Radio Daze.
I sure wish that some of the technological innovation that has given us enormously powerful computers, teeny-weeny cell phones and widgets that magically “hold†a couple thousand songs would be turned toward spiffing up the simple clock radio.
It would be nice if someone would design and manufacture a clock radio with the following features:
I would like a clock radio that would permit the user to pre-set two different volume levels. This way, one could pre-set the radio to play at a low volume in the evening and a “wake-up†volume in the morning.
I would like to be able to pre-set one station as a “go-to-sleep” station and another station as a “wake-up†station. I have listened to Imus in the Morning since the 70’s, but the balance of the programming on WFAN is sports talk. I would rather have ice picks driven in my ears than listen to sports talk. With an improved design, I would be able to listen to music in the evening and still wake up to Imus. (Sorry, I think Howard Stern stinks.)
I would also like a clock radio that automatically defaults to “no alarm†on the weekends. Having to deal with a morning radio show unnecessarily rattling one’s brains early on a Saturday morning (particularly after having a few cocktails on Friday night) is just wrong.
Finally, I would like the clock radio to be simple enough to operate so that one would only have to take a quick read through a half page of instructions in order to operate the additional features I have mentioned. Contrast this with my itsy-bitsy cell phone that comes with instructions that resemble a mini-Manhattan phone directory.
If anyone knows if such a unit exists, please let me know. If not, I’ll just hum a couple verses of “The Impossible Dream†and go about my farookin’ business.
That is all.
Jim it may be not exaclty what you asked for, but perform a very close function.
There are some nice reasonably priced Clock Radio/CD players.
Put on some go to sleep music? Set the alarm for your radion station.
$30 plus shipping?
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00008S7X3/102-4956572-7550505?v=glance
Comment by Dan Kauffman — April 5, 2004 @ 1:35 am
They’re working on at least some of these things as we speak:
http://query.nytimes.com/search/article-page.html?res=9F0DEFD91630F930A15750C0A9629C8B63
Comment by Jack Bog — April 5, 2004 @ 2:51 am
I have always wanted one that would get progressively louder as time passed and you still hadn’t hit the button (optionally, anyway). I have always wanted one with a settable snooze time, or at least longer than 9 minutes or 11 minutes, as my last two had. I agree on the volume thing. I agree on the sports talk – ugh. And I think it would be cool to have one that played MP3 or CD selections of your choice (which may exist – my last alarm clock was purchased when Lechmere still existed).
Comment by Jay Solo — April 5, 2004 @ 8:21 am
I can’t remember the last time I needed an alarm. Which is alarming.
Comment by topdawg — April 5, 2004 @ 9:15 am
While they’re at it, can they get us some easy to understand instructions to reprogam the clock on my car radio?
Comment by Tammi — April 5, 2004 @ 11:56 am
How about a radio that automatically shuts off if sports comes on??
Comment by Buffy — April 5, 2004 @ 10:07 pm
I’d like a clock radio where the radio actually worked – not this scratchy sounding mess that I’ve always ended up with (even using the stupid antennas that come with them). But for the rest – it could be done with a computer chip – I wonder why it hasn’t been… I know, costs to much to program it and debug it so it works the RIGHT way. And progammers tend to like things that are difficult. So making it easy to use goes directly against their instincts… *sigh*
Comment by Teresa — April 6, 2004 @ 11:14 pm
Great points. I’d also like to add a desired trait for cd clock radios. Most I’ve seen use a floating plastic disk that sits on top of the cd to hold it down on the spindle, generating friction and keeping the cd spinning. However, this floating plate also generates noise, breaking into my ambient cd sounds. I wish I could find one that uses the portable cd player style of 3-ballpin latch instead.
Comment by Justin — April 28, 2004 @ 12:24 am