The United Nations has declared Friday World Radio Day in celebration of radio's unique status as a "simple and inexpensive" technology with the power to reach even the most remote, marginalized communities.
But we wondered — in this digital age, how hard is it to find a simple, inexpensive radio?
Our journey took us to several stores in Washington, D.C., in search of a portable and affordable radio, as well as to the National Capital Radio and Television Museum in Bowie, Md.
You can hear about our hunt for old-school radio, at the audio link above. (on site)
I find it kind of funny how they make it sound as if finding a regular AM/FM radio today is next to impossible. They seem to completely forget that you can buy a huge selection of decent portables on sites like Amazon. Even the local Walmart here has a few portables to choose from, though I admit one or two of them does have the dreaded ipod dock thingy built in. Those Sony ICF pocket radios can still be found in most large stores, at least in my neighborhood.
Obviously the selection is slim and with stores like Radio Shack closing it will become far more slim, but it's not like radios are going the way of the dodo bird.
I suppose when you really start thinking about items that use to be widely popular, you could pick most any of those things and try to find a non-digital version today and have a far harder time finding it in your average store. We all know how many personal electronics our computers have replaced today. Everything from our tape recorders, radios, voice communication, and so on.
The real problem is getting younger generations to even turn on a radio today. I sometimes wonder if young kids even know what a radio is, or realize that it is not getting its audio stream from the internet
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