If you had a radio of your own as a child or teenager, what model was it?

If you had a radio as a child or teenager, what model was it?

In 1988 when I was 7 years old I got this blue and white Fisher-Price AM/FM radio with microphone:



http://www.thisoldtoy.com/l_fp_set/toy-pages/3000s/3805-amfmradio.html



Yes, the reception wasn't terrific but it also wasn't that bad, and the radio was very easy to use and quite durable (useful for when I accidentally knocked it over!).

I started getting into the habit of listening to the radio at night to help me get to sleep (an Oldies station and Bruce Williams' TalkNet on a News/Talk station of all things- yes, I was 8 years old listening to Bruce give financial advice to people in their 20's and 30's).

I didn't even care about the stupid microphone, I just loved having a radio of my own that I could listen to whenever and wherever I wanted to. I still listen to talk radio of some kind at night to relax.

 

My first one was a General Electric P910D in black (not this girlie color!!) I can't begin to tell you what this little box brought to me when I was 8 or 9 years old. Hiding under the covers with a tiny plastic earbud jammed into my skull slowly turning that dial looking for the latest Beatles tune. Good memories.

 

Transistor radios are still cool! Now they have digital pre-set options and they're even better!

 

General Electric Transistor Radio Deluxe 7 Model P-9001

I had the identical radio as a child. It came with a nice leather case and strap. No idea what became of it after I moved out after high school. It sounded pretty decent to my 8 year old ears, but did go through batteries at a good clip IIRC.

 

Tootaloop. It's an S. It's an O. It's a crazy radio.

 

I had no idea that Dr. Seuss designed radios!

 

I had a few, like a big transistor radio I bought with paper route money in the early 60's. Later, I had a table radio and then a stereo table radio. I think one was a GE and the stereo was an Emerson with a wood case. But I couldn't tell you what models they were to save my life!

 

I had a few radios, but the one I remember the most had a basic sound to light panel on the front. I think my father got it from a family friend who owned a junk shop.

 

I had a small, rectangular, Telefunken portable about the size of 2 or 3 cigarette packs and encased in saddle brown leather. It was a great little radio as I remember!

 

I had several and they likely all said Realistic on them, possible some Archer as well. Not sure what the Shack did with all my money but they should have been well funded for years!

 

I began with a GE table radio then went to a Zenith Trans-Oceanic Royal 1000D, then to a Zenith Trans-Oceanic Royal 3000 (the first such with FM)

 

I'm still surprised they ever made radios with only AM (after FM came into existence). "Yeah, let's make a radio where you can't get the other popular band of stations!".

 

FM then was not a popular medium when Zenith launched the Trans-Oceanic Royal 1000 line in late 1957, no USA made portable radio had FM until 1963. And I bought discontinued models NOS, as these were otherwise $250-$300 portable radios. Most FM then was classical and beautiful music formats. And tape automated.

 

I had a utilitarian GE black and "chrome" AM transistor radio with a faux leather case and a mono-earbud. A few years later I got the same type of radio but with AM and FM.

I was stylin.'

 

I had something that looked like a rocket ship. It had a wire with an alligator clip that you attached to bedsprings at night and an ear bud. No battery or ac power required. Have not seen one in decades.

 

This one?



http://www.neatstuff.net/space-robots/communication-toys.html

 

This was my first radio. Appropriate to post today, too!

 

I had the Panasonic "Panapet" in blue. My older sister had white. AM only.

 

Wow! I kind of like that!

 

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I had a Zenith pocket transistor radio. I also bought a leather case, larger radio, but I don't think it was a very well known brand, but it was powered by a 9V battery, and back in those days those batteries were taller and square and didn't last very long. I also had a cheap, plastic table radio that I think was a GE. All this was before Junior High School. I inherited my Dad's flip top, mahogany RCA record changer with a swell duo-cone speaker in the front. I still have a newer Sony, silver pocket transistor radio that is AM/FM that I bought for $15 off Ebay just because. I also bought a tweed case Crosley old timey radio for nostalgia. It is AM/FM and gets duty for listening to Braves baseball games now and then.

 

I'd be really happy if I got one of those as a gift today!

 

Because AM radio was around for forty years before there was any popular interest in FM broadcasting, and because AM radios were simple and dirt cheap to make and get to work with the crude test equipment of the day whereas FM was much more expensive and difficult to do until integrated circuits came out. A lot of people only wanted AM anyway, including a lot of rural people who only listened to baseball games (KMOX St Louis Cardinals, naturally, were the favored team) or to clear channel hillbilly music on weekend nights and ag reports in the daytime.

 

I had a GE just like this.

 

That's a crystal radio. Free listening to AM radio. More sophisticated ones on long antennas could actually get shortwave stations late at night...or during the day directly drive a Klipschhorn loud enough to be heard in a retail store. (Not with shortwave....it had to be a store within a few miles of a 50 kW AM station.)