I can't remember when I had bought that old radio, a GE model no.3-5636A with dual tape decks. It says "1976" in the embossed plastic lettering on the bottom, right next to the Indiana customer relations address beneath the slightly larger "Made in China".Its certainly not that old. It has the remnants of the grey oil stain with which I slathered the house back when my parents and brother were still living here. That memory, if correct (most are pretty fuzzy recollections, especially when it comes to these trivialities) would place it around 1994? I have painted the house since, but I've been more careful with my electronics since then and there's no other painted indications to aid me. What remains of a sticky accident I had with grape juice years ago still sits in the hollows and crannies of the radio's casing. The juice has congealed in those hard-to-clean areas and caught years of dust and created a sort of permanent coating in all the crevices and corners. I know I bought the thing at P.C. Richards in Middle Island (on Rt 25 just West of the lake), I have a distinct memory of that. In fact, I remember that I had bought a different radio and it broke somehow. I forget how, perhaps I even helped it, but upon presenting the manufacturing defect which had 'obviously' caused the problem, they granted me a new one without argument. I was overjoyed by my good fortune at finding an honest retailer and I pledged my future patronage of their establishment. Shortly thereafter, the new one broke in a similar fashion. Disgruntled, I remember going back to demand my money back which totaled all of $48, pretty cheap for a radio even then. They offered to let me pick a comparable one in exchange, and thats how I ended up with this one. I have had much better luck with this one!

You can tune the radio portion of it by turning the plastic knob on top, good old tactile analog tuner. I always maintained, at least to my wife, that its tuning capabilities were somehow superior to all the other radios in the house. I can get WUSB (90.1FM Stony Brook) on it, and that's about the only station I really enjoy besides the various flavours of NPR (National Public Radio). In fact, it was the bluegrass show on USB that inspired this strange rant. There's a switch on top which reads 'Bass boost' which is always kept in the ON position, because with that switch off, the thing sounds so tinny and weak it might as well be inside a locked car with the windows rolled up. The antenna, though still totally functional, is now missing the little metal cap that used to reside at it's tip in order to protect the eyes of the careless listener. I always meant to get a new cap and somehow affix it there so the radio would again be "whole". Until that time, I don't let the kid play with it without supervision. It can be powered by batteries, though it only accepts that unpopular "C" size that you never have around (at least not in sufficient quantities). I remember going through several rounds of them lugging this radio places far from AC current, usually at the park or just out in the backyard. Although it is just an inanimate hunk of plastic, aluminum and electronics, this radio has served me well and will remain here enshrined.