Radiophiles Find 36 Things to Hate About Radios, Which Guarantees We'll be Unhappy

 This pet peeve list started at 10 and has over months grown to 36. Radiophiles are guaranteed to be unhappy with any radio they buy:

1. Radios that have lots of gizmos but the producers put a sad little ferrite AM antenna inside it as a sort of afterthought.
2. Radios with so much AM and/or FM drift you have to connect a big ugly external antenna to them.
3. Why doesn’t Sangean put the wonderful 200mm ferrite AM antenna in all of its radios, such as their WR-11?
4. Why do brand new Tivoli Songbooks cost upwards of $200 on Amazon but are less than $100 on eBay? Is Tivoli trying to price itself out of the market?
5. FM wire antennas. I wish the telescopic antenna was a standard feature on all radios.
6. Even worse than wire antennas, radios that use their AC cord for their FM antenna like the old Bose radio I used to have.
7. Why did Sangean stick such mediocre speakers on their otherwise very good PR-D5 model?
8. You pick up a medium-size radio and it feels suspiciously light in your hands. You pick up a similar sized vintage Panasonic or Sony and it weights three times as much. This is telling you something, not good, about the lighter radio.
9. Radios with LCD lights so bright that they could illuminate an airport.
10. Radios with remote control but no other interface for controlling the radio.
11. HD radio because it requires messy external wires, antennas, and STILL gets lousy AM at night and in rainy conditions.
12. Being teased for several months by an appealing radio like the Redsun 3100, hearing about its “imminent production” on various message boards and then discovering it’s nothing but vaporware.
13. Headphone jack in the back of the radio.
14. Weird volume setting that fades every time you turn the station and then restores to original setting after a few seconds like on the Sangean CL-100. 
15. Speaker so bass heavy that you get distortion even at low volumes like on the Sangean K-200. 
16.  One of my pet peeves is medium to large sized radios without separate bass and treble controls. The Sangean PR-D5 and LB-100 are good examples, but there are many others (Gary).
17. Lack of a stereo/mono switch on a radio capable of receiving stereo FM. Radios are more sensitive when receiving mono FM than they are receiving stereo FM. Two examples of radios with this flaw are the CCRadio-2 and the Grundig Sat 800 (Gary).
18. I'll add one - radios that run on "C" batteries when they would run just fine on smaller "AA" batteries (Brandon).
19.  the scarcity of stereo in both portable and table top radios. Even when the speakers are of only moderate quality, the sound of music on FM is tremendously improved by stereo capability. Just compare the Sangean Sonido to the PR-D5 (Tim).
20. My peeve is the general dearth of quality radio program production. The BBC World Service sets the gold standard. Balanced exposition on a seemingly endless variety of subjects. NPR/PRI do some good work but their perspective is much more narrow (Keith, citing more of an overall radio crisis than a peeve but who am I to exclude this radio "peeve"?).
21.  Peeve: Itty bitty teeny weeny little miniscule diminutive buttons, especially when marked with tinier print! (Thanks, Bill)
22.  Radios with whip antennas that don't tilt and swivel (thanks, Gary).
23.  Radios that display the time rather than the frequency when listening to a station. I think the CCRadio-2 does this. Either show both the clock and the frequency, or let the user set whatever default is preferred (thanks, Gary).
24. Why did they put a detented tuning knob on the Sangean ATS-909? It doesn't enable you to quickly go through the bands. 
25. Why can't you get rid of that annoying beep every time you do something? The ATS-505 lets you turn it off without mods. 
26. Why is the Grundig G6 memory system too easy to overwrite? 
27. Why did Tecsun make the stand on the PL-660 so flimsy
28. Why did Tecsun make the antenna on the PL-660 so loose and floppy? (Thanks, Jules, for 24-28)
29. Radios where you can't turn off the lights. Many have a back light on/off switch but in most cases the lights still come on when you tune it or do something else even if the light is set off. That's fine but also have a real off setting. (The Tecsun PL-660 is one of the few that has a real off setting as well as a smart off setting. Why can't other radios do this too?) In the good ole days radios did not have lights at all. One radio I have even has a light on the power adapter that plugs into the wall. 
30.  power adapters that get hot. 
31.  tinny sound. The whole purpose is to listen to it. 
32. insufficient tactile feedback so you can't use it in the dark with having it light up. 
33. radios which lose your presets when you change the batteries. 
34. hideous blue background screens on internet radios 
35. only available in black. I never take my radios to a funeral. 
36. expensive add-ons (overpriced case, AC adapter, etc.)

Comments

[Ed S.]

No. 30 and 39 are duplicates, as are 31 and 40, 32 and 41, also 34, 35, 36, 37 and 43, 44, 45, 46.

[Jeffrey McMahon]

Ed, thanks. I had better edit.

[Walter L.]

36 raises a very good point.

I would be willing to pay a a bit more for a radio that is priced at $150.00+ if it came with a good converter, a strong protective case, earbuds that one could use without flinching in pain, and a rechargeable battery function that has batteries included that don't need to be replaced immediately after opening the box. In other words, a range of useful accessories that match in quality the excellent radio they accompany in the package.

[John]

My complaint is looks. There are few if any radios out there that have any looks to them that I would want people to see. I have 5 or 6 German made radio from the 50s that I make a point to show off when people come over. Some even seem interested:)

[Keith Beesley]

I think we're living in a kind of "golden age of radio" right now! Think of all the different types of radios we've discussed here in the past two or three years: hi-fi am-fm tabletops, boomboxes, heavy-duty worksite radios, pocket-sized shortwave sets, satellite, streaming internet radio, etc. etc. No wonder we have a long list of complaints; we're spoiled! There weren't nearly as many choices 20 or even ten years ago.

[S Patrick]

Yea, some other color besides grey or black would be nice to have.

BTW - heavier plastic = more breakable radio. To prove this, I'll drop my Grundig G5 if you drop your 1980's Panasonic. Bet you which radio wins this battle. A lighter radio breaks FAR LESS from drops then a heavier radio.

[Dan]

Well, this settles it for me. I'm switching to stamp collecting.

maybe i should start a "Why stamp collecting is better than radios" list...

1. stamps don't need Synchronous Detectors
2. stamps don't have lights that stay on
3. stamps don't come with noisy electrical wall warts that keep you from enjoying other stamps.
4. the purchase of my next stamp is not determined by someone elses review.
5. stamps don't have those pesky "step-volume" buttons as opposed to those nice rotary ones.

i could go on, but I digress.

[Ed S]

But then, Dan, you'll have S Pat telling you repeatedly that new stamps are far superior than stamps printed before 1995...

[Dan]

@ Ed S: ROFL! Thanks for the chuckle!

[Karl Dahlquist]

There are no ferrite rods because AM radio is dead (according to an LA Daily News article)

http://www.dailynews.com/lalife/ci_19006921