  How’s it lookin’ over your shoulder?”

Ahhh, yes, the good old days of the mid ‘70’s and early ‘80’s during the CB craze!  At that time, I was a young sales guy calling on physicians, selling clinical laboratory services.  Every day I would commute from my home in northern NJ to my sales territory in Queens, NY. The 20-mile ride usually took 45-minutes due to traffic, etc. 

When I started my sales job in late 1973, I would turn on my car radio and listen to WABC, WMCA, the news/weather/traffic etc.  But then the popular culture of the day suddenly became the CB radio.  Everyone was getting one, and by the mid ‘70’s, there was an entire community of drivers out there that allowed us all to communicate to each other. 

The CB radio craze was ferociously upon us.  Immediately, terms like “10-4 good buddy,” “Bear trap,” “a Smokey,” “Plain brown wrapper,” “I’m 10 and on the side” all became commonplace.  The roadways had become a community where all drivers shared the airwaves and had a respect for the roads and each other (well maybe not in New “Yawk” LOL). 

As we moved into the mid ‘80’s, the CB radio craze died out, only to be replaced by mobile phones. How cool was that! My peers and I at my company all got mobile phones mounted in our cars so that we could respond to customer needs, handle issues in a very timely manner, follow up on new accounts, etc.  It was so amazing to have a phone in the car! 

There was an initial downside, though.   We all used them so much in the first few months (I mean, who wouldn’t?!) that our first bills were coming in close to $1,000 per month – definitely not what upper management had envisioned when they greenlighted the project.  But heck, we were the most responsive sales reps out there!

As the photo here shows, I still have the Cobra CB radio that I used way back when in my car.  I bet the sucker would still work if I plugged it in. But those days are long gone, at least for me!