Fast Forward to Millenium

I wanted to Fast Forward to the Millenium because I have a small portable AM/FM stereo which I have sentimental feeling for.  This radio I have used in the past extensively and I would rate this radio as excellent due to it's sensitivity and long life performance.  SONY SRF-49.

The radio uses only 1 AA battery which I strongly recommend Alkaline for long use without the chore of changing the battery.

When I first started using this radio I was not very impressed due to I was not spending much time with broadcast radios as I usually do.  I was listening and learning more about shortwave listening.   As I listened to shortwave radio I was learning about DX and sunspot cycles.  I was living in a time and era just before when broadband internet was taking OFF.
I remember when 1.5MB/sec was the standard premium speed we could get.   It was just about the same as it costs now.

Anyways, something happened in the family which required me to spend large amounts of time being at a place for extended periods of time doing nothing and catching up on sleep.   I was also at an emotional stressed period.   I would spark up this SONY walkman radio and listen to the radio for long periods of time til I would dose OFF.  This would help me learn and appreciate the system of Broadcast Radio Syndication.  I was learning more about the different shows on the radio dial and when the times were and when I could catch them broadcasting.  It was very dark depressing era of my life as well.  The radio sure kept my mind off of the current sate of affairs.

As time went by, my schedule was getting me used to the night shift.   When I got home I would spark up the SONY SRF-49 radio and I soon discovered the joy of late night radio reception of the AM broadcast band stations.   With it, I was listening to stations as far as Texas.   This truly amazed me.   How could a small pocket radio such as this be receiving those radio stations.  Of course as I recall the true nature of the night sky and the engineering that goes into designing a receiver such as the SRF-49.

I have some plans some day to refurbish the SRF-49.   I spoke to an RF engineer one day long ago and we discussed the thought of replacing the components such as the capacitors with higher different type.  It does make sense to do that.  I hope it is really worth it.

During the time I was discovering the world of late night radio, I was listening to interesting topics and discussions.  Some of these topics were of political and or social commentary and some were of the conspiracy theory as well.  Since I was working during the night shift every night, I had thought of finding a radio I could listen to at work.  I searched the shelves of many of the electronic stores.   Back then their were still a few which I miss.   It was a time when we had a selection and choice of who we can patronize.  I find it more comforting to pay a little more for great service and quality stock, then to pay bottom dollar and get treated like another number and wondering if the item was returned.

During this search I came a cross a nice feature full radio which I thought was going to be the last radio I will ever buy.  It was a radio shack branded radio model SP-808. I couldn't find any pictures of it.  It had AM/FM shortwave and TV tuning.  For me at the time I thought that was enough. I didn't need any more radio than that.   I was disappointed shortly after purchasing this radio.  I don't think this reflects on the tandy manufacturing, but on the management culture of radio shack. For some reason, every time I purchase a nice radio at radio shack I find that the radios are either used or damaged in some way.  I am not making this up.  The real reason why I returned the SP-808 radio, is I found battery acid in the battery compartment. If not, I would have kept it.  I remember the manager wanting only to give me 10% discount.  Wow, a damage item and selling it for 10% off.    At this time during the turn of the century 2000, radio shack was ending their reign in selling radios.  I do miss their selection.

I shortly there after gave up on a shortwave portable radio and found the SONY ICF-24.

This is nice radio for it has decent sensitivity, but it is definitely not for FM DXing.   Funny thing I never got to experiment with was AM DXing.    It has the standard size ferrite bar antenna.  One thing I do have to note that I used this radio extensively at work and the location was in a rural area of the Santa Monica Mountains.  I guess that explains the sensitivity issues I thought was important to overcome.

The favorite thing I listened to on this radio was the Jim Ladd Show on KLOS 95.5FM.    Jim Ladd's show was well done. It is a shame not to hear him on the radio anymore.  I pray he gets back up and gets his own Sindicated radio show.   More radio DJs need to learn from him.  Every night, Jim would have a theme set to all the songs he played.  It made listening to the music truely enjoyable.  It was kinda like watching a movie.  There was a story line behind the music set he would play.   Jim Ladd's show really helped pass the time at work nightly.   When all you have are four walls around you, the radio really helps in softening the walls.  I got to set aside time to watch a few concerts of big names, because of the listening to Jim Ladd's radio show.

This is all I have for now. I want to next talk about how radio kept me informed and company during the first gulf war.

Early Radio Listening (Continued)

I want to add more thoughts and insights regarding my GE Transistor AM/FM Radio since it was an item which kept me company through Jr. High School and half of High School. It was my link to the world.  There were so many stations and not enough time to listen to them all.

As I said in my last post blabbering about listening to AM top 40 music,  I later learned about the world through FM radio.  This was where things started change.   The local top 40s music station KCAQ Q105 (104.7FM) was the station I listened to.   I would have that radio on almost have the day.  It was on most of the evening till the wee hours of the morning sometimes, especially during the summer.  I guess that is why the battery never lasted very long.  I would fall asleep with the radio on and realize the battery was dead in the morning.

Some of my favorite songs I remember listening to on my GE transistor radio were 'Eyes without a Face' by Billy Idol, 'Save a Prayer' by Duran Duran, 'Borderline' by Madonna, 'We got the Beat' by the Go Gos and 'Who can it be Now' by Men at at Work.   To this day I have listened to the songs in stereo and it is not the same.

I would not only listen to top 40 music, but I would also like to listen to Rock music as well.  There is a radio station in Santa Barbara I used to listen to for Rock Music which is KTYD 99.9FM

For some reason that monotone tinny sound from the radio is what I expect whenever I hear certain songs.   I have this effect when I listen to the Album 'Affection' by Lisa Stansfield.   I used to play the tape back in 1990 on a cheap AM/FM radio cassette player I got while in military station transition from Georgia to Germany. The barracks walls and the tinny speakers had that certain sound.  Sound acoustics in those old German Barracks were awesome.

Anyways I don't want to loose track of the subject here.  As I got into High School my music taste changed drastically and I was getting into the punk rock and alternative music.  Radio stations in Oxnard were not playing punk rock or alternative music.  My GE transistor radio was not picking up the stations I loathed for.  KROQ in Pasadena was too far to get reception.  I even tried extending the antenna with a long wire or FM antenna,  it was found to be a difficult task.   I was always jealous of another friend I had who lived in a two story house. He had an FM antenna hooked up to his radio and I believe he probably listened to KROQ with it.

The only time I could enjoy listening to KROQ was when I would join my mother and father on their trips down to Chula Vista.  We would drive through Los Angeles for about 25 to 30 minutes. At that time I would quickly turn the radio on and listen.

When I got into listening to punk rock music that was a whole new world.  At that time the only station I was able to listen to punk rock was the Santa Barbara College station KCSB 91.9FM.  It was funny.  I remember my friend showing a flyer two all the people we hung out with.  It was Xeroxed hand written and drawn flyer about the new punk rock music show on saturday nights from 9pm to 12 midnite or something like that.  This radio station I was able to receive on my GE transistor radio.   I soaked up all that music and it slowly and surely had a big influence on how I saw the world.

As the years went by, listening to the punk rock music took it's toll and interest slowly but surely faded and radio listening would take on a new form with the discovery of FM Stereo.  FM Stereo at that time was crack cocaine to my ears.  I could not get enough of it. The song 'Be Near Me' by ABC fed my ears with bliss.   I didn't know what the song was about, but the separation of channels from left to right was ecstacy to my ears.  I had had a steady job as a fry cook and I saved enough for a walkman type radio.  It was a SANYO RP-45 AM/FM radio.  It's amazing I was able to find an image of this radio.

I enjoyed this radio for a short brief time which, I enjoyed it as much as I could.  I had some challenges due to one of our house cats liked to sneak and take it for a run.  He like to chew on the foam.  I was so pissed OFF.  I had no way of replacing the foam covers.  There were no replacement foam covers available for this model.  Buying a new set of headphones were out of the question.  It would cost about $15 dollars at that time.  That was quite a bit of money in 1985 with a wage of $3.25 an hour.

Early radio listening

When I was a young kid I remember listening to to the baseball game my father listened to on his National Panasonic Transistor radio Model R-441B.  It is a Gem. The sensitivity on it is awesome.  None of my shortwave radios I have now compare to it.  I still have it to this day.  It is very vintage.  It has been aged well since the radio was listened to when my father would work on the car, garden or home renovations. It also stood on the family book shelf.

I remember my father listening to the Dodgers games with Vin Scully announcing the play by play action.  "It's a swing and a miss...."  or KNX radio news.  He would listen to KNX news radio every day as well.

It's funny the old 70's jingles  on the radio are still in my memory.  During the 70's, Travel Lodge motels were still a big chain at the time.
"Look for a Travel Lodge, get a good night sleep and the price won't keep, you awaayyyy....".

In Ventura County Oxnard we had a Ford Dealership which had a jingle I can't seem to forget.
"Eleven Eleven Oxnard Boulevard, Tom Coward Ford is the place to be, Tom Coward Ford is Oxnard's 'little Detroit'...

Sears! Sears! Sears! Where America Shops!

As the years went by, I remember when my parents were at work I would listen to the radio tuned to Los Angeles KTNQ 1020 "The New Ten Q."

It's funny back then I was not very technically minded, I remember seeing notches with a grease pencil on the radio dial.  My father had his favorites as we had ours too.  The notches were there because we never knew how to operate a radio and what all those numbers meant. We must have frustrated my father.  The grease notch for KNX stayed on that dial for along time. When I would tune the radio, I would start from one end of the dial to the other till I heard the station I was looking for.  That took some time.  I was only 6 so give me some slack.

The very first radio I had the privilege to briefly own was a nice "dumpster dive" find.   I didn't know the term "dumpster diving" until I was in my 30s.  My friend who lived outside of the neighborhood I lived in had a mother who dumpster dived frequently.  I was always impressed by how she would find so much and furnished their apartment.
Anyways, I remember after finding it and bringing it home I held that radio as the big kids held their boomboxes.  I thought I could be cool like the neighborhood kids around who carried Boomboxes back then.  I remember how it was kosher to hold the boom box a certain way.  You had to hold the boombox at the very end with one corner of the radio hanging downward.  I look back at it and it seems strange.
Needless to say, I didn't have the radio but for a few days.  My parents found out where I got it, and demanded I put it back where I found it.  This has scarred me almost to this day.  Whenever I speak of this I get rattled up.  To throw away a radio is a SIN.

A few years later for my 13th birthday my parents decided to treat me with shopping for a present.  I picked out a GE Transistor Radio very similar to Model 7-25820 AM/FM.  The model I got did not have a belt clip, it only had a hand strap  This radio was my companion for quite some time.

I think when I got this radio, the world of broadcast radio really caught my idol worship.  It was a nice radio.  I began to see my world through this radio.  I learn about the world around me through this radio.  It played the soundtrack to many of my pre-adolescent days.  It's funny, I went through so many earphones listening to this radio.  I was blessed that the Navy Exchange at that time had a generous return policy. I also went through some batteries as well.  I would have to beg and plead to my parents for money to buy a battery.  I remember they would only give me enough for a cheap heavy duty battery.  Those were just over a dollar.  The batteries didn't last very long especially when listening to FM.  AM listening would help the battery last much longer.  I didn't notice that in the beginning since I listened to AM only at first.  I think at that time, XEAK-AM "the Might 690" top 40 radio station was the thing.  During that time top 40 music on AM was very common and still profitable.

This is all for now.  This is a brief start of my idol worship of broadcast radio and my interest in broadcast receiver radios. I want to thank the people who are selling these radios on ebay.  These radios are up for auction on ebay.

Greetings and Hello.

I started this Blog because I want to rant about how I love radio listening.  I think I've had this obsession of it after assembling an AM/FM radio while in technical college. The fascination came after I learned to appreciate how a radio transmitter and receiver works.  It has been a very long time since I put an AM/FM radio together from scratch but I will again someday.

With the convenience of WiFi & satellite radio, most people think that broadcast radio is old and a retired technology.  The funny thing is, it still a continuous way of commerce and communication. There are still more radio stations out there I have not listened to.

This is just a brief intro.  I will be blabbing next about my early life radio listening and how my life was affected.