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When Was the Last Time You Bought A Radio?

When was the last time you bought a radio? Out of curiosity I looked on Amazon and the results were disappointing.
 
I bought a small alarm clock radio last year because I don't like to use my phone as a wake up alarm. Before that I bought a HD radio a few years ago.
 
Last week. Got one of the Chinese ones on AliExpress, complete with signal strength and a full color display. Less than $60 and rechargeable. It sits in a drawer for emergency use.

I was thinking of one of the high-end SDRs that are in the kilobuck range, but the noise in my home that has solar and all the wall warts you might ever need made that a full-stop proposition.
 
When was the last time you bought a radio? Out of curiosity I looked on Amazon and the results were disappointing.
Last year. I’ve sworn off any new such purchases but some of the brand-new Chinese products, such as the one David describes, are sure tempting.
 
2017. I purchased one of the Ryobi jobsite radios because the battery is interchangeable with my other Ryobi power tools. I mainly use it when I'm working in the garage listening to podcasts via the Bluetooth feature. I can't think of the last time I listened to terrestrial radio with it.
 
I’d like to say it was my last time on the radio, but that was actually 1986.

I mean, I'm straining to think of something later than that that's not in a car---but no.

I updated my clock radio when I got into news (1981), and it lasted forever, bought my AM/FM receiver in 1978 (retired when I married the first time in 1988---she had a newer system), my portable radio with cassette recorder dated back to '76...

So, yeah---in 1985, I bought a Sony SRF-201:

20220607_203541.jpg

Mine's long-gone---found this photo online. I had my wisdom teeth out that year and the dentist had these to listen to during the procedure. I liked it so much I went out to buy one. About the size of a credit card, it slipped nicely into a shirt pocket.
 
I bought a clock radio about 15 years ago so the alarm will wake me up @ 5:30 to get to work. I've retired and still have it but rarely use it now.
 
If you don't count the radio that comes with a new car?

Early 2000s. Maybe 2002-2003? But it wasn't me just buying a radio. It was 10, and I didn't pay for them. See, I got a part time gig working with Media Monitors as a "recording engineer." They had people in major/large markets who would record radio stations so they could track the ads. They'd have a set-up where the "engineers" would record stations on reel, package up the tape and send it back to the company so they could crunch the numbers.

I'm fairly certain that I got the first or at least one of the first prototypes of the digital version. A desktop computer, audio interface (MOTU if I remember correctly) and we (me and the guy who set it up) went and bought ten little transistor radios. Tuned them to the stations they wanted to track, plugged them into the system, and launched the software that would record them on a set schedule. I'd adjust it when needed, would burn the data onto CDs, and send it off via FedEx. The very modest checks would show up later.

I think I did it for maybe a year before they figured out a better way to do things and I packed it all up and shipped it back. I never really made all that much money, but I did get a very nice desk for my office (with some rack space) out of the deal. Just a funny little corner of the radio business...
 
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