Of Electronics And Ferriners

I really enjoy music and like to listen to CDs, MP3s, the radio, even music DVDs a lot. I mean a lot. Very seldom do I not have tunes playing on some box. Be it XM while at work, in the car or in the workshop, or commercial radio when I'm getting ready for work in the morning or laying in bed reading a book at night.

The trouble is, it's near impossible to find a radio that fucking works.

I have an old alarm radio made by I-forget-who, but it is one of those old 70's or 80's style wood-grain looking things I'll dub "Ole Woody". Very similar to this one, but not quite:



It's one of those models that came out just after the widespread popularity of LEDs, much to the chagrin of people who manufactured those little tabs that flipped past the retaining spring every minute:



Anyway, it's got an extremely bright LED display, alarm, and AM/FM radio with which I can listen to any one of the dozen or so Mexican stations here in town, several shit-kicker stations, a couple thumpity-rappity-hoppity stations, or even one of the 3 or 4 half decent rock or 'Adult Contemporary' stations.
I had another alarm/radio I was using, but it didn't have near the reception this one does, and when it went on the fritz I went to replace it.

So I go to Sears on the way home from work of an evening, and the options were overwhelming, as anyone who has recently shopped for can attest to. It was almost impossible to get an alarm/radio without getting all sorts of add-ons. Just try to find one without a built in CD player, MP3/iPod pluggy-inny, 'Auto Time Set' ceiling projector toaster and shoeshine.

Well, I finally found one. The fewest accessories I could get away with was the auto time set feature. I figgered what the hell, if it works it works. If not, at least I don't have the bulk of all that other shit.

So I get home around oh, 5:00 pm, plug it in, and lo and behold! It says 2:00pm! Fine. You don't have to set the time, but you still have to deal with time zones and daylight savings. Fat lot of fucking good that does.
But the reception? The reception is ... mediocre at best. If I stand between here and here, I get good reception. If I move over here and brush my teeth however, it gets fuzzy and static-y, just like with any other radio EXCEPT the ole' woody in the nightstand. Great. Another piece of shit radio.

I live oh, two maybe three miles from the radio repeater towers with no obstructions to speak of, and I get shitty reception in the bathroom while Ole Woody out in the bedroom doesn't? NASA can pick up a 1/4 watt signal from the Pioneer spacecraft millions of miles away PAST the outer fringes of our solar system but yet I can't pick up a 50,000 watt FM signal from two fucking miles away? Modern electronics are shit.
And you guessed it, the radio was manufactured in "The Orient". It was inexpensive, and it is definitely without frills. But it is also a piece of shit. All I wanted was a little cheapy squawk box I could listen to in the shower in the quiet of the morning, but fuck me. I guess I'm out of luck.

And no, you don't want me to be singing in lieu of the radio. Seriously.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~