Do you still use your old radios

[vintagecollect]

Unfortunately where I live, most AM music stations are gone. There's no variety anymore for AM radio anymore, only talk shows and news progams with ONLY one music station left. Recentlty decided to stop collecting old radios since there's no need for 20 radios for such a limited medium.

Originally Posted by vintagecollect

Unfortunately where I live, most AM music stations are gone. There's no variety anymore for AM radio anymore, only talk shows and news progams with ONLY one music station left. Recentlty decided to stop collecting old radios since there's no need for 20 radios for such a limited medium.

So why not focus on AM/FM radios or SW?

When it's past midnight, the kids are asleep, the wind is howling the trees are rustling and your better half lies peacefully asleep like an angel...it's time one turns on the clock radio....(a sweet end of an era PHILCO with AM & FM will do nicely*)

Let the tubes warm up. Turn it to AM first twist the tuning dial and hear the scrawk of static and hum of various pitches warm up your ears and get you in the mood for radio. As you pass the various talk radio shows, religious channels and Spanish music stations you turn the switch gingerly over past FM and to AFC. Ahhh...the whole array of music opens up to you. The sweet trumpet of a jazz solo, the sixties elevator music, blues rhythyms, contemporary music, 70s-90s music, soft rock and hard rock played so crisply you can actually understand the lyrics for the first time!

As the tubes get hot, you can start to smell the plastic/bakelite case heat up. You're not worried becasue those cases were blended with asbestos and are unlikely to do more than get pretty hot. You recall how you taped a thin sheet of metal insulation to the top of other radios to evenly disperse the tube heat and will do the same to this one when you have the time. You turn the dial to a soft station and turn off the main radio power, but turn on the sleep timer. 5 minutes? No, the wind will keep you awake at least another 10. Two clicks of the lever to the right and you have ten more minutes to enjoy sweet tube sound. You savor it. For a moment you can feel it - a oneness with all the radio listeners since the earliest hand built sets to the fewer but just as devoted tube afficionados from today. You have cds, who doesn't? But your ears and spirit cries for the rich tube sound and your heart, even though devoted eternally to the angelic creature lying beside you, has saved a little space just for tube radios and tube listening.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by vintagecollect

Unfortunately where I live, most AM music stations are gone. There's no variety anymore for AM radio anymore, only talk shows and news progams with ONLY one music station left. Recentlty decided to stop collecting old radios since there's no need for 20 radios for such a limited medium.

I admit I'm a conservative talkshow junky myself but there are times I'd like to get away from all the news and stuff in the world and just put on some tunes on the AM radio. I used to listen to AM music a lot (I listen to the sound of 13Q!) when I was a kid in the 1970's. Pittsburgh used to have a good number of them. We still do have one in the Pittsburgh area that plays music that I like, 770 kc on the dial that I like to listen to until the sun goes down and WABC out of NYC "walks over" it. My grandfather's 1953 Philco 53-656 has an excellent tone and sound quality and even my 1965 Magnavox 8 transistor does well for it's size. I got the later at a garage sale for 3 bucks, can't beat that. Hearing music on AM brings back memories and a warm feeling in my heart.