Americana "last gasp" AM only transistor radio

[electroking]

Originally Posted by AUdubon5425

I saw at least a half dozen of these on eBay last night, in white and beige. It may have been the last "table style" AM radio, only meaning it's not a pocket transistor set. I know Radio Shack kept that AM "Flavoradio" around long enough to be manufactured in China in the early 2000's.

Had one of those Flavoradios in the mid seventies. That was a honest
radio that could pull some DX at night.

[AUdubon5425]

Originally Posted by electroking

Had one of those Flavoradios in the mid seventies. That was a honest
radio that could pull some DX at night.

Well their quality degraded severely by 1990 when I bought two of them. I think Mother still has one of them in case of power loss. It's good enough to pick up strong local stations but they are el cheapo extreme. Also the tuning caps on mine were very stiff and hard to fine tune.

Next time (if there is a next time) I see an "old" (70's) Flavoradio I'll pick it up and give it a shot.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by AUdubon5425

Well their quality degraded severely by 1990 when I bought two of them. I think Mother still has one of them in case of power loss. It's good enough to pick up strong local stations but they are el cheapo extreme. Also the tuning caps on mine were very stiff and hard to fine tune.

Next time (if there is a next time) I see an "old" (70's) Flavoradio I'll pick it up and give it a shot.

I had an RS "Flavoradio" (in a sky-blue cabinet) for years as well, but unfortunately it got lost when I moved here 10.5 years ago. Don't know what happened to it. Probably got pitched with a bunch of other stuff being thrown out of the house (I wasn't there when the house I grew up in was being cleaned out in preparation for sale; long story and OT for this thread).

I don't know how often the Atlanta area or the New Orleans area (wherever your mother lives today) has power outages, but she will be ready for the next one, if and when...maybe. I say "maybe" because I wonder just how much emergency info she will hear over the radio. Wasn't there a discussion here just before the DTV transition addressing the fact that radio is utterly useless these days in emergencies, because radio stations no longer broadcast local emergency information--despite the fact that they must have EAS (Emergency Alert System) monitoring gear? I would think your mother's Flavoradio would be worse than useless in any emergency worse than a power outage these days for that reason.

[AUdubon5425]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I don't know how often the Atlanta area or the New Orleans area (wherever your mother lives today) has power outages, but she will be ready for the next one, if and when...maybe....I would think your mother's Flavoradio would be worse than useless in any emergency worse than a power outage these days for that reason.

Well, I had picked up a second hand battery-operated weather radio with an alert for her about six months before she moved back home. It didn't have "SAME" but proved useful nonetheless - woke her up at least once for a tornado warning the next county over.

We have one AM station (WWL, which also simulcasts on FM) that is very dependable for news/weather coverage during the day, and although they've slipped a few times they've often covered weather events live in the wee hours. We used to have WDSU-TV 6 to fall back on - their audio signal was on the bottom of the FM dial.

Truthfully, I can count on my transistor and weather radios and the rotary dial phones when the power fails.

[compucat]

Originally Posted by electroking

Had one of those Flavoradios in the mid seventies. That was a honest
radio that could pull some DX at night.

I have two of those Flavoradios and you are right. They are a true example of a real transistor radio. The performance is typical of a six transistor set of the era. They are cheaply made but not flimsy and are quite dependable. Everyone should have at least one of these.