Early in my career with C. Crane, Bob assigned me the task of becoming an expert on the Sangean ATS 909. This radio was pretty small compared to a lot of our radios at the time and pretty complex with multiple key presses to access additional features.
Continue ReadingWhy Is AM Radio Important?
A Message From Bob Crane, Founder of C. Crane
Probably because it is a “community” for the U.S. and much of the world. It is free and travels better at night than FM. I still listen to “AM” every day, but I listen via streams over the internet on a CC Radio-3 through the FM Transmitter 3 with a CC WiFi 3 most of the time. It makes no difference to me how I listen. I love my stations and continually learn valuable tidbits that change my life, and it is entertaining.
Continue ReadingRemembering the Answering Machine – Part One of an Eight Part Series
One of my most vivid memories at C. Crane, was when I was very new. This was circa 1997. We were in the brown house over on 10th street for those of you who visited. This was a period when Art Bell was just starting to take off and each day Bob would share how many new stations picked up his show. To say things were busy for us would be an understatement.
Continue ReadingWhen the Emergency Hits, It’s Too Late
There’s a definite trend: people (I am people) wait until an emergency to get prepared for one, and sometimes it’s too late. We experienced it locally in December of 2022 when a large earthquake hit nearby at 2:30AM right before Christmas and wreaked havoc in our little community. Cell phones weren’t working for calls. Only texts sent as a text message were going through and, in some communities, they weren’t, or they were extremely delayed. People were coming down to C. Crane for radios, flashlights, and batteries. Water sold out at stores. Stores closed for clean-up. It was quite a bit of chaos. After a pandemic, fires, etc. the earthquake was kind of the thing that sent some people over the edge.
Continue ReadingOur Hearts Are with Maui
There’s a special place in my heart for Maui, I just traveled there in May. Many of us here love Hawaii and frequent it as often as possible. Spending time in Hawaii changed my belief about time, hurry, and busyness. It gave me more respect for the ocean, waste, and all living creatures. It’s the first vacation I remember that actually felt like a vacation and the warmness of the people we met was so special. Our hearts are broken for everyone. Being in California, we’re all too familiar with the devastation of wildfire.
Continue Reading40 Years of Providing Radios to Radio Enthusiasts
C. Crane started in 1983 selling AM antennas. After starting to gain momentum selling mostly antennas and radio accessories, we received our first real technological challenge when customers started asking for recommendations on the best radio. It was 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 customers wanted and supply was erratic. It seemed that there wasn’t a good blend of features, performance, and ease of use.
Continue ReadingThe Voice of Baseball’s Play by Play – by Jessica Crotty
Watching youth baseball and softball has reminded me how much love there is for this game. I’ve seen the girls on my daughter’s team practicing with their parents, learning the game, and having fun. It feels great to be in person again.
One thing I would love but have noticed isn’t present, is play-by-play for youth sports. One of the fondest memories many of you have shared is the announcers for baseball games that you’ve listened to on the radio. I started to wonder at what age play-by-play announcing starts. I know when my son played youth football, there were announcers. It also made me wonder how many announcers in the pros started out this way.
Continue Reading“Words From Bob” from our 2021 Catalog
From Bob
After the past year in various stages of lockdown, we’re excited to see some light at the end of the pandemic tunnel and get out and explore some more. It kind of feels like the dawn of travel again, which is what inspired this year’s cover. The 1869 Mark Twain quote has been a favorite of mine since reading The Innocents Abroad.
Continue ReadingQuest for Great Audio Using the CC WiFi 3 – By Bob Crane
I remember laying down in the perfect position with my head in front of a large Packard Bell Console with a brand-new vinyl Jimi Hendrix album to take in all the audio subtleties. The position was a bit awkward, but the audio was superb. I also noticed a slight degradation of audio quality with vinyl after only three plays. I was so lucky to see Hendrix “live” a few times including his Rainbow Maui visit with 300 other people. I also saw performances by the Beatles, Stones, Grateful Dead and a few other lesser known, groups but equally good. It is interesting these groups have a smaller but clear following of a younger audience too. Edward Bulwer Lytton once said, “Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies.”
To me a musical reproduction goal is to sound like the original live performance. Audio systems can run well past $100,000 but this does not guarantee you will like the results. Quality is important but some of my chosen music was never recorded in high quality, like Cat Stevens. Normal differences in recordings means you could adjust the audio settings for each song . . . the song itself is more important. I prefer diverse and well-crafted music by talented musicians. For example, the CC WiFi 3 Internet Radio makes it easy to search for African classic music compared to your cell phone.
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