#Wood radio clock series

Even high-end stereo receivers and tuners usually retained plain old radio dials. At the time, the only consumer devices with direct-entry numerical keypads were touch-tone phones, calculators, a few expensive microwaves (most still used dials), and the odd police scanner or personal computer keyboard, still a rarity in American homes.

#Wood radio clock series

The clock radio, while common, was still expensive enough to be a platform for innovation and showmanship.ДЇirst released in 1979 and sold for a few years into the early вЂ™80s, the Great Awakening series came at a crossroads in consumer technology. Some flip clocks were wonderfully built, and, mimicking the home hi-fi components of the day, some even had solid wood cases. Or the faux-woodgrain model that wakes up Marty McFly in Back to the Future. But not, in the initially odd formulation used later in the early вЂ™80s, вЂњelectronic digital.вЂќ The вЂ™70s were the era of mechanical flipping-digit clocks, or вЂњflip clocksвЂќ-think of the clock that plagues Bill MurrayвЂ™s character in Groundhog Day, a white plastic Panasonic model released in 1976. The вЂ™70s saw the mainstreaming of digital clock radios. For some reason, the analog units from the вЂ™60s werenвЂ™t terribly stylish, and their inexpensive clock movements are prone to failure today. The 1970s were the heyday of the clock radio. Another Panasonic used a complicated record-like mechanism to electronically read aloud the current time at the touch of a button, without the aid of a digital voice synthesizer. Powered on, the time and radio dial appear behind the glass. Panasonic had a cube-shaped clock whose front was a mirror. Sony designed a line of clock radios dubbed EZ, which featured a set of dials for setting the hour and minute for the time or alarm, just the way youвЂ™d dial to a temperature setting on your stove. ThereвЂ™s a small flipping-digit clock with a little plastic window on top under a small lightbulb compartment, which somehow projected the time onto the ceiling. ThereвЂ™s a General Electric model that uses amber-burning nixie tubes for its time display, possibly the only clock radio to ever do so. I can illustrate this just with my own personal collection, which is large but by no means exhaustive of clock-radio history. They were also a sort of trickle-down beneficiary of a great deal of innovation that took place higher up in the electronics industry. One of the most common devices in American homes for decades, clock radios came in a dizzying variety of shapes, sizes, and styles. TheyвЂ™re less collectible, and seemingly less interesting, than other electronics, like retro video game consoles, vintage stereo gear, or early home computers. ThereвЂ™s a small community of enthusiasts for these devices, and IвЂ™ve restored more than one of them so far.Д¬lock radios were, and still are, fascinating to me.

The keypads often stop working due to corrosion of exposed contacts, but some very careful sandpaper work can restore them completely. A very nice 7-4885 on eBay can sell for close to $200.

area, you press the вЂњFMвЂќ button and then punch in вЂњ9-7-1.вЂќ In other words, if you want to listen to adult contemporary in the Washington, D.C. It was a General Electric, model 7-4885: the вЂњ Great Awakening.вЂќ Weighing several pounds and resembling a home police scanner or tiny computer, its defining feature was a keypad, numbered 1-9, allowing you to directly punch in the current time, wake time, and even a radio station. I collect clock radios, and I had read about this one before but not yet seen one. I knew I was looking at something special, ten years ago in a Goodwill somewhere on U.S.