Just got an Emerson TV clock radio
 

Found this Emerson BCR 45 A TV clock radio at the thrift store for $3, and could not resist getting it. It is from 1985. When I first powered it up, the TV had a full raster and the clock worked but there was no audio. All I had to do was use tuner cleaner on the radio/tv and am/fm switches, that brought back the audio.

I plan on plugging it into a digital TV tuner and waking up to the news/weather.

Those are neat!

I have a GE one that cost me $5 at the swap meet...and has NOTHING wrong with it. I like it in the bed's headboard cabinet because of it's button on top for "sleep". You touch it once and the set will run for 59 minutes. Nice when I don't feel like bringing up a big LCD set in the bedroom. Also nice for listening to AM talk radio and it doesn't stay on ALL night. I have a Magnavox one that took a little cleaning to get going...but also works and looks nice now. Both are 4" B/W sets. The GE is a blue LED and the Maggie is a blue VFD. Both get PHENOMENAL AM reception for some reason....and I can listen to KFI (am) from Los Angeles...in San Diego.

I love Clock/radio TV sets. They are by definition "daily drivers"...and I love having sets that still have some task to fulfill :-)

Yeah, I had a "Blue" GE as well, & I think mine was from '84, '85 or '86.. I WISH I could remember what I did w/it now..

How is the build quality on those things? I have looked at them on Ebay but was not sure about getting one. Now that I have an agile modulator hooked to a converter box I am getting back into the small screen sets.

The build quality on mine was fine. GE, typically, made pretty good stuff, or so I've found...

Considering they sorta came and went all within the late 70's and 80's....they are put together relatively well. The Magnavox one I have resembles the little standalone "Shadow" 4 inch sets of the late 80's. I'm pretty sure both of mine are from the mid 80's.

I think they survive pretty well because they are not really portable...so you won't find them "tossed around" and banged up like most "micro" sets. Both mine are absolutely pristine, and that Emerson up there looks to be as well. They likely sit on a shelf in a bedroom for ten or twenty years...and then got replaced by a color TV....and then an LCD. I've only seen "dusty" and dirty pots really. As I mentioned before...they seem to have really good AM tuners compared to any newer crap. Older AM radios just seem to matter more at the time.

I also have one of those RCA "Lunar" clock/radio TV sets as well. That one is in good shape...but is yellowed some, and does require flipping the channels sometimes to get the tuner to wake up again (needs a good cleaning). It's flip-clock still keeps perfect time too!

The Emerson was dirty and has a few scratches, and one or two of the clock buttons were abused (pulled up, so they don't lie flat with the others completely). Still, it's in pretty good shape and looks nice from a reasonable distance.

I hooked it up to an Insignia DTV set-top box last night. The picture is pretty good but rotated a few degrees. The yoke is bonded to the CRT so I could not rotate it. I tried playing with the magnets a bit, no real improvement. It's not really a big deal as long as I leave it on fill mode instead of letterbox for HD programs. The sound IF might be in need of a bit of alignment because if I tune the TV for the clearest sound, the picture gets a bit snowy, and vice versa.

The build quality is typical for 80's Emerson, not quite as good as a Sony or Panasonic of the era, but still better than 90's and beyond low-end electronics. The components seem to be brand-name, for example the CRT is an NEC.

This is replacing my Zenith Circle of Sound clock radio, at least for now. The Zenith needs a new NiCd backup battery soldered in, and the Emerson takes a 9V. (I got a little tired of setting the clock constantly after the brief power outages we have been having this summer.)

AiboPet, those are really cool TV clock radios. I especially like the design of the GE. I'd love to see a pic of your RCA! I'll have to get a couple pics of the Emerson in action at its new home.

I'm at work, but do happen to have at least a couple pics of the RCA Lunar from when I was cleaning it up. I got this for around $20 at a swap meet as well. The guy said it was NOT running...and had been sitting for a real long time in an abandoned storage unit he bought. I remember this quite clearly because I have seen this guy on TV so many times on some TV program about bidding on storage units. He's real annoying and yells "yuuuuuppp!" all the time (Which he was ALSO doing there at the Kobey's Swap Meet as well....REAL annoying!).

Anyways....I brought the set home and it's a bit yellowed, and it sat around quite a bit before I got to it. I had it apart awhile and was PISSED at myself for losing it's aerial at some point (but I found it since :D ). Aside from it needing a good cleaning....the set came up right away to a blank raster. I did a quick "blowing out" of the tuner and boards with just a "canned air" thing.....and ran it awhile with the thing all apart for a few weeks. The clock keeps PERFECT time! This is good, because I've never really worked on these flip clocks before...and was told NOT to go around trying to "oil" anything or I would ruin it.

It really needs to come apart again and get a "proper" tuner cleaning. Everything works, but sometimes have to flip the channels to get a signal back....but otherwise it has a GOOD strong picture and great sound!

The pics are from about a year or so ago after the set sat around for about a year before that. One of my first sets after I lost Dad and ended up with his half a dozen sets which started my collection. I think the only pic of it fully whole is the one with the Sony 301 sitting on top of it a few months ago.

Okay....Looks like an "upload error" shows that I had uploaded these pics before on THIS thread:
http://videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=254765

That thread also reminds me that I guess the clock motor WAS frozen when I got it....but now I remember that simply moving it some made it start spinning again. It had sat several months in MY closet before I even got to it myself.

LOL, Dave Hester from Storage Wars!

Glad you did find the aerial. That Sanyo in the background is a beauty, too. I collect 80s boomboxes and the Sanyo is definitely my kind of aesthetic. (That might give you an idea of why the Emerson grew on me so much, too!)

The Sanyo IS a beauty. Was an ebay score. I still have to get in and get the cassette going (likely a belt)...but otherwise perfect and as you see...looks brand new still.

It's a Sanyo MTC-40 if you are ever looking for one. It's a color set.

I like 70s-80s portable TVs (as you can see from my avatar) and still see them in the thrift stores, but how do you connect one to a converter box? Most just have a 3.5 mm antenna jack.

With an F-to-3.5 adaptor. The connector on mine is on the side, so I use a right-angle, low-profile one. Had to have come from RS, back when I bought the clock radio/TV new.

Chip

Thanks, Chip!

I used a 3.5 to RCA, then RCA to F.

Pics attached!