The radiophile laments the loss of the sturdy high-performance radio, built like a tank with its grand Large-And-In-Charge sound on both AM and FM. Radios like the Panasonic RF-5000 or a Sony Orbiter come to mind.
But alas over the last few decades these apex performers have been ousted by the radio manufacturers who have taken a different, grossly inferior strategy to attract radio buyers. They now rely on the meretricious, that is the tawdry and the falsely attractive, to lure the prospective and I daresay ignorant consumer into purchasing their latest gaudy product.
The rise of the meretricious radio is evident in an abundance of scintillating features—a CD player, a phonograph, perhaps imitating “vintage” with gilded false gold rococo accents in the faux wood laminate that is supposed to make us gush with nostalgia.
Or pandering to the sports fan, the radio will resemble a football helmet, an actual pigskin, a tennis racket, a baseball bat or some other piece of athletic equipment that is supposed to be quaint and perhaps worthy of showing off to guests.
One thing the owner of this meretricious radio will not be showing off is the radio’s tuner performance since the FM reception is usually mediocre at best and the AM is so abysmal as to be useless.
As technology advances and radios feature HD, WiFi, and satellite, we find these new features are far from being perfected and that the one thing we as persnickety radiophiles used to count on, solid AM and FM reception, is being left on the wayside as the ornate, cheaply-built radios glisten on the shelves of Costco, Sears, Radioshack and other purveyors of the meretricious.
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