heh - youse guyses might enjoy this (vintage boombox, of sorts)

[Electronic M]

One of the largest boxes I've heard of (I saw a youtube video of one) had an LP capable linear tracking phono that played the discs in a vertical position (like some some jukeboxes do)...I'd like to say it is a Technics brand.

I actually have a Panasonic with a more normal slide out horizontal play phono mechanism that I ought to post a picture of. My Panasonic is surprisingly compact for what it is.

[bgadow]

The biggest I had was a KLH (how the mighty had fallen!), it was one of the first pieces of electronics I'd seen that was made in China. It was just okay, not much of a tuner. I had a teacher in school that was in to old time radio and would play shows on his boombox, about the size of that Magnavox. It was a Wards Airline so must have been late 70s? I think they dropped the brand by the 80s. Anyway, it had SW as well.

My favorite boombox story: sometime in the 80s my father had repaired a car for this guy and the fellow accused Dad of tearing up his radio. Dad knew the guy was trying to scam him as he hadn't been anywhere near the trunk. So, Pop paid him some money then took the radio which upset the owner since he thought he was going to get to keep it and the money, too. Dad then took that boombox by the handle and, with a mighty swing, hurled it as hard as he could at the cement block wall! It broke into a thousand pieces, making my father feel much better and assuring that customer wouldn't give him any more trouble!

[Sandy G]

Anybody else remember this story, or did I dream it up ? I THINK I remember reading/hearing about some dude who got tired of listening to dreadful music coming from suitcase sized Boxes De Bume', & rigged up some sort of Device that rendered 'em INSTANTLY Null & Void-and apparently unfixable. Sounds like a Lovely Tale-anybody know anything about it, or did I simply dream it up ?!?

[Electronic M]

Ain't never heard of it elsewhere(I seem to recall it discussed here), but sounds like some kinda EMP weapon/high voltage gun or perhaps an actual firearm would be capable of that.

If you want to be rid of those boxes at any cost you could always go ride the New York subways as I hear tell boxes de bume have been illegal there for some time......I'd be afraid to draw breath in New yak not just cause a da smog, but cause it'd be my luck that they made breathing illegal that day.
Any place where a restaurant by law can't have salt on the table unless it is asked for by a patron, I consider my self unwelcome in.

[dieseljeep]

Any place where a restaurant by law can't have salt on the table unless it is asked for by a patron, I consider my self unwelcome in.[/QUOTE]

At one time, in Wisconsin, restaurants weren't allowed to serve Oleo- margarine instead of butter. Also you couldn't buy colored Oleo. There were "Oleo runs" where people would drive to Illinois to buy it there. Wisconsin was known as "America's Dairyland".

[Electronic M]

I'm glad we have (for the most part) saner folks in office here in Wi these days. The laws some places have can be ridiculously pedantic and arbitrary at times.

[JohnHacker1]

A couple "Cheeseheads"-me too!
I won't comment on current Wisconsin politics...
Still have a Toshiba BomBeat 18 I bought new in '82.
Radio plays good, but eats cassettes...

[Jeffhs]

I've had several boomboxes, all of them long gone (cassette decks went West, one cheap GPX box having quit after only three weeks [!], and they were not, in my opinion, worth repairing). However, I found a Panasonic boombox a couple of years ago near the trash barrels behind my apartment. The cassette deck worked for a short time, then quit; however, I think I know what the trouble is: a loose, stretched or broken drive belt. The radio works quite well, even though the FM antenna is missing.

Haven't had the box apart to look at the problem yet; oh well, one of these days. (Maybe, and I'm hoping this is the problem, the belt just slipped off a pulley, but I think it's a bit more serious than that.) It should only take a few minutes to diagnose the trouble, but if the belt is broken, I don't know if I could find replacements anywhere, as no one much uses boom boxes any more since the advent of CDs and mp3s. Ask a teenager today if he or she knows what a boom box is and you might well get a blank stare, a shrug and a surprised "What's that?", since today's kids have iPods and, in many cases, are wrecking their hearing listening to them with earbuds at extremely high volume.

I know there are (or were, until recently) boom boxes made with CD players; my barber here in town has one in his shop, but the CD deck doesn't work. Doesn't bother him, though. He keeps the radio set on a news-talk station in Cleveland most of the time.

[mhardy6647]

JVC made some nice ones ca. late 1970s - monsters...