• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Clock radios in motel rooms?

V

vchimpanzee

A travel section came with my newspaper with information about various locations that are popular with tourists. One was a resort in Georgia whose amenities included a clock radio in the hotel room.

I didn't go to the web site to find out what this meant, but it seems surprising that's what they would have, unless it was a model that provided other ways to listen to music or wake up some other way.
 
vchimpanzee said:
A travel section came with my newspaper with information about various locations that are popular with tourists. One was a resort in Georgia whose amenities included a clock radio in the hotel room.

I didn't go to the web site to find out what this meant, but it seems surprising that's what they would have, unless it was a model that provided other ways to listen to music or wake up some other way.
Click to expand...

Some hotels still have that. The last hotel I was in still had a clock alarm radio.

I get its old technology, but some still appreciate it, especially if you can listen to local radio stations that you're not used to.
 
itsTheRolyPoly said:
Some hotels still have that. The last hotel I was in still had a clock alarm radio.

I get its old technology, but some still appreciate it, especially if you can listen to local radio stations that you're not used to.
Click to expand...
I listen to those but I have to bring my own. Unfortunately, my travel radio quit picking up anything below about 94 (it picked up stations as far down as 92 a few years ago) . It would be more interesting to hear some of the stations below 92.
 
Don CT said:
Remember when the amenity was free CATV with HBO.
Click to expand...
And Air Conditioning!

There are a few "retro hotels" that have been built or extensively remodeled within the past few years, such as the Cabana Bay Beach Resort at Universal Orlando. New hotels, but they are designed to look old-school, complete with neon signs advertising "Air Conditioning", "Cable TV" and the like. They also have throwback amenities like a diner, bowling alley and Zest soap and VO5 shampoo in the bathrooms, all in the packaging it used to come in back in the day. Of course, the prices, especially considering it's Universal, are anything but retro :)
 
Last edited:
Mikey Radio said:
They also have throwback amenities like a diner, bowling alley and Zest soap and VO5 shampoo in the bathrooms, all in the packaging it used to come in back in the day. Of course, the prices, especially considering it's Universal, are anything but retro :)
Click to expand...
Shampoo at motels seems to be something added only recently.

Of course, every motel used to have Cashmere Bouquet soap. I found out you could buy that in the store and was disappointed when it didn't smell right. I called the company and soon I was finding the actual scent, which was after all the product.
 
gr8oldies said:
I can remember Color TV being an amenity. One chain (maybe Motel 6) advertised they kept prices down by only having black and white TV.
Click to expand...
The first time I stayed at a Motel 6 (1975; they were still $6 a night), they charged 50 cents a night for the TV. It was B&W, and VHF only. That was in Appleton WI, so I could watch the three Green Bay network affiliates, but not PBS.
 
In general when I travel it's either for work where the hotel is literally a place for me to sleep between meetings, e-mails and work obligations, or traveling for vacation where again, I look on the hotel as a place to sleep and maybe listen to the news on TV in the morning while showering/getting ready to leave. I set my phone alarm and if it's important that I get up at a certain time (business meeting, departing flight, etc.) I also use the hotel's wake up call service. Rarely do I touch or set the bedside alarm. In a number of cases the time has been way off, anyway, so rather than tinker with it I'd rather just use my phone which I know has accurate time.

As a kid I remember my parents and I staying at I think a Knight's Inn in Kentucky (back then the hotel stops on our trips weren't planned...We'd drive until they got tired and then we'd find a hotel at an upcoming exit). One of the night stands had a built in car radio with backlit dial, with the standard car radio knob for tuning (old school with the cord wound around to the post that moved the indicator needle back and forth) and the other knob for power and volume. It had a 6" x 9" speaker mounted in the bottom of the night stand so I remember it sounding good and as a kid, even with tech ambitions back then I wondered how they got the radio from a car mounted in that furniture and got 12V power to it, etc. I'm quite sure the place also had thick shag carpet, lol.
 
(copied from another post) Some of the early solid state car radios consumed a lot of power than portable battery powered radios. Those car radios had a single ended direct coupled "TO-3" output transistor operating class A; one noticeable characteristic was a click upon turn on where the speaker cone was displaced slightly from rest due to a constant DC bias in the speaker circuit.

In my earlier lifetime I converted a (tube type) car radio into a table radio, keeping the 6x9 speaker, and using a toy train transformer for power.

Some years ago Disney purchased for some resort hotels what I believe were thousands of (the same model of) clock radio with a horrible deficiency. The "snooze" button was right next to one touch hour and minute setting buttons. You accidently hit one of the latter when reaching for the snooze button and the time get all messed up and the alarm does not come on again and you oversleep (you finish the story).
 
If a station can be heard clearly on a cheap clock radio in a hotel building, the station can be heard on any radio. Fortunately, the majority of our ratings producing audience is not spending much time in hotel rooms.
 
Last edited:
Greg Strickland said:
If a station can be heard clearly on a cheap clock radio in a hotel building, the station can be heard on any radio. Fortunately, the majority of our ratings producing audience is not spending much time in hotel rooms.
Click to expand...
Great point from the station perspective. From a listener/radio nerd, some might find clock radios as an essential feature in a hotel room when traveling.
 
CTListener said:
Wouldn't most radio nerds pack a radio with them? They all must own portables or small table radios of much higher quality than what they'd encounter in typical hotels.
Click to expand...
Depends, some dyed in the wool nerds, like DX'er's probably would. Other's that just want to get their conservative talk fix, might not think to pack a radio around.
 
TheRob said:
Last year I ended up in a hotel room that didn't even have a clock, much less a clock radio.
Click to expand...
Who needs either when you're traveling with a phone? Yes, I know there are Luddites, privacy paranoids, and just plain poor folks who don't have smartphones, but are hotels losing business just because they're not putting radios in the rooms?

In fact, if your room has a TV, there's your clock!
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom