I have a little Grundig similar to this one:
http://www.grundig.de/en/produkte/audio/world-receivers/wr-5401/pid/289.html
in my office. It was given to me as a gift and it is hands down my favorite radio. It does shortwave bands and weather from all over and pulls down AM/FM really well. It is probably a bit more than your budget but it is a really nice little radio. It has been on a fair number of trips with me.
I am way more likely to utilise the shortwave feature than I am i-Pods and all the other newfangled nonsense every radio seems to have on it.
Sorry gramps. You’re going to have to build your own.
Dude. Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill. What’s it hurt if it does have a CD player or clock on the front? I see lots of CD-clock-radios out there for not much dough.
This is kind of like being upset that you can’t find a single-shot breakover .22 at any of your local stores but they have Ruger 10/22s for about the same price you expected to pay.
A plain AM/FM radio is such a non-item in todays market that sourcing, stocking, and inventorying one costs more than you can sell it for. And electronics are so darn cheap, you can put a clock and a CD player on it and sell it for practically the same amount. Walmart has a bunch of more simple radios on their website, but they’re online only because its not worth hauling the things around and putting them in stores.
Have any Craftsman power tools? There’s a radio powered by their 19.2 Diehard battery if you already have them. My wife got me the AM/FM radio to go with the drill powered by the same battery. It was really good, but I’m 28 and have an MP3 player with a built in AM/FM that I play through a 15 year old home entertainment system in my garage, which also has an AM/FM receiver. I’d give it to ya, but my father-in-law already found a use for it.
I am cleaning the basement this weekend and have a Realistic SCR-3 that is yours if you pay shipping. (It does have a cassette so that may push it out of your technology range 
)
Looks similar THIS but not cracked on the end.
I remember the first portable transistor radio I ever saw. I was about a sophmore at a boys’ boarding school at the time, about 1958. You could actually walk around with it in your hand and it would play music! We were all astonished at the very idea, like primitives encountering their first Polaroid cameras and having their spirits captured by it. Big Ju-Ju magic!
Of course, those were also the days when we could hitchhike all over the countryside safely, and some of us had pistols in our desks and lockers and no one thought anything of it…
As Jeff Cooper said, “The past is a different country; they do things differently there.”
lol… I sort of agree here.
Look, it’s 2010. It may not make you happy, but there it is. I’m sure buggy whips started to get real hard to find for cheap in 1912, but that didn’t mean that cars were wrong.
NC,
You may want to explore podcasts. I find them just as interesting as talk shows. I get tired of radio commercials.
As for getting old, I doubt you are older than me. As a birthday present, I normally try and buy myself a gun based on its caliber matching my age. I got another 1911 about five years ago, but just can’t afford a Barrett rifle later this month…
Dude, get a simple AM/FM alarm clock and be done with it. Walmart or Target should have one for less than $20.
I still have a Sony Walkman in my garage, but no cassette tapes.
Exactly. I enjoy raging against modern society as much as the next guy, but let’s admit, cool/useful gadgetry is one of the few upsides of riding the porcelain funnel into societal oblivion.
Yeah, but paying for a CD player and I-Pod hookup I’ll never use would be like paying for 4 wheel drive and a lift kit on a sedan, because that’s all they come with.
How do I get podcasts on a radio!? I’m sorry guys, but I’m old-school. I didn’t have a cell phone until a month ago.
I like your birthday present idea, but I’m not keen on stuff in the .30 range. You could always get a Desert Eagle. Or a muzzleloader! (I’d rather have the ML)
I guess I’m tripping because this is intended for sticking in my garage to rock out to some tunes to, so I:
A) Don’t want to spend big bucks
B) Don’t want to pay for extra stuff I’ll never use
C) Am shocked that something I thought was as easy as going out and scoring some chewing gum, has gone the way of the 486 computer.
It basically made me feel like a fogey, and as if I’m the only human on earth who just wants some basic radio action.
Young whipper snapper. I turned 44 in Jan. I listen to the radio in the car. That is it. (and then it is talk radio). Otherwise I listen to my CDs I have ripped or one of the 5 songs I have bought on iTunes.
But a lot of the talk radio stations seem to stream their broadcasts as well so you may be able to do better with something like an iPod touch streaming over wifi and then you can also use it for all sorts of other goodness (my iPhone has replaced 30% of my internet use).
I think John Connor used one of those to lure a Moto-Terminator in the last movie…
honestly I think its like buying a car and getting air bags and antilock brakes ! its just part of the package anymore
but on the age front !!! 30 !! YIKES hang it up old man you are done worthless to the society heheheh
I remember turning 30 about 16 years ago but its getting fuzzy these days hehehehehe
your next gripe in your mid 40s will be !
where can I find a radio without these teeny tiny numbers on them !!! hehehhehehe
Guess what Radio Shack DOESN’T have?
Yeah. All they got is cellphones, GPS units, a few toys, and a handful of actual ELECTRONIC stuff, as in stuff you can’t get at Walmart. Some stores are lucky enough to have a dusty CB or two in stock, and maybe a couple of those shortwave/AM/FM radio types in stock. Maybe.
The closest thing Radioshack had to a simple radio is one of those little Grundig FR200s. I have one (well, used to have one. Dad claimed it as his own). The Ratshack wants $40 for it.
Sorry about the little rant about the Ratshack there. I’m an amateur radio guy, and it’s frustrating as hell to not be able to easily get stuff for projects or buy radios local (unless you live in one of the towns near an HRO). Everything’s order off the internet now. And hell, I’m not old, I’m only 21…but damn do I sound like a grumpy old man.
People still listen to the radio?
Don’t you guys get tired of the horrible music? 
In my SUV I either listen to my CDs or satellite radio. I hardly ever listen to AM or FM now. The of course there is my dual band mobile rig as I am an amateur radio operator.
I turned 40 in January, so it’s probably less of a matter of being old so much as it is being almost a Luddite.
I know folks in my family that, I swear, are so technologically backwards that I half expect them to call out fire as a work of da devil.
I just sat in on a class for a new optic, and the thing is so complex and does so much crap (excuse me, it’s “feature-rich” :rolleyes:), I was half-serious when I quipped about being surprised it doesn’t include a damned cappuccino machine