[Jeffhs]

I have a Zenith H-480 AM/FM/FM-stereo clock radio of 1980 vintage. It's not an antique yet (halfway there, though), but it still works, for the most part (the FM used to work very well, but now is very weak and no stereo after I cleaned the slide pots--the cleaner must have shorted something out; AM still works great). Amazingly, the NiCd backup battery for the digital clock is still good after 25 years. This radio was made for Zenith in Taiwan, but it still has the Zenith crest and name on the front panel above the clock display. I keep the set in my bedroom on my dresser, but don't use it much except once in a while to test it and to keep the filter caps formed. I'm not about to get rid of this radio because, like the other four Zeniths in my collection (K-731, Royal 1000-1, R-70, H-511), it was built to the specifications of the former Zenith Radio Corporation of Chicago. I wish I hadn't messed with the slide pots, though. If I'd kept my hands off those, the FM band on my H480 would probably still be working today. When it was still working, the FM section of this radio was excellent. Sensitive, selective, and it sounded great through its speakers; it probably would have sounded absolutely fantastic through headphones as well. I've almost forgotten how good this one can sound using headphones (the last time I used it with phones was perhaps 20 years ago).

I am amazed that the mechanical electric clocks in '50s-vintage clock radios, such as are often listed on ebay, often work well today--those clocks never seem to wear out in many cases, though I can't figure out why. Being mechanical devices with gears, linkages and a motor, one would think these clocks would almost always give up the ghost after about ten years or so.

I always questioned the usefulness of FM in 1950s and even '60s-vintage radios, with or without clock timers. (Stereo FM clock radios were not introduced until perhaps the late '70s, but I question the usefulness of stereo FM in a clock radio for the same reasons.) FM was just starting out in the '50s; most cities only had a few stations in those days, and the reception in many areas, using the radio's line-cord antenna, was probably fair to poor at best. I think many AM/FM clock and standard radios located in areas other than major metropolitan centers in the '50s through the '70s wound up being set on the area's local AM station, with the FM band being essentially forgotten. The adage "use it or lose it" applies here because the FM oscillator (converter) tube in old sets can become "lazy", or quit altogether, if the FM section of the radio is not used occasionally. Many AM/FM sets used more or less exclusively on AM for years or decades(!) wound up having the FM converter tube replaced for this reason.