In 1938, while still in high school, an 18-year-old amateur radio operator from Cleveland named Al Gross invented the walkie-talkie.

During WWII, Gross worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, in developing a secret long-range wireless communications system for military intelligence use. After the war, the FCC based its creation of the Citizens Radio Service Frequency Band (1946) on Gross' wartime wireless work.

Gross formed a company called Citizens Radio Corp. to produce two-way radios for personal use. Two years later, Gross' company was the first to receive FCC approval for making consumer radios using the new so-called "Citizens' Band" using shortband 226-27 MHz frequencies. Cartoonist Chester Gould was so taken with the idea that he asked Gross if he could borrow the idea, resulting in Dick Tracy's two-way wrist radio.

Initially, CBs were used primarily by military, marine and emergency services. It took 25 years – for the gasoline shortage, a truckers' strike and a pop song called "Convoy" by C.W. McCall in the mid-1970s – to bring CB to the mass public's attention. It then became the biggest electronics fad of the decade.

In 1976, CB sales hovered around 11 million units, but after the FCC expanded the band to 40 channels and banned the sale of 23-channel units after December 21, 1977, sales declined.

Today, CB still is popular, especially in the form of handheld, battery-operated units for use in emergency situations. Person-to-person communication has been enhanced with the 1996 allocation of UHF-based family radio service (FRS) frequencies, 14 channels and 38 sub-channels, along with the more powerful 16-channel General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS), all operating within the 460-MHz band, which enables CB-style communication for users within one to five miles of each other, depending on local topography.