The Shack is back! New 2020 Radio Shack AM/FM pocket radio
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- Cousin Brucie is back on WABC in New York, WMEX is back playing music in Boston, and Radio Shack is back in business (although they never actually left) with a new pocket-sized AM/FM radio, available online or in one of their several hundred stores.
Oh god! Radio Shack!! Now if only they would go back to their roots and carry electronic parts and components and kits like they used to. And funky patch cables and plugs!
I used to buy audio tape splicing jigs and splicing tape. Cassette tape repair kits.
if they have bricks-and-mortar stores anymore, they should also carry knowledgeable staff who can take you to the part or funky patch cable you need. Last time I was in Radio Shack and asked for a TRS adapter from 3.5mm to 2.5mm (I even called it a "headphone adapter" knowing they won't know what "TRS" stood for), they looked at me like I was from another planet.
@@junker15 same! sometimes bestbuy also hiers a bunch of idiots. Once I asked for a ddr ram and they tried to sell me a dancing game for the play station! wtf lol.
Good luck if they even care about hiering someone who even knows a thing about electronics and isnt just in it for the money
Fact is online killed a lot of that niche stuff. Its not the old days where your mid sized town would have one source for hobby parts.
@@junker15 I can relate. This was at Radio Shack in Canada... years ago... before Radio Shack turned into "The Source", which is like a chain store of Walmart's electronics department... destined for failure.
Anyway, I needed an external microphone for a portable cassette recorder. The spec for the external mic was 600 Ohms.
I was at the counter where several desk, hand and lapel microphones were on display and "George" who was the "Manager" according to his badge was there. I asked him what the impedance of one of the desk microphones was and he burst out laughing and patted another employee beside him on the shoulder, and commented (about me) "This kid thinks microphones have impedance." Laughing more. "Only speakers have impedance!"
I walked out, incredulous with how unknowledgeable and rude the "Manager" was.
www.radioshack.com/collections/parts
www.radioshack.com/collections/audio-video
www.radioshack.com/collections/electronics-kits-projects
www.radioshack.com/collections/car-audio-connectors/products/radioshack-radioshack-cassette-adapter ( it splices audio into the tape deck. Kind of like what you were talking about :)
I am officially **really old** and can remember the excitement of getting the RS yearly catalogue. This little guy is, of course, the great great grandson (or whatever) of the "transistor radio," noting that word transistor lol. In this unit, you will probably find nothing more than two or three chips, but the originals from the 70s were jammed with electrolytic caps and transistors, and weighed significantly more. Also, you would get a single, monaural ear piece, which lodged inside the ear much better than the "buds" they sell today (hate 'em!).
And yes, there still is a need for a simple, neat radio that grandpa can use to listen to the game or the news. Very cool item...
My ears must be messed up or tiny or something because those old plastic single earphones never worked for me, can't use them for more than a few minutes without yanking them out. Unless you're talking about the first-gen iPod earbuds or dollar store junk, my $8 Panasonic ErgoFit earbuds are perfectly comfy.
@@SnownelVEVO for me it's exactly the opposite: earbuds (like the old iPod/IPhone earbuds) fit well, but no, absolutely not a single pair of in-ear headphones will fit my ears.
They hurt, then come out of the ear after a few minutes.
Sadly I can't find good earbuds anymore. Used to have a pair of great-sounding sennheisers. The Apple earPods are rather good, and they also work for my ears, they are something in between, not old-style earbuds, but also not exactly in-ear (especially not sealed in-ear).
One nice thing about the old transistor radios was when they stopped working, they left enough leads on the parts, you could salvage the parts, and used them for projects.
@@SnownelVEVO I will admit they were truly awful - I'm rather curious to listen to one now just for kicks, and to compare it with the sort of garbage buds you get with phones nowadays (besides those of Samsung and Apple of course lol).
Same here. Growing up in the seventies everything was on AM during the first half of the decade. In another few years everything was FM.
Who knew Ashens was broadcasting on US radio?
I was completely shocked too!!!
The voice was familiar, but with out a brown sofa I couldn't place it!
@pepperSnakes he should do a joke video like this
Thanks for the review...the out of phase example was very prominent and noticeable.
I'm making spaghetti 🍝 but I'm trapped in the Disunited States.
Making radios from scratch is still one of my favorite projects to do. I've been making AM and/or FM radios and transmitters since I was 8 or 9 back in the 90's. I'm glad analog terrestrial radio didn't get phased out like analog VHF/UHF did in 2009. I'm still kinda bummed out by that but that's life, technology keeps moving forward.
I'm thankful for this as well, of course in rural areas like mine AM is basically phased out, but as far as FM goes since a huge amount of people still use it I can tune in with FM tube radios dating back to the 50s no problem. There is the issue with super old FM tuners that they don't handle the large amounts of bass well sometimes, which is quite important with modern music and stations. It's unfortunate for anyone who collects old televisions but with the world using 720p/1080p largely and now slowly moving into 4k, we were bound to phase out analog television eventually, unlike FM radio where I don't see stereo audio being outdated anytime soon for music and talk show/news purposes.
WhiteTylerPerry I’ve made many a foxhole radio and crystal radio back in my younger days. Now I make them for my kids science projects. They are amazed that you don’t need a battery to power one of these!
@@Fireship1 have you seen the Ken Burns doc, _Empire_ _of_ _the_ _Air_ ? It's great. It's all about radio history.
@@ixionn563 The great thing about FM is that if/when it does get phased out completely it won't stop you or anyone else from making your own small pirate radio station. Unlike VHF and UHF, FM and AM don't require a lot of power or circuitry. To make your own TV station analog or digital, you have to really invest in some money to get any distance outside of your house. But radio is such an easy medium to transmit and broadcast. As long as I'm alive I'll be messing around with AM/FM technology. It excites me that I can recreate the same technology that people used over 100 years ago albeit not with vacuum tubes. But even vacuum tubes aren't completely gone. We have the hipsters to thank for that lol.
Yeah, assembling a "build from a kit" transistor radio used to be a classic father-and-son-bonding tradition --- every "real American" family traditionally would do that. Young folks today are used to having everything pre-assembled and working straight out of the box --- they just don't know the basic "raw" joy of actually building something with their own hands the way we all did as teenagers back in the '70's and '80's --- we made our own loudspeakers, we recorded reel-to-reel tapes and dubbed records onto cassettes --- boy, THEM'S was the days! :D
I loved RadioShack when I was a kid.in the late 70s early 80s they had some very high quality stereo equipment. Some people look down on RadioShack equipment but their top of the line stuff has better specs than ones from the major brands.
Their stuff was actually built by some of the top manufacturers. Top end Turntables were by Miracord, mid level by CEC, and low end by BSR, speakers by JBL, batteries by Energizer and Ray-O-Vac, etc..
aka Tandy in Australia, their prices were quite high, clearance specials were good
In my teens, I loved the Radio Shack, Allied, and Lafayette catalogs (also Edmund Scientific). With the interest in all things retro, maybe there is room for stores like these again.
Radio Shack electronic books by Forrest Mims got me in a great AFSC in the USAF in 77, which got me into intel for almost 30 years. Thanks Radio Shack!
I had no idea Radio Shack was still around. You just made my day, thank you.
Glad to hear they are still in business. I used to love my local Tandy store here in the UK. Interesting video. Thabks!
(Return of the 'Shack) come on
(Return of the 'Shack) oh my God
(You know that I'll be back) here I am
(Return of the 'Shack) once again
(Return of the 'Shack) pump up the world
(Return of the 'Shack) watch my flow
(You know that I'll be back) here I go
--Mark Morrison (Probably)
@@vincef.8261 A riff on Mark Morrison -- Return of The Mack
So I´m back up in the game...
I love Radio Shack, i bought my portable scanner radio in 1998 and still works perfect, great quality items. Happy they are still around. Loved the catalogue too!!
Also that Ashens sound bite at the end through me for a loop .... thought I had another window opened and accidentally started one of his videos.
yeah same.
What was that? Is he on the radio here in the US?
@@josepharturi5442 He's a RUclipsr who has been making video reviews of random crap since... well, before RUclips. Started out mostly doing electronic stuff but nowadays mostly does things like toys and weird expired food...
@@Muzer0 Oh` I been a huge fan of Ashens for years it was just odd hearing his voice on the raido in that video. Totally out of place and random . Years ago I sent him a weird expired cheesecake made in China that I bought at a dollar store here in the US to see him eat it on a video in the UK. Never laughed so hard in my life!!
I ordered one of these a few days ago and am waiting for it to arrive. Not sure why I bought it. I don't have a whole lot of use for a radio, much less a pocket radio, but the nostalgia factor was too much to pass up. Also I really want to support RadioShack because they were always the best at what they did. Glad to hear that this thing isn't awful.
You sent me down a rabbit hole when you mentioned there's _another_ MeTV Music radio station.
I was excited when I first heard 87.7 MeTV FM years ago, because it meant Chicago finally had another Oldies station. After 104.3 WJMK (my favorite Oldies station growing up) changed its call letters, I thought that was the end... Until today, when I discovered that some station in Michigan is now using those same call letters, as an Oldies station, and is also called MeTV Music!
They're also broadcasting old shows on TV, if you get one of those cheap antennas you plug into your TV.
@@offscreen6578 Oh yeah, they've been doing that for years. That's why it's called MeTV: Memorable Entertainment Television. I've known about MeTV from the time they were exclusive to Chicago.
There’s a company store operating near Fort Worth TX, nice to see they are still using their classic catalog number system. “12” is for radios. I worked for Radio Shack years ago.
So 77 WABC is playing music on Saturday nights? Very cool! Even 3 hours a week is enough to bring back the memories. MusicRadio 77......sometimes. Nice.
Pet shop boys on AM is epic. I’m putting a stereo AM back together in Baton Rouge as we speak.
What station, I'm down the road in Lafayette
Is AM stereo still transmitted?
It was an abject failure due to the bandwidth of the tx.
www.amstereo.org/index.htm
Which do you choose a hard or or soft option?
i plan to broadcast in AM stereo soon. I don't have a radio that can decode am stereo.
@@mitch19636 It is, most local stations in my area do, I plan to do install C-QUAM on my station too.
"They're making SPEGHETTI!" 😂 That needs to be on a T-shirt.
I wish RadioShack would get in touch with some of the games developers for their 80's micro computers and put a modern version of their trs-80 and Coco line of computers with games built in and modern HDMI hookup. Maybe even reach out to developers who are making new games for it now and put those on it as well!
@@hak1985org who does?
@@hak1985org so it's kind like the coleco story where they were also a leather company that got into video games except they don't own the rights to the name anymore. If I were the tandy family, I would team up with radio shack and the developers of these games to make a product the retro gaming community can be proud of!
@@mattmyers9351 That would be awesome, but I'm honestly glad, and thankful we are finally getting a US release of the full size C64 remake.
@@CommodoreFan64 yes indeed! I already have it because I backed the project four years ago. Glad your getting it as well! Enjoy!
@@mattmyers9351 I did not have the money at the time to back it, as I had real life bills, and such to take care of, but thanks, I will indeed enjoy it. 👍
A pocket radio always has one problem or another but I'd say Radio Shack radios are the best. It is hard to find a perfect one where the volume button doesn't mess up, the battery doesn't drain too fast, the tuner doesn't loosen and break, the speaker doesn't become static..
I had no idea they are still open. I loved radio shack. They have some really nice stuff. Reception is great
No idea????
That's great to hear! I've always loved their weather radios, including the first cubed weather radio I got as a Christmas present in 1978!
This radio was available in late 2016 indicating FM, AM, and WB (but not SW) tuning in the background of the illuminated orange display but actually offered FM tuning only. It was branded BUSH by brand owner ARGOS stores in the UK and Ireland.
I was able to buy a Radio Shack pocket radio from a local Radio Shack as they were in the midst of closing that store. It's great during power outages and emergency situations. When I'm late paying my electric bill. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Using my 1942 Zenith Tube radio on AM at night, I once pulled in a weak station playing Dubstep. I believe it was somewhere out of Chicago, but I was unable to get a calling sign before it went out of range again.
I used my radio to go back to 1942, and heard President Roosevelt tell off Hitler and Tojo. But you'd never believe me. :)
Even being mostly deaf in one ear and using crappy laptop speakers, I could hear a significant difference between those in-phase and out-of-phase audio demos. You're right, it sounded like the out-of-phase audio was inside my head. The in-phase audio also sounded much louder.
As for this radio...if it used AA instead of AAA batteries, I'd buy one. I'm a weird guy who absolutely NEEDS a radio running all night in order to sleep properly, and a small radio like this would be perfect for travel. But I've learned through experience that radios which use AAA batteries tend to only last at most 3-4 nights before the batteries die, whereas radios that use AA batteries can easily last two weeks.
I live fifteen minutes from the old Tandy headquarters. My girlfriends grandmother worked for them for YEARS! She even had a Tandyvision (rebadged Intellivision) as a little child. Sadly RadioShack is by name only, however, at least someone is carrying the torch.
Hello and thanks for posting this clip. I'm surprised that such a tiny and well-priced radio has such a good reception, especially on AM and sounds reasonable for its size. You surely made a bargain and I hope that this radio will accompany you for quite a long time. And finally in times like these it makes sense to have such a compact and light-weight radio within reach in case of emergency. To my personal opinion only one thing could have been optimized: fitting a telescopic antenna for FM reception instead of this wrist-strap type. There are areas in the world which don't have such a vast density of FM transmitters as the NY area. All in all it's a pity that this radio is not available in Germany where I live. So, best greetings across the miles, and stay healthy. Best regards from Ulrich.
Radio Shack should bring back the Battery Card.
I'm in the UK and as a child in the eighties I loved Tandy. Had a battery 🔋 card and a big grey and red 5 D cell torch 🔦 from there.
Had no idea they were still around! Thanks for the clarification.
Miss Radio Shack they were the only place I could get a AM/FM Radio Cassette for my father before he passed. He never got into CD but had boxes of tapes. LOL
glad to see radioshack still keeping up their same standard of quality in every product they sell!
Up- to the standard of the product they clone and rebrand., basically these "standards" are set not based on feedback from consumers about the product... but by what the manufactures are willing to create at the price point radioshack has set as to allow them to make some large percentage profit and provide them some large return.
@@tarstarkusz Usually Radio Shack was overpriced but they did have a clearance section. They'd sell touchscreen gloves for 97% off, for example. It's not a good way to run a business but they would almost give things away. One time I got a cell phone battery for $1.50 and I think they sold it for $30 normally (it was worth about $15-$20).
You might wanna check out the RadioShack 1200889 analog AM/FM/WX radio. I got it a couple years ago and I love it. Excellent build quality, IMO. It’s still on their site but is currently sold out. Great video!
I listened to Cousin Brucie as a young dude in Pennsylvania. I didn't know that he went back to WABC New York. Just like Dick Clark Cousin Brucie is a perpetual teenager. Thanks for sharing your video. I miss my Radio Shack here in Virginia.
As I, a 14 I enjoyed being able to go into my local radio shack and buying parts or even buying a radio. Good times, good times.
It's AKA Horologe H-198. I've spun The Petshop Boys on AM as that's what I do for a living.
I loved pocket radios as a kid. Had one tied to my bike and I thought I was so cool riding around the block listening to the radio. lol
Its cool that he reviewed this while my family and I were boogieing away to cousin Brucie Saturday night!
Loved the surprise Ashens cameo at the end there. :)
'It Don't Matter To Me', I love that song.
Greg Salcedo Hadn’t heard that song in *years*
MeTV in Chicago is the only analog TV signal I can still receive. The audio is oldies, but the video shows highway traffic and weather. Last time I was at O'Hare, they still were showing it on some monitors near the flight information displays.
Can't imagine spending 25$ for that am radio with all the GOOD sounding music on any other source.
Neat transistor radio you have there. Well, even though it has chips in it, most radios use chips now, heck there were radios even in the late 1960's with chips. Anyhoo, nice catch there and I like to listen to Cousin Brucie and would love to score the radio MeTV as well. BTW, love the mostly 1980's, and 1970's music. I might try to score one myself although I am enjoying my Tecsun PL-660 radio right now.
Loved the ashens insert
Oh, you mean Simon Pegg?
@@GeckonCZ LOL
Yep; what a lovely surprise that was. If I remember correctly, this was taken from his video of fake iPod radios.
@@VolivovejVolej good memory
My goodness, Pet Shop Boys on AM radio, so nostalgic, thanks so much for that!
This radio somewhat looks like the Prunus J-125, the same out of fase headphones output, same clock, buttons, features, unused display markings, even the orange led, built in speaker sounds similar, I mean, it's a good radio in terms of reception, the only thing I wanted to be better improved is the headphone output to be in fase and a little more bass response, overall, nice radio, not top notch but good enough to keep it, really woth it. Thanks VWestlife for showing this little guy.
Thank you for posting Cuzin ! I still have pocket realistic radio in 1982 it still works
I've been getting email flyers for their website since before the chapter 11. As for the independent stores, there's one I passed on my way up to the lake for vacation. Hopefully I can stop in on the way back.
I miss Radio Shack. Back in the 70s, when I was a teen, one of my hobbies was CB radio communication and I bought my 1st CB Radio at the shack, I was 15, and back then, you still had to have a FCC license, and every new radio from Shack came with an application for one. I remember I bought a Realistic Mini 40, A Power supply with Base Antenna and Poll at the Radio Shack. Later, in the 80s, I learned to diagnose and reapair CB radios, and got many of my replacement parts at the Shack. AHHH the good ole days.
There is a Radio Shack in my home town of Mt Shasta, CA
Radio Shack and Meth. Lots and lots of meth. I'm not shitting on you. I grew up in The Inland Empire (of meth).
@@trippmoore The Town of Mt Shasta is in the most northern part of California at the foot of Mt Shasta. The Inland Empire is in most southern part of California in the desert
Rumor says there's a Radio Shack under Mt Shasta.
We used to have a radioshack here in Weaverville, but it's recently been converted to a smoke shop. The way of Norcal huh?
Thanks for that info! I will stop there next time I go thru there.
God I miss Radio Shack, or Tandy as they called it in the UK. As a kid we had so much RS stuff in the house - toys, Realistic speakers, rechargeable batteries, even those walkie-talkies from the BTTF movies :)
This channel never changed too, for the better of course!
I fully agree with Ashens.
I enjoyed many radio shack products through the Tandy shops in the uk, realistic/micronta products were really good but you didn't need to sell a kidney to afford them.
Nice to see some part of radio shack still survives :-D
Tandy Australia was dear enough, I only bought things on special or clearance
OMG radio shack cool i used to work for the company after school doing force feed.
I was a manager in 76 and 77. Force Feed was always a joy, but that boosted the margin if you sold a lot of it.
Thank you for the review. I use a Sangean DT-400W and DT-800. Yet this new Radio Shack portable is good for the cost. My old RS model 12-797 was the best RS radio I ever had. Oh, thank you for the AM stations now oldies again. In these troubling times, going back in time is a comfort.
Radio Shack stores are still open in Mexico, or at least they were before the shutdown.
I recently visited, and saw one at a mall there. I was shocked lol.
Wow, I had no idea that WMEX had flipped back to music! I can still remember when the station was relaunched, as oldies, around the mid-80s. At the time, my dad had a '72 Plymouth road-barge; so AM-only radio!
Also had no idea that the RackShack still had a strong presence (other than the few franchises I'd heard about).
Edit: Even they're selling masks & hand sanitizer! LOL
I guess WMEX also has a stream for MeTV Radio, but I did checked TuneIn and it’s now streaming an oldies station in Boston where they brought half its former WODS audience from 1987-2012 when it was an oldies station as “Oldies 103.3” to WMEX.
My grandpa's and then later my dad's 1984 Chevy C-10 he had when I was a kid came originally with an AM only radio. My dad replaced it in 1996 with a Spark-O-Matic cassette deck
Thanks for letting us know.😊
i thought they were gone, i was so sad when ours left our neighborhood, thanks for re informing me, i found one still open about 30 mins drive from my home. so better than nothing i guess.
miss the radio shack here. it was so nice to be able to run to the store and get what want.
I recently bought a really nice soldering iron from their website. Many things are often sold out on their site.
Last i heard is exactly what you said in video they closed some stores but some are open and they sell online aswell. Thats good i miss having the radio shack where i am in CT
yeah i used to notice that years ago listening to the radio sometimes i'd only hear one channel. only really noticeable on old songs like that which separated the vocals and instruments into the left and right channels
Looks like Sangean in South Korea makes it - they also make C Crane radios. Good stuff.
Sangean is Chinese company.
@@FrancisLitanofficialJAPINOY no it's Taiwanese
@@JonasWilms ok. It’s Taiwanese. But the Factory is in Dongguan, China.
I miss radio shack stores I used to go when I lost an ac adapter to something or just bought a spare
Nice Radio but I Love HD-Radio from the First time I heard it and have been listing ever since in my Car and at Home. Totally Awesome.
Our Radio Shack never closed. We still have our drive-in theater too. :)
Ha! You coincidentally captured the moment they had tech difficulties at WABC and its well documented. The stereo source wasn't mixed down to mono at the board before broadcast, as it was supposed to have been... because they havent played music in many years and its a different engineer. Your radio is fine.
As my Yamaha receiver was set to Dolby Pro Logic for 2 channel input from my PC the whole out of phase audio you've recorded in came out of the rear speaker. Thats the way Dolby Pro Logic Surround works. Sound which should be played by the rear speakers is recorded out of phase between left and right channel...
Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I like their xxx-in-one kits. Those were FUN!!!
Loved the ashens bit at the end haha
Fun fact, that radio shack in the north west corner of south Dakota is in belle furche the geographic center of the United states.
Long time since I listened to radio music, those times are over.
you can also get a weird effect when the headphone jack has a bad ground.
@@hak1985org
Then what you hear is the difference between the two channels.
RadioShack is still alive in Latin America
The Stereo button(left) makes the vocals audible!
The speaker is mono. You must switch to mono.
As a Canadian, I miss Radio Shack :(
Ah, it sounds like WABC bought back the echo for their music program. Regarding Channel 6 FM. I regularly watch Shango066's RUclips channel and he when he fixes vintage TV's, he often uses the channel 6 FM Guadalupe Radio in Los Angeles to test out the TV. That ME-TV from Boston sounds a bit like "LA Oldies" that Shango often features in his videos to test out vintage radios. "LA Oldies" even has a Saturday Night Dance Party as well. Speaking of 1510 from Boston. When I lived on the East Coast many moons ago, I was never able to pick up the closer 1510 WNLC out of New London, CT. It was always 1510 from Boston even back then. 11:24 Sounds like Techmoan . I like that this radio takes off the shelf AA batteries, which would make it ideal for camping or for use in long extended outages. Radios with rechargeable batteries ain't worth squat when there is no power to be had. I'll bet that that time function default could be switched off with a diode modification of some sort. Finally if the 'auto tune' makes this radio skips over weaker stations, then that is a negative though I am sure some mod might be available to enable it to tune manually. It's good to see RS still around yet. The public perception is that they bit the dust several years ago. Thanks for reviewing this...
@Tone. I never heard of Ashens until today
Good to hear Bruce Morrow (aka Cousin Brucie) on WABC Back once again. I listened to his first show over the weekend. I almost finished his show on Saturday, but the first half was cut out, because of Alexa. I got my Amazon Echo Show, the one that I got for my birthday, and I might do a video about it down the road. I’m going back to New York tomorrow after being in Florida for the entire month of August. Back to my recording of his first show, While we had my birthday party next door, my stepdad was in the living room which is near my room was telling Alexa to play Dean Martin, it cuts out where it was interrupted by a Dean Martin channel and plays random stuff including Dean Martin, Perry Como. Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, etc. After 20 minutes, I went back and told Alexa to play WABC, it goes back to Cousin Brucie. I should hit the mic disable button to avoid someone by telling Alexa to play an singer’s name which was dumb.
Earlier today, WABC replayed his first show, and I recorded again, and it’s now complete. The first half is there, no interruptions from Alexa.
Thankfully I got my Cousin Brucie’s first show in my collection.
I’m a huge fan of Cousin Brucie. I remember listening to his show on WCBS-FM back in the 1980’s where he did his Saturday night show for many years from 1982 until 2005. He was on Sirius/XM from 2005 until 2020. Prior to that, he was on WABC from 1963 until 1974, and then to WNBC from 1974 until 1977, and after that, he became a station’s owner where he owned many radio stations including the Hudson Valley area from the late 1970’s and the early 1980’s. He was also doing his show on WALL in Middletown, NY around 1978 until the early part of the 1980’s.
I hear a song at 3:35 is “Twist & Shout” by the Beatles from the album “Introducing The Beatles” on the Vee-Jay label in 1964 while the band was on Capitol where “I Want To Hold Your Hand” became a #1 hit in early 1964 before the Beatles came to the US and appeared on Ed Sullivan’s TV show. Vee-Jay had the rights to many of the early Beatles songs including “Please Please Me”, “Love Me Do” and “Do You Want to Know a Secret”. The song “Twist & Shout” was weird and completely out of phase and it was a stereo mix. There was a band on one channel, but missing the vocals on the other channel. That sounds like a Karaoke version of “Twist & Shout”, but who wants to sing it? Maybe someone would have a Karaoke party.
I hate stereo version of hit songs, because oldies stations today had stereo versions of hit songs, but many of them are mono. Aside from “Twist & Shout”, the Four Seasons had that problem with stereo mixes of “Sherry” and “Big Girls Don’t Cry” where a band on the left, and vocals on the right. That’s what it called as stereo separation. Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin did the same too on their stereo albums on the Reprise label. The 45’s are all original mono than the LP had stereo. I had the Diana Ross & the Supremes “Greatest Hits” album in 1967, and it was in stereo where it features stereo mixes of “Where Did Our Love Go”, “Baby Love”, “Back In My Arms Again”, “You Keep Me Hanging On” and more that were never available on 45’s when it was in mono. The other that I hate the most was “Electronically Re-channeled Stereo” versions of the pre-stereo albums that are from the 1950’s which were reissued in the 1960’s. I have the “Johnny Greatest Hits” album and it sounds terrible in stereo, but I prefer the original mono version a lot better, but it lacks the bottom end. Capitol also did Duophonic which were also bad, and then Decca put out “Enhanced for Stereo” albums which were reissues of the original albums from the 1950’s, and they are all godawful.
Joe Blow....."Ah, it sounds like WABC bought back the echo".
I noticed it immediately. Sounds like crap. I hate the echo!
Great that Cousin Brucie is back, however!
Radio shack in the UK during 1980's.....they had great stuff....
lol unexpected Ashens at the end. Good stuff.
I guess that headphone socket is a mono socket with only 2 pins, and when you put your stereo jack in it the positive pin got connected to the left channel and the negative pin got connected to the right channel. The circuit completes because ground for left and right are connected in the jack. If you use a mono to stereo adapter it will sound fine.
Good to see a new in box Radio Shack product! Ahhh, I worked for Tandy here in the UK, in the late 90s. A lot of those catalogue numbers I committed to memory. A lot of guys from the local (ahem!) defence installation a few miles down the road used to come into our store buying bucketloads of resistors, thermistors, capacitors etc. I often wondered whether our store alone kept the local early warning capability going.
Wow! I got the same exact Bose speakers that you have! The Bose speakers that I have, I've found it in a garage sale a few years ago for less than $10 and I had them ever since. I even have it hooked up on my computer.
Anything more than $15 is too much.
I do miss the old Radio Shack. Turning into a cell phone dealer was their death.
seems better quality than them other radios you reviewed
I'm 45 and die a little inside when I hear music that was brand new when I was in high school like Wilson Phillips' "Release Me" on "classic" radio. I know it's probably been like that since at least 2000, when "Release Me" hit the 10-year mark that's the unofficial threshold for "classic", but it's still a bit unnerving.
You're right about the necessity of battery radios. My own "battery radio" is my CD Walkman, which has not just AM and FM but also weatherband which has come in useful on more than one occasion. And it has remarkable DX pull on the AM band since I can listen to WABC 770 from New York City from a bus in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada after sunset. And it also plays CDs, of course.
I always liked their Tandy line of personal computers.
That's good that it also has manual tuning and not just one button for auto-scanning. I absolutely hate auto-scan tuning. I understand that it's cheaper to manufacture but there are many times it will not lock into a station because the signal isn't strong enough even though it's just fine for listening to the ball game or KCBS news.
"Manual" tuning like this has shouldn't be any more expensive to implement, it's just an extra pair of buttons. True old-school analog tuning knobs are (relatively) much more expensive, though.
@@eDoc2020 its about costs. its easy to mass produce a FM radio on a chip with as few pins as possible.
I actually did not know! I'll have to buy some batteries from them sometime, just for old times sake. I like that they sell Ni-MH C and D batteries that aren't just an AA battery stuffed inside them. Although it seems like half the stuff on their website is "sold out online" :/
Costco has awesome prices on batteries.
@@stevepettersen3283 Probably not on rechargables, though.
@@CptJistuce You are correct, sir!
I had one of these years ago when they first came out and the built-in speaker was not that great too... Lol
I was a janitor back then and I could have it in my pocket and as I did not need the head phones. The one I had did not have the strap and you had to have the headphones plugged in to pick up stations but it did have a switch on top to change from the speaker or headphone. Also it did not have the clock. Just a Am/Fm radio, it did have 5 preset's...
Thanks for the review and glad to see that they are still making some things.
Now if they would get back into the electronics business of years ago... :-) I miss Tandy... :-(
Thanks for the video
LLAP
As a audiophile and love electronics, I spent most of my time at RadioShack in the late 70s. Once they started carrying computers, the stereo equipment suffered, more computers and less stereo equipment.
Several years ago, I purchased a used Grundig pocket radio, it has the same display, or one that looks a lot like it. This unit does have AM/FM/SW1/SW2/WB on it as well as a built in world time indicator with dial to select city for that citys time display. Nice unit, but I am an old Grundig fan and when it arrived and I saw the stamp DESIGNED IN USA MADE IN CHINA It sort of pissed me off, as Gurndig used to be a great electronics company in Germany. That said though the quality of this unit could well have been made in Germany, as it is of very high quality and works like a dream, even sounds great considering the small speaker in it. The radio is a bit larger then the one you have there.
I had the SX and the 1000 TL/2 :) wow, good times cool radio! thanks!
I still miss Rado shack or Tandy stores they were called in Cardiff South Wales Tandy had good range of electronic components and electrical goods to buy so surprised to their still going in the USA we also had a similar store called Maplins that similar goods they went out business few years ago so only place can buy components is on line and usually a long wait from china
I am in Southwest Michigan as we recently had a local AM station (WGTO) switch formats over to MeTV FM. The used to play a bunch of 80's music and it felt like they only had about a 30-song playlist. The MeTV FM format is much improved.
I also remember a few years ago, the above mentioned station messed up and was only transmitting one channel of stereo recordings. They fixed it after a month or two of being like that.
And finally, I think an Ashens commentary talk radio program wouldn't be a bad idea. It worked out quite well here, LOL.
I still have a couple of catalogues laying around. Worth keeping as a reference & for project ideas.
More of my favorite places were Telrad & Western Electronics.
Used to get replacement tubes at Thrifty Drug Stores. Remember them having tube testers & nickel scoops of ice cream.😊
That stereo audio to mono issue with the Beatle's song would definitely drive my OCD crazy, a lot of cheap audio equipment nowadays such as bluetooth speakers have this issue as well, I've seen mono bluetooth speakers that only play one stereo channel instead of proper mixed stereo for mono. Not surprisingly a tech at the station likely only wired in one of the stereo cables thinking it would work fine. Great stuff as usual, interesting to see Radio Shack isn't completely defunct.
Yes, the bass does improve when you put in phase!
Radio Shack is great, and had a great catalog. They should have been THE FIRST ONCE to be on line and kick butt.