Ask Mr. Answer Person

I think these questions were originally intended for the Shell Answer Man, but since he’s busy trying to get Platformate stains out of his lab coat, I’ll have to do.

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Mike writes:

Hi Jay,

Long time listener, first time emailer…

Hey, my eight-year-old son and budding radio enthusiast (he wants to have a show on WRCT someday) requested a radio/CD player for Christmas, “So I can listen to WRCT at home.”

The thing is, my car gets great reception of 88.3 but in the house, I have an old receiver with extended antenna that aren’t so great. We live in Brighton Heights.

Any recommendation of a brand that is good for reception? Everyone says Bose but I have no experience with it.

Dear Mike:

Please inform your son that if he grows up to have a show on WRCT, it will be a social and career move from which he will never recover. He can just look at Uncle Jay as an example. If I can’t be an example to others, I can at least be a cautionary tale.

I’ll be honest — I haven’t bought a new FM radio in a long time. When I last bought one new, I bought a GE Superadio III. I don’t think they’re made any more, although they come up fairly frequently on eBay for under $50.

Also to be honest, the Superadio was always really hyped as “the best AM/FM radio ever” and I personally don’t think it’s that great. The tuning dial is really inaccurate and the stations tend to drift. (It does a pretty good job of pulling in channels and it does have really good sound quality.)

But there’s a guy whose blog I follow named Jay Allen, and he does a LOT of radio reviews.

Jay Allen recently did a “portable FM radio shoot-out” and he recommends the C. Crane CC-3, which is digital and has Bluetooth, so your son could use it as a powered speaker for his phone, MP3 player, etc. It also has weather radio built in. It is NOT cheap (MSRP is $169.)

Jay Allen also likes the Eton Elite, which is a little cheaper. I don’t have any experience with Eton but they’ve been around for a while.

Cheaper still (about $100), the Sangean HDR-16 and the C. Crane CC-Radio EP also got good reviews.

The HDR-16 looks like a boombox but the CC-Radio EP is a little bit dorky looking. (Not sure how important looks are to your son.)

The Sangean tunes HD Radio, which is pretty cool (most of the cheaper portables don’t.)

Does any of that help? I have a C. Crane Internet radio that is very solidly built and easy to use, and I had a Sangean portable that I unfortunately broke. (I foolishly left it on the front seat of the car in the Florida sun in July, and that ruined it — but I was really happy with it until I killed it.)

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Speaking of the C.Crane Internet radio, listener Jim writes:

We’ve talked a couple of times before. I’m a regular listener to the show. Love it, it’s a must on Saturday.

I read your post about the internet radio you just purchased and it sounded like something I’d like. I ordered one from the Chatt Radio online store and got it on Saturday. I love it, and thank you for the heads up. A really good recommendation and it arrived quickly!

I’ve found it very intuitive to use and the manual is good. I’ve found so much great stuff. I was wondering if there are any oldies-type shows that are hosted — shows like yours — that you know of, or like.

I found a station in Philly, I’ve got the ‘Ragun Cajun‘ saved and the beach music station out of the Carolinas (Surf 94.9) as well. I’m finding great jazz, blues, R&B it goes on of course.

I am also wondering if there are shortwave stations to be found. I don’t really know how to search for something like that. I’d like to check out some shortwave if I can with this radio.

Any recommendations you have would be cool.

Jim:

I’m sorry it took me so long to respond! What have you ended up finding?

As for oldies shows on the Internet radio, I don’t listen to a lot of them, to be honest, which may sound weird. During the week I mostly look for other kinds of music.

One oldies station I do like is the non-profit station, WMCE in Erie, that’s run by LECOM. Their shows during the day are mostly hosted and they also carry local Erie announcements. CKWW 580 in Windsor, Ontario, is also good (although there’s a rumor that they’re switching formats soon, which will be too bad.)

I occasionally will turn on WMBS in Uniontown but they have a lot of talk shows (especially paid programs) these days.

I also like Zoomer Radio out of Toronto (which you can sometimes pick up at night on a regular radio at 740 AM). They span everything from big-band music to 1970s pop.

This is going to sound weird, but I also will listen to oldies stations from foreign countries. Lately I’ve been listening to something called Retro-Souvenirs out of Quebec, which is a mix of French oldies, French language Canadian oldies, and some U.S. music. It’s a whole different style of ’60s music — very much pop-oriented and not rock-oriented.

The other thing I’ve been using my Internet radio for is to listen to foreign news — for instance, if something happens in Europe, I’ll turn on the BBC, or if something’s happening in the Pacific Rim, I’ll turn on the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

The Australian ABC also has a lot of really good talk shows that I enjoy. As I’ve mentioned on the air, I get migraine headaches sometimes that wake me up in the middle of the night. I’ll turn on the ABC (because it’s daytime there) and listen to some of their talk shows while I wait for my medicine to kick in.

Sometimes I will literally just spin around the directory and listen to something at random: “OK, today I’m going to listen to classic rock from South Africa.” I listen for a while, and if I get bored, I tune to something else.

One day I listened to “Falkland Islands Radio.” (I guess there aren’t many people who live there, because it was like the smallest small-town radio you ever heard.)

It’s the same way I used to listen to shortwave.

So those are some things I enjoy on Internet radio — WMCE LECOM radio, Zoomer Radio, CKWW, and then just using the radio to take a “vacation” from time to time. (And, of course, WRCT 88.3 FM and Tube City Online Radio.)

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Do you have a radio or TV question for Uncle Jay? Write to me. If I can’t come up with any answers, I’ll at least get some fodder for this ridiculous blog.