Was the A-501 created in 2013?

No. The registered object is dated 1959; 27 August 2013 is its heritage-registration date.

Why do museum dimensions differ?

The records describe different institutional objects and may use different measurement conventions. The evidence read does not establish a single cause.

GoldStar A-501: Four Different Dates

By Biography Compass Editorial TeamPublished 27 October 2026

The short answer

A radio can have a manufacturing date, an advertisement date and a heritage-registration date. Reading those records together explains an industrial milestone without turning every date into a founding date.

Original source-reading framework

One model, several records

Keep the event and evidential object attached to each date.

Original editorial synthesis; no historic advertisement or radio image reproduced.
Country	What the record establishes	What requires another record
Company history	1958 organisational establishment.	Exact production day of each specimen.
Technical case study	1959 product release and technical description.	Independent measurement of every impact claim.
Advertisement	A message published on 20 December 1959.	Sales and household ownership.
Heritage registration	Registration of a particular object in 2013.	An invention in that registration year.

Chronology

A timeline of the turning points

1958
Company
GoldStar established.
15 November 1959
Product
A-501 release dated by the science case study.
20 December 1959
Advertisement
Dated Chosun Ilbo advertisement preserved in institutional history.
27 August 2013
Heritage entry
Registration of the A-501 (2013-2) object.

Start with the object and the institution describing it

The Korea Heritage Service records GoldStar Radio A-501 (2013-2) as a movable registered cultural heritage object. Its owner and manager are the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History. The entry gives a production period of 1959 and registration on 27 August 2013. The model name identifies a kind of radio; the registration suffix identifies a particular entry. Begin a research note with both. Otherwise a statement about one preserved object can quietly become a claim about all radios made under that model name, or a registration date can be mistaken for the year the product was invented.

Sources for this section: [4]

Company establishment and product production are different clocks

LG Electronics’ corporate history dates GoldStar’s establishment to 1958 and its first radio to 1959. The detailed founder narrative also distinguishes the company’s October 1958 establishment from the following year’s A-501. This resolves a common compression in short biographies, including a brief founder chronology that places GoldStar under 1959. An enterprise must organise technical work before it can release a product. When recording the dates, use separate event labels: company established, product developed or released, and later corporate name changed. A date attached to one event cannot automatically fill all three fields.

Sources for this section: [3] · [1] · [2]

The technical case study identifies a manufactured receiver

The government’s 2015 science-and-technology case book describes the A-501 as a five-valve radio released on 15 November 1959. It explains the designation through AC power, five valves and the first model. Its discussion includes component localisation, reception and low-voltage conditions. These details make the product more concrete than the broad phrase “Korea’s first radio.” They concern a manufactured receiver and its technical setting, rather than the beginning of radio broadcasting or the discovery of radio waves. The case was prepared long after production and identifies LG Electronics as the responsible institution; its celebratory framing remains visible.

Sources for this section: [6]

An advertisement establishes what was presented to buyers

The National Institute of Korean History reproduces a GoldStar radio advertisement from the Chosun Ilbo dated 20 December 1959. Its discussion draws attention to the way domestic technology and a consumer product were presented to the public. The dated advertisement is evidence that this message was circulating by that day. It does not establish that every reader bought a receiver, that all advertised claims were tested independently, or that the advertisement appeared on the first day of production. Advertising can be read as an artefact of selling and aspiration, with its audience and medium kept in view.

Sources for this section: [7]

Two catalogues do not necessarily describe the same specimen

The Modern Design Museum’s A-501 entry, published through Google Arts & Culture, lists GoldStar as creator and 1959 as the date. It records dimensions of 40 by 17 by 17 centimetres. The heritage entry gives 42.2 by 14.4 by 18 centimetres for its registered object. Do not average these values or infer that the model changed size over time. The institutions may hold different specimens, measure different extremities or use different conventions. An exact comparison requires object identifiers, the order of axes and a statement of what was measured. The model label alone is insufficient.

Sources for this section: [5] · [4]

Manufacture, design and business sponsorship have different authors

A museum creator field naming GoldStar identifies the manufacturing organisation. The Korean-language Design Museum entry also discusses designer Park Yong-gui, while LG’s founder history describes Koo In-hwo’s decision to support electronics. These attributions concern different work. The founder backed a new business; designers developed the product’s appearance and use; engineers and production workers made the receiver function and repeatably produced it. A biography can connect these contributions without replacing the manufacturer with one executive’s name. When quoting a catalogue, retain the exact role rather than treating every credited person as the sole inventor.

Sources for this section: [5] · [1]

A surviving radio preserves evidence, not a complete market census

The object’s survival lets institutions study its materials, layout and manufacturing marks. The registration record also shows that a public institution judged it worth preserving as heritage. Neither fact supplies a production total, a market share or the number of households that could afford one. A claim about access would need prices, wages, distribution and household ownership records for a defined period. A claim about technical independence would need a component-level account. The useful conclusion is narrower and still substantial: the A-501 provides material evidence for an early Korean consumer-electronics manufacturing programme.

Sources for this section: [4] · [6]

Exercise: repair a confused museum caption

Consider this fictional caption: “LG was founded on 27 August 2013 when Koo In-hwo invented broadcasting. The A-501 was advertised on 20 December 1959, so that was its first production day. Every surviving model measures exactly 40 centimetres wide.” Rewrite it as four short statements, each naming an event or object and the source that establishes it. Then identify the evidence needed to decide whether the two catalogues describe the same physical receiver. The exercise tests the relationship between labels, dates and claims; it does not require access to the original photographs or reproduction of the historic advertisement.

Sources for this section: [4] · [7] · [5] · [3]

Reference answer: label each clock and preserve the open question

GoldStar was established in 1958; the receiver dates to 1959, with the science case book giving release on 15 November. A newspaper advertisement appeared on 20 December 1959. The particular heritage object was registered on 27 August 2013. Those are four different events. Nothing in the registration establishes the invention of broadcasting. The museum dimension statement must remain attached to its specimen, while the heritage dimensions remain attached to the registered object. To settle the specimen question, seek accession numbers, provenance and measurement notes. A useful caption can state the industrial milestone clearly while leaving that narrower question open.

Sources for this section: [3] · [6] · [7] · [4] · [5]

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Connected biographies

People and institutions

South KoreaBusiness

1907–1969

Koo In-hwo

LG founder and manufacturing entrepreneurKoo In-hwo built a manufacturing enterprise from cosmetics, plastics and household goods, then backed the electronics business that became LG Electronics.Read biography

South KoreaBusiness

1925–2019

Koo Ja-kyung

Second chairman of LG and education-foundation leaderKoo Ja-kyung led LG from 1970 to 1995 after two decades in its manufacturing operations, supporting research, overseas plants and professional management.Read biography

Quick answers

Common questions

Was the A-501 created in 2013?: No. The registered object is dated 1959; 27 August 2013 is its heritage-registration date.
Why do museum dimensions differ?: The records describe different institutional objects and may use different measurement conventions. The evidence read does not establish a single cause.

Primary and institutional sources

How this history was checked

Original corporate, museum and institutional records establish the dated facts. The reading exercises and diagrams are original editorial work. This article was reviewed on 27 October 2026.