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.