CLOCK RADIOS

October 12, 2007 Blog

Wake Up Call!

Why can't manufacturers of clock radios do a survey to find out what kind of clock radios customers want -- and then make them?

Nobody I know wants a radio that you have to tune by turning a knob, yet that is what most clock radios have. This method was standard on the earliest radios, but it has been quite a while since car radios were built with dialing knobs. Few home stereo systems have this feature, but manufacturers of clock radios seem to think that this is still the preferred method for sleepy people to tune their clock radios in the dark.

The reason for this is certainly not due to a shortage of buttons. There are many buttons on most modern clock radios that only frustrate owners and motel occupants. To set the time, you press several buttons and hope they were the right ones. You probably forgot to set the AM button (as opposed to PM, not AM radio. That is another button!).

Some buttons have arrows on them and you need to get out the owners manual to find out what they do. Most arrow buttons do several things depending on which other button is pressed simultaneously for more than two seconds.

Buttons without arrows are usually labeled, but in very small print so you need to get out of bed, turn on a bright light that makes your wife grumble, and find your glasses without your glasses.

There are snooze, sleep and snore buttons in case you can't or don't want to sleep well or at all. You can press buttons to choose radio, CD-player, MP3-player, birds singing or a waterfall. But in order to get a radio station of your choosing, you must turn that thin, furled wheel which has a slightly protruding edge sticking out of a slot somewhere in the radio housing.

I finally found a clock radio on eBay that has several buttons where you can pre-set radio stations. It took me two hours to figure out how to set them and the alarm, but it actually worked -- until the next electric storm. The radio has a battery back-up so you don't need to re-set the time, but they forgot to back-up the station pre-sets.

I have been combing yard sales, looking for one of those old-fashioned alarm clocks I had as a teenager. I hated the thing back then because it was so noisy and I didn't want to get up at 5 AM to milk cows. I had to wind it up every day, but it did the job and after all, why should I need a radio to wake up?