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Is it a "remote" or a "clicker"?

J

joebtsflk1

I definitely would put myself in the minority when I use the term "clicker" for the device that changes channels and controls TV Volume. For the record, I grew up in southern Iowa.

What term do you use, and where did you grow up?
 
"Remote"; Columbus, Georgia.
 
Personally I would rather call such a device a "remote controller", but when I was around other folks I usually called it a "remote control" since it was a more common phrase for such a device. As for where I "grew up", I would say it occurred in areas of the most southern portions of the United States.
 
I used the term clicker

my dad used the term "hey you...go change the channel. And while you're up get me a beer" ;)
 
It might depend on how old the device is. The first ones had buttons that definitely "clicked". The newer ones have soft touch buttons that don't provide a "clicked" feel and make no sound at all.
 
PirateJohnny said:
It might depend on how old the device is. The first ones had buttons that definitely "clicked". The newer ones have soft touch buttons that don't provide a "clicked" feel and make no sound at all.
Click to expand...

What Johnny said. I remember my Grandma had (I believe it was) a Zenith and it had a wired remote.
 
Early remote controls were ultrasonic and had metal bars that generated the tone necessary to change the channel (or turn it on/off); when you pushed the button, it activated a striker that hit the metal bar, and it made a loud click. Hence "clicker."
The first color set my father bought was a top of the line Magnavox in the late '60s; it had a sonic remote with 8 buttons, and the tones were generated electronically. I remember being able to change channels by dropping coins or silverware on the floor.
 
My grandfather had a "clicker" in 1967 (Seattle). I can't remember if it was cordless or not. However, it seemed very modern at the time. He also liked to drive Cadillacs.
 
I don't know anybody who ever called a remote a "clicker." To me, a "clicker" is the little non-electronic device security people and door-men types use to count people entering a venue of some kind, like a night-club or concert - so called, I assume, because it makes a slight clicking sound.

Come to think of it, though, I recall that my father got my grandmother a wireless remote control for her rotary dial black and white TV in the late 60s because she had gotten too frail to get up and down to change the channels. It was heavy and clunky device about the size and shape of a paperback book. It did indeed make a clicking sound when she changed channels- so that could be the origin of the term.
 
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