Select-A-Tenna – AM Antenna
After C. Crane started to gain momentum selling mostly antennas and radio accessories, we received our first real technological challenge when customers starting asking for recommendations on the best radio. It was pretty easy to select the Sangean 803A as the first radio we offered to our customers. Tuning was precise and voice audio was sharper and more legible than most other radios on the market. With the Select-A-Tenna that we sold, it turned into one of the best radios made for reception. It was a little complex to use as a regular daily radio but it met many customer’s needs. We also carried the GE Super Radio which was much easier to use but lacked some of the functionality customer’s wanted and supply was erratic. It seemed that there wasn’t a good blend of features, performance and ease of use.
In the background we went about acquiring and testing just about every popular radio made at the time. It turns out that most radios are tuned for music and FM. There are many that have too much bass or filtering which distorts the human voice for talk radio and even voices found in music tracks. It turned out nobody was making a radio that made voices sound realistic and very few had good reception. If they did, they were so complicated that you needed a PhD just to turn it on or they were so expensive you needed a small loan to pay for it. It took 10 years to convince a manufacturer to help us make the radio we knew our customers needed and wanted. Something that had some of the most desired functionality (memory presets, clock, alarm), audio tuned for voice, excellent reception and wasn’t too difficult to use.
We started the CCRadio by selecting a speaker and an amplifier designed to react well with voice frequencies. Trying to make a sensitive radio that picked up weak stations was the real challenge. The new solid state chips generated their own static noise that masked the weak signal so that is all you heard. It took months to reduce the noise and make the radio quiet so a weak station was above the noise level. The original CCRadio was introduced in July of 1998 and we haven’t looked back. Grandma Faye gave the best compliment; “you can hear the voices with this radio”. It’s gone through a few different iterations based on customer feedback and changes in technology but the idea behind it remains and it continues to be one of the most popular radios we offer. Models based on our design are still popular worldwide. It took several more years but we eventually invented and received a patent for the Twin Coil Ferrite AM antenna. This allowed us to exceed the reception of our original AM antenna and radio.
Our line of CC Radios has expanded to include different types and styles but the focus on reception and audio remains.
In honor of our anniversary month, 17 years of CCRadios, you can enter to win, tell us your favorite radio story in the comments on this blog and win the CCRadio of your choice. Drawing will be held July 31st. Only one entry per person.
Congratulations to Bob Emery for sharing his favorite radio story! Thanks to everyone who participated! ~Jessyca
Favorite radio story? Hmm, have to say the day my Dad brought home a Hallicrafter S-38E general purpose shortwave radio. I like radios before that but this thing got stations in other parts of the world! Even on AM we could pull in WGN Chicago in Mystic, Connecticut. That got me started with shortwave listening and radios in general. These days I use my CCWifi and my EP for most things. The S-38e is still with me and sort of works on AM, but the RFI from wireless devices and computers pretty much makes it useless. Some nights in the garage with a length of antenna wire, I still hunt for stations.
Congratulations CCrane! I love the CCrane products that I have and would LOVE having a CCradio 2E in my collection.
About 7 years ago on a Sunday afternoon,
my two sons and I were driving into Boston for a Boy Scout event in the Troop Leader’s car. I asked the Troop Leader to play a Boston radio station which I knew had a weak signal. My older son had a cell phone with a built in FM transmitter, and he a recording of the Mr. Ed theme on his song list. Once we were on the highway, my song turned on the FM transmitter, and Mr. ED started playing over the car radio. My two sons and I in the back seat had a tough time trying to keep a straight face while watching the Troop Leader trying to figure out why the Mr.Ed theme played over and over again on his car radio while driving to Boston. Nobody said a word!
In 1966 I was 12 years old and the James Bond and Man from Uncle spy craze had set its hook in me. I receive a crystal radio,not so cleverly disguised as a ball point pen. It was a big around as a broom handle( my fuzzy memory) and it did have a pen in it. But the body came apart and there was a basic crystal radio ,with an alligator clip that I attached to my bedroom cold air return. Then you unscrewed the clicker, moving it in or out at various lengths to tune. I could only receive one station and luckily it received Cleveland Indians games….I was in heaven. Now batteries were a luxury in my lower class home,so listening to a radio that didn’t have to be plugged in or take batteries…I was in a magical heaven with that little crystal spy pen.
Shortly after my father put his Zenith Transoceanic in my room….then it was “off to the races” for me and radios. Don’t know that happened to the spy pen but I still have the Zenith.
Hey Chuck:
You and I have about the same story. Back in the early 60’s I was living with my Grandpa on a remote ranch where we had no power. My Dad came back from overseas and gave me a 5 transistor Sony radio. It was neat until the battery ran out. Back then 9volt batteries were really rare and expensive. $1.50each and you had to get them at a TV repair shop. I could not afford to buy a 9 volt so I bought a crystal radio just like you describe. Living in Southern Oregon I could pick up KGO in San Francisco with it. I listened to it a lot on the remote ranch, had pretty good reception as there was zero electrical interference out there. Several times I picked up the outlaw Mexican station that Wolfman Jack was broadcasting from and that formed my liking of Rock and Roll music. On a later deployment my Dad gave me the Goldmine. A Zenith transoceanic radio. That radio opened up the world for me and it ran and ran on D cell batteries. The batteries lasted a long time and I could do extra chores etc and my Gramps would bring back from town replacement batteries once in a while. We used the same size in our flashlights that we needed to have at night time to get around the barns etc so there were always D cells around. I too still have the Zenith but it is now in need of a tuning dial cord replacement. Quite a radio for it’s time.
Doug,
I sure wish I had that old ‘spy’ radio. I need to replace some tubes. My Dad recently passed away and as I was going through his tool/work shop in the basement I found the Zenith Royal 500 of his I used as a kid. It was in very bad shape. Batteries replaced and it works. I could almost cry.
I had a small portable transistor with me when my father and I were out in the pecan orchard on the farm and the awful news about the Kennedy assassination came over the air. We didn’t do much more work that afternoon!
My favorite radio story. When I was 12, I snuck my Seminole 6-transistor radio into my 6th grade class to listen to the Yankee-Pirate World Series of 1961. Boy, was I clever….I put it in my pocket and snaked the earphone cord up under my shirt, and gave updates by hand to my classmates who were interested. About 50 years later, I was having lunch with my wonderful teacher Sister Stephen, who said something like “Did you think I didn’t know, Johnny? Of course I knew, but I also knew how much you love baseball.” Long live Bill Mazeroski.
My father, my hero was career military starting his career as a communications officer in the Army Airforce on the Burma road in ww2. He taught me to make a crystal set when I was six, using headphones from a tank, copper wire tissue roll, and a diode. All thru my life he taught me the importance of radio. I still build and am a ham operator. All my news is from radio not tv or internet. I strive to help other people understand the importance of sw radio but most ignore it, I am a prepper, been taught my whole life to live that way, thanks to my Dad Im ready. Dad lost his life in 1968 at 42 defending this country, I was 12 then, but I will never forget anything he taught me, or what I have taught my sons.
Favorite radio story? Easily, my 13th birthday when my parents gave me an AM/FM/Shortwave radio so I could listen to the local rock n’ roll station (so they thought.). During my night-time listening (under the blankets so they wouldn’t catch me not sleeping) I soon discovered that I could bring in AM stations from all over the East Coast and Midwest. And then I discovered the shortwave band! Radio Nederland, Deutsche Welle, BBC! Wow! That was 50 years ago and I’m still hooked on radios. I have 11 short waves including a restored Zenith TransOceanic, and countless AM/FM multi and radios including a GE Superradio and a CCCrane2. I could always use a few more 🙂
I bought my CC Crane with short wave about 5 years ago. I had heard about them on the Art Bell show . Anyway tragedy struck my family and I ended up on the road. My CC Crane was my only entertainment system, For 4 years I lived in a tent with my dog and my CC Crane. I worked at state parks all over the country, hosting a ghost town in central Idaho miles back in the mountains, I would us the short wave and listen to Havana Cuba and China at night sometimes . mostly I use it for its AM, She’s beat up a little, broken outside antenna, cover for batteries is gone. doesn’t quite pull AM like she use too .But she’s got me through those first couple of bad years, when night fell and your alone. I’m still traveling across the good old USA, bought a old RV, Still work camping , my dog died and I rescued another, Still listening to my old CC Crane.
Thank you for sharing your story with everyone Bob! Congratulations on your win!
Re Bob Emery’s winning blog. I missed it somehow. Can you send a copy to me?
Bob Emery Says:
July 8, 2015 at 6:46 PM edit
I bought my CC Crane with short wave about 5 years ago. I had heard about them on the Art Bell show . Anyway tragedy struck my family and I ended up on the road. My CC Crane was my only entertainment system, For 4 years I lived in a tent with my dog and my CC Crane. I worked at state parks all over the country, hosting a ghost town in central Idaho miles back in the mountains, I would us the short wave and listen to Havana Cuba and China at night sometimes . mostly I use it for its AM, She’s beat up a little, broken outside antenna, cover for batteries is gone. doesn’t quite pull AM like she use too .But she’s got me through those first couple of bad years, when night fell and your alone. I’m still traveling across the good old USA, bought a old RV, Still work camping , my dog died and I rescued another, Still listening to my old CC Crane.
I’ve listened to coast to coast for years..since the art bell days….I always had a problem getting his station his show to come in clearly..especially when wabc in NY no longer carried his show..I had to tune into a Baltimore station if I wanted to hear coast to coast…that’s when I said to myself that’s it.I really enjoyed that show and used to hear advertising for c crane radio how good they were…so I decided to order the c crane flagship radio.the cc radio.at that time u could listen to tv shows too..anyway I received it in the mail and my radio listening troubles were over..the Baltimore station came in perfect and the performance of this quality radio was far beyond my expectations.not only did I find so many more am stations to listen to with superb voice quality and reception the fm band was just as awesome..the sound is remarkable..with the clock radio and noa weather alerts there is nothing else on the market that comes close.especially for the quite reasonable price for a product of this high quality…thanx c crane and keep up the good work..
STEVE Aidala….! 🙂
I’ve loved radios since I was given a little transistor one for my 10th birthday in 1960. Hearing voices and music from thin air was nothing short of magic!
I have owned many radios since, including many C. Crane products (still have a Select-A-Tenna).
I have helped many others pick the best radios, and all have been happy with the C. Crane line. Keep up the great work!
I started listening to radio as a kid when I was in trouble and my parents would take my TV and my books, it started with old time radio shows and talk shows like coast to coast, these days I travel around in my motorhome a lot and many of the places I stay often have no cell signal or TV signal and few weak radio stations,,, but at least with my CCrane EP I’m able to tune those in and have some sort of news and entertainment
In the late 1950’s one Christmas eve. I awoke in the middle of the night and went to the Christmas tree. Underneath was a handheld Zenith transistor radio which I grabbed and scurried back to bed. I began playing with the tuner ( all AM, no FM back then ) and found a strong station in another state. After listening a bit, I remember thinking to myself “I wonder what time it is?” and just then the announcer stated on-air “If you are wondering what time it is, it is 3:30 in the morning!” – something I will never forget and I became a ham operator and in my late 60’s I still enjoy DXing but the internet has captured much of my free time. KUDOS to CCrane for your radio proliferation.
The CC WiFi Internet Radio has been a revelation to me. Why? Two reasons:
(1) I live in Tucson, AZ, now, but I used to live in Madison, WI. With the CC WiFi Internet Radio I can listen to Wisconsin radio stations when I am in Tucson. Amazing!
(2) I prefer NPR and all-news stations. There are relatively few 100% news stations in the USA, but now I can get all the one I want — including Chicago’s WBBM even though I am far from Chicago!
I did not know about internet radio until I stumbled onto yours one day on the internet. It has completely changed my listening habits.
I own two CC Radios and could not do without them on a daily/nightly basis.
My childhood was so filled with radio that it’s hard to pick out one “favorite” story. So I’ll sum it up by saying that to this day, I still remember how much AM radio became a focal point of my summer vacation evenings. At the summer place, at a lake, it was perfect distance listening, so even though the house was in the Adirondacks in Upstate New York, it was usually the rock n roll from Cousin Brucie in New York City, or Boston, Chicago, or other major market 50,000 watt powerhouse stations that we would sing along to, all thanks to the powerful nighttime reception of AM radio.
Growing up in North Florida I used to listen to distant AM stations at night. My father was a radio tech during WW2 and later as a hobby and I followed in his footsteps. In teenage years I put up a outside FM antenna and logged quite a bit of DX station sometimes 100’s of miles from me. Later I became a ham and continue being radio active today. Thanks CCrane for helping to support the hobby.
Probably the time I found an old 1968 Zenith Tranoceanic radio at a garage sale and purchased it for 5 bucks! Man it is worth so much more now and it works fine…
This isn’t a favorite, but it’s memorable. I was listening to WCCO, AM 830 in Minneapolis, on the morning of September 11. It was shortly before 8 AM Central Time, and Dave Lee, the morning radio host, said that “a small plane has crashed into the World Trade Center in New York”. Little did we know what was coming. But my CCRadio kept me updated throughout the day, into the night, and for days to come. That radio is still tuned to WCCO AM 830, and I still listen to Dave Lee every morning. Thanks for such an important, trustworthy tool!
When I was 10 or 11, in the 1950s, I acquired a crystal radio, strung an antenna wire up with the aid of my older brother, drove a metal rod into the ground to provide a ground, connected the antenna, rod and radio to a lightning arrestor, and had amazingly interesting nights listening to the world of radio without electricity! Scratching the “whisker” around the crystal, and sliding a slider along a coil of copper wire constituted the tuning. I learned that signals came not just from a nearby 50,000 watt WHAM radio station, but from lots of other stations, located in places I’d never visited: West Virginia, Boston, and New York City. I got to learn at least about their programs, such as Gene Autry, through my crystal set. It was always a mystery, which station would play next when I moved the whisker? And finding the first station wasn’t always easy.
When I went away to college in 1960, the crystal radio got packed away in my parents attic with other childhood oddities. What to my surprise, when we bought a house in Rochester that my parents had retired to, but that old crystal radio was in the attic! They may have known how much it meant to me? It sits now, on my computer desk, above my monitor, a reminder of a generation of radio that has largely passed, –a generation that provided the impetus for our transistor and integrated circuit world we live in today. It’s one of my treasured momentos of childhood, when radio technology was young and so was the boy. I am very thankful that my parents, now long deceased, held on to what many would have considered junk — perhaps because their son had once found joy in it.
I can tell you great stories of goings on inside radio stations, but I’m sure you meant best story about a radio receiver, so here is mine, from just before my teenage years in the early 1960s: a widow friend of my parents gave me her old stand-up console radio from the 1930s. Lovely to look at but nothing great to listen to, but it had one interesting feature: an extremely powerful IF transformer.
Sunday mornings in Vancouver at the time had every Top 40 station running religious programming until Noon, so the neighbour boy, 5 years old than me, found KJR in Seattle and was playing it loud in his backyard as he did some work. The console radio had a longwave band, which meant I could set it to 495 KHz which, when added to the 455 KHz IF frequency, created a huge howl on KJR’s 950 frequency.
Drove the neighbour kid crazy. Soon after, I did a range check on the IF transformer and it faded out just over 300 feet away.
I bought the original CC Radio when I was working on a container ship. I needed a radio that would bring in stations while we were way out in the Pacific. The CC could hear stations from the West Coast most of the way to Japan at night and I regularly tuned Australia, New Zealand and quite a few island stations as well. Having the ability to tune 1 kHz at a time really helped when tuning stations spaced at 9 kHz in other areas of the world. I still have the radio umpteen years later. A bit worse for wear but it works as good as it did when it was new. I also purchased the CC Radio EP which I like even more for DX’ing. CC Radios are the best!
I think I bought my first CCRadio in 2003 but I have always been fascinated with radios. When I lived in the Caribbean in the 50s and 60s, I would turn my old Sangean’s dial ever so slowly to see what stations I could pick up at night.
Then when I discovered Internet radio, I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven. Now I have CCWiFi1s in at least 3 rooms in my house. But one can never have too many radios!
Have always liked listening to radio broadcasts – baseball, music, talk radio. My grandfather got me started with a small GE transistor portable and also a crystal radio kit and a few Heath Kit projects that I inherited.Even have a zenith Trans Oceanic (late ’40s early ’50s) that needs work. Also have a C Crane SENTA Ally that works well. My Grandfather told me a story about when he was in seminary as a young man (mid 1920’s). He and a couple of friends strung a copper antenna wire in the cracks of the hardwood floor of their attic dorm room so that they could listen to my grandfather’s radio. Contraband at the time! They were supposed to be about the Lord’s work!. The wire was well hidden until the floor got sanded for refinishing and the shiny copper wire was exposed, getting them all in trouble with the Monsignor.
My first radio was a cheap transistor radio that I bought with money I saved from doing odd jobs for the neighbors as a kid. I cherished that thing and would listen to anything I could at night under my pillow. Fast forward to 1999 or so when I was listening to my Sony Walkabout that my Dad had given me. I was scanning the AM dial when I heard this deep resonate voice coming through. It was Art Bell of course way back in his KDWN, days. I have never stopped listening since, and naturally I found C Crane as a result as well. That Sony is long gone but my Sangean Sonido, Terk am antena, and Voz earbuds are the best! Congrats on 17 years folks!
I meant fast forward to 1989 or so.
I used a diode salvaged from old radio parts bin and soldered one end to a long wire antenna and the other end to a wire going to ground. I attached the leads of a set of earphones across the diode and managed to hear the signal of a powerful station miles away, KDKA Pittsburgh, PA.
I live under an antenna farm in a steel and concrete condominium complex about 9 miles west of Boston. AM radio reception is a real challenge even at night. My CC Pocket Radio pulls in all the stations I like to listen to overnight loud and clear. I bought one and now I own two of them!
I bought 2 of the original versions…. Loved having the TV audio on those. I added a Twin Coil Ferrite® AM Antenna Signal Booster and the performance was the best, even in my electrically noisy office. Both radios are still in use today and are amazing for AM talk radio, night or day. Will there ever be a time when you consider TV audio again?
Love all the C. Crane gear I have bought over the years.
I have been listening to the radio since that first crystal set I made as a Cub Scout 65 years ago. I was proud of an old Philco console radio I picked up at a farm sale. I like many older AF pilots listened to commercial radio in flight on the old coffee grinder ADF sets. Retired now with tinnitus from those noisy engines, my CC radio with the great AM reception and the shutoff timer puts me to sleep like a baby every night listening to Talk Radio WJR, blow torch of the midwest and with earplugs that spare my wife the noise.
Ever since I was 11 years old (47 years ago), listening to the Cardinals on the mighty KMOX in St. Louis from my bedside in Kenmore, New York, I was hooked on radio and its magic to bring information from hundreds of miles away. The radio was a cheap alarm radio with AM only, so I realized the medium was out there to be captured. I remember attempting for many years to find a radio that would reliably allow me to receive not only local AM broadcasts, but distant ones as well. The GE Super Radio was fine, but it had analog tuning that tended to drift, and really needed a better antenna. Along came a CCrane advertisement in the extinct Speaker Builder magazine of the 1990s. Ordered a catalog; the rest is history. I own and use 4 Justice antennas, 3 CC Radio Plus (just purchased a 2E), numerous FM reflect antennas and a few Sangean handhelds – all wonderful items that have enabled my AM habit. Thank you for all of your support and ideas!
Every year my father’s local electrical workers’ union had a family picnic filled with fun and games for all ages with wonderful prizes given. I was about 12 years old and I won my very first radio at the picnic by catching a piglet that had been slathered in Crisco shortening, I was so very proud of my radio, I 1960’s vintage transisitor radio in a leather case with a shoulder strap. It was like a magic box to me – turn it on out of the speaker came beautiful music and words from places and people I could only imagine.
Bought an old Cc-radio on ebay and even though the display is broke, the reception is great, can pick up Detroit Tiger baseball from Lima Ohio.
About 20 years ago, I was late getting on the road to travel 100 miles from Washington, DC to Newark, DE to attend a UMass-Delaware football game. So, I “tuned” my PC to the internet station that would carry the game and channeled the sound through a radio which I used as a PC loudspeaker. I then dialed my home phone from my cell phone, answered the call and put the home phone receiver next to the radio speaker. Then I jumped in my car and drove to Delaware listening to the game through my cell phone all the way to my seat. By the way, Mr. Hornsby, you can’t imagine how much pain Bill Mazeroski caused a 10 year boy that I knew very well as he sat in front of his TV in Irvington, NJ in 1960. Ralph Terry served up that dinger.
In 1969 I was asked to go on a hunting party to the East coast of Nicaragua. ( near the Atlantic side of the new canal) I put a Drake transceiver with a battery and tape dipole antenna in a military surplus waterproof box to fly in to a camp on the East coast. The party included an astronaut and a U.S. government official who needed to be in daily contact with Washington. Three years later I was asked to return to Managua to help with the recovery from the December 23rd earthquake. That same radio station had been left with my friends in Managua and was there to relay messages to the U.S.. During the revolution that radio was used to talk to family member in the U.S. During and after the revolution. I have been a HAM since 1967 and was a dealer for Sangean radios after I saw them at the CES show in Las Vegas in 1984. I still believe that they are the best value in consumer electronics. I have bought 5 of them from CCrain.
Favorite radio story is when I finally was able to buy a second-hand Sony ICF-2010 from Universal Radio after saving up money during my student days. It was just too expensive for me new. I still have it 🙂
Wow, I can’t decide what my favorite radio story is! 🙂 There’s a couple that come to mind, though…
Using a Select-A-Tenna and some pocket-sized radios, I’ve been able to occasionally hear stations like 680 KNBR, 700 KALL, 810 KGO, and during winter, 1530 KFBK and 1580 KMIK in El Cajon, CA.
One early morning a few years ago (around February or March I think), I woke up a little before sunrise (about 5am my time), to find my radio (Sony SRF-59) and headphones lying in a heap next to me on the bed. (I’d gone to sleep listening to something on either 640, 910, 1090 or 1580 most likely, I forget now though.) I put the headphones on, and not 5 seconds later heard a weak spanish ID for XEEX. I looked it up online and it turned out it was a graveyard station from Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico on 1230 about 795 miles southeast of me! Those blind-luck catches can be quite fun. 🙂
Hey I´m German and I´m using several CCrane Radios. Do you think we don´t have good Radios in Germany? No, our own Radios are ok, but CCRane Devices are better!!!. That´s why I changed Years before. Only the Weather Band is not working in Europe:-) Go on CCrane I love you!
Now that my wife and I are retired, we hitch up our 5th wheel camper and head to Lake Wales Florida in December and stay thru March. We live in the Cincinnati area where we have 700 WLW. My CC-Radio is the only radio I found, due to its high input sensitivity, that could bring in the signal while in Florida. We enjoy listening to America’s Truckin Network from midnight to 5AM with our pillow speakers. I wore out the display in my first CC-Radio (about 10 years old) and have since purchased the analog model. I liked switching back and forth between WLW, 650 WSM in Nashville (to listen to the Grand Ole Opry and other country programming), and other local programming. I miss the digital feature of the CC-Radio so when funds permit that will be the next one I purchase. Your really do have a good product and one that gives me very much enjoyment.
I like my ccradio. It is the only one I have found that will pull in my favorite station 50 miles over the mountain. I have bought 4 cc radios. One had to go back for repair costing $50. The other is no longer operable (no display) after maybe 10 years. The rapired on has now lost one preset. My other two are the new version with SW. The SW band has no value to me. I miss the old TV band but understand why it is gone. The radio pulls in the station I want so I keep them but I would have expected them to last longer.
My father filed circle saws and hand saws as a part time business. I used to help him “set” the saw teeth and worked on other projects while he filed the saws. Every night in our Two Rivers, Wisconsin basement we would listen to the powerful AM radio stations from Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburg, etc. while we worked. We used an automobile radio powered with an automobile battery and charger. The hi Q tuning circuits used in automobile radios and a good antenna provided the selectivity and sensitivity to pull in and separate the nighttime radio signals. My radio listening and tinkering turned into an electrical design career that took me all over the world. I will always treasure those evenings listening to the radio and working with my father even though those memories are nearly 60 years old.
Loved listening to WORLD SERIES GAMES on my AM only pocket transistor radio back in the ’60s…..
I enjoyed listening to distant AM stations on my dad’s car radio as a youngster. Those tube radios in the pre-transistor era offered some of the best reception.
My first experience with radio was when a cousin and I built our own crystal radios. We strung wire antennas from the back of the house in Royal Oak, Michigan to the garage to pull in as many stations as possible. The strongest station in the area was WEXL, primarily a country and popular hits station. But, it was a wonderful way to fall asleep every night with earphone plugged into our sleepy head on the pillow. Later, we moved to northern Michigan, where the most powerful station, WLS, came drifting across Lake Michigan to fill our ears with Top 40 hits. To this day, at 68, I still love listening to the radio as I fall asleep. Today, I listen to the CC Pocket Radio, and absolutely love it! Especially when listening to late Detroit Tiger games.
Thank you CC Radio for producing such fine products and promoting the joy of radio.
Jim Avery
Listening to the Apollo Theater on the crystal radio I made. Hid it under my pillow and fell asleep to music from a culture different from my own. Broadened my horizons at an early age. I’ve been an avid listener all my life to all types of broadcasts.
AM radio memories go back to the early 1950’s. My dad would let me set in the front seat of the Hudson Hornet when I was a kid and I was allowed to tune the radio to any station I liked. We moved from Texas to Southern California and back to Texas several times and stations were few and far between on Rout 66 in those days. There were no talk radio stations and most of the stations I could find were country western, Sons of the Pioneers , Spade Cooley and the like , I hated them. Much later when I was in the service I had a portable radio and would sit on the beach, on any island we were on while making a practice landing, and try to find the Armed Forces station so we could listen to comedy shows like Amos and Andy, the Bickersons, Ma and Pa Kettle and music. Now I never listen to music and the likes of Art Bell, Coast to Coast and other talk shows are all that comes through the speaker. I have moved off my sailboat after 18 years and found that radio reception in the Piney Woods of South East Texas is like being on the far side of the moon. Art Bell and George Noory both advertise CCane Radio and I hope to get one soon so that I can once again listen to my favorite entertainment.at night, TV is driving me nuts. Thanks for making a radio that will bring in distant stations.
Over 20 years ago I was living in NY and was an ardent Yankee fan. As most other Yankee fans, I hated the Boston Red Sox and took real pleasure when the Red Sox lost. During the baseball season the Yankees play Boston over a dozen games and when the Yankees win – all hell breaks loose on the Boston Red Sox talk radio (I believe the station was WBZ AM). I could smile and laugh as Boston caller after caller would announce their frustration with the Red Sox and their hatred for the Yankees hour after hour on WBZ.
The problem was receiving that Boston radio station. The Boston station was about 200 miles away and was between two powerful NY radio stations. So I found out about a radio store (I think the name was Gilfer Radio) in Park Ridge NJ. I visited the store and explained my problem. They suggested that I buy a GE AM/FM Superadio that was portable and quite large. They said the large built in antenna and the excellent sound would be great for nighttime long range listening.
Well they were right – the GE radio did do a much better job of picking up long range radio stations. Of course it was not perfect but way better than my small admiral portable radio. I spent many hours smiling and laughing listening to WBZ after a Red Sox loss.
From that point on I recognized the value of a good radio and have bought two C Crane radios (the shortwave pocket radio and the weatherband AM FM radio). They are both excellent radios.
As a longtime news/talk radio listener, I owned a SONY and GE radio to listen, but it wasn’t until I purchased a CCradio that I could hear the difference between radios. I’ve been listening to my CCradio ever since! The sounds are clear and crisp, and I’ve listened to my CCradio for a while now! I remember tubes for radio or TV back in the ’60’s!
I HAVE BEEN A NIGHT RADIO LISTENER SINCE 1945 WHEN I LISTENED TO THE MUSIC OF THE BIG BANDS AND FRAMK SINATRA AS A KID. THEN CAME JEAN SHEPARD FROM CINCINATTI ON HIS ALL NIGHT SHOW. WHILE I WAS IN COLLEGE .I BOUGHT ONE OF YOUR EARLY RADIOS TO LISTEN AT NIGHT WITH MY EARBUD TO ART BELL.I DO MISS HIM. AM IN THE PROCESS OF RESTORING MY HALLICRAFTERS SX42 BUT HAVING A PROBLEM FINDING A LOCAL EXPERT.NPR DOES HAVE SOME GOOD LATE NIGHT OVERSEAS SHOWS.NOW ON MY 2ND OF YOUR RADIOS. YOU HAVE ONE PROBLEM,YOUR EARBUDS SUCK.
Must be good! I currently have 6, could always use a 7th! Very dependable and reasonable. Thanks.
When I was in grade school, my dad, an electrician and HAM radio enthusiast, was my hero. I spent every moment I could in his radio shack. With his guidance, we together built a totally home-made “crystal” radio which used a diode and could be tuned. It used a single ear-piece. There was no on/off switch. Every morning, when the signals were particularly clear, I would wake to the music from that radio. Dad died before I got to high school, but that radio continued to wake me every morning and remind me of dad.
I’ve listened to a lot of long distance AM radio since I was young, and the furthest I received from where I live (Atlanta) was KFI in Los Angeles. When radio stations started streaming on the Internet, I’d listen for a good while until it was time to turn the computer off. Then in 2006, the Internet radio caught my fancy and I popped for the CC Wifi Internet radio. With help from a router, I have been able to now hear my favorite stations from my home state, California, anytime. That plus numerous other stations I’d normally hear at night on this side of the country which I can now hear anytime.