C. Crane Blog

June 24, 2019

Radio Buddy for the Garden by Bob Crane

20160311_081649_007 I’m not able to weed eat my yard like I used to so my long time gardener, Bill, comes in every two weeks and helps with the grueling part. He is as bad as I am about the necessity of having a radio to listen to while he works. He is also a fantastic radio tester for me. He has broken about eight radios and radio headsets over about as many years. It has been over five years now since we built him a chest harness to hold the CC Pocket, a heavy duty audio cable and a set of noise cancelling headphones. And nothing’s broken! If you are a hard working gardener then you will understand the gravity of a long lasting radio setup you can depend on!

For myself there is a certain educational show on Sunday I hate to miss. Unfortunately I am always running around the yard on Sundays trying to catch up with plants, weeds, leaks and “fall aparts”. With my hands full there is one radio I can clip on my pants… The CC Pocket! All AM radio signals are directional so I occasionally need to crab walk down the driveway to keep good reception. I try to arrange my chores so I am somewhat stationary between commercials so I can stand the little guy up next to me. The CC Pocket is a small, convenient go-to radio when nothing else does the job!

June 6, 2019

June – Podcast Friday!

What we’re listening to — The Michael Harrison Interview

Michael Harrison interviews some of today’s top contemporary thinkers in every realm of conversation. He talks arts, science, politics, philosophy and pop culture. He provides unique insights every week and thought provoking content.

A master interviewer and industry insider – We’ve been friends with Michael for over 20 years. We met originally at an early Talker’s Magazine Talk Radio Event in New York City in 1999. He along with very few others know what makes radio tick. He has an amazing gift to traverse and bring together diverse groups of talent and present varying sides of a topic. It’s rare to find someone who can moderate discussions and debates with opposing opinions without judgment and keep it on an intelligent trajectory.

Some of his recent guests and topics

May 2, 2019

Welcome to Podcast Friday!

The first Friday of every month we will be featuring a new podcast that we’re listening to here at C. Crane. Our hopes are that we expose you to something new that you may have not heard of before and something you may enjoy.

What we’re listening to — The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe

If you’re tired of debate and posturing, here’s someone who’s so down to earth, tongue and cheek, and actually talking about things that matter, but even more importantly – doing something and giving you a way to do something too!

You may recognize the name Mike Rowe from the show he hosted Dirty Jobs on Discovery Channel. His podcast is 10 minutes and it’s kind of a Paul Harvey “rest of the story” about a real person, place or thing with a little twist. You can listen directly on the link below, or subscribe and listen through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher.

A shameless ad for his podcast.

Mike is also great in other ways. He has a Facebook show Returning the Favor where he travels across the United States in search of people who are giving back to their communities. At the end of each episode, those being profiled get surprised with a reveal that allows them to do even more of whatever kind of good work they are doing.

Here’s something that might resonate with some of you Video of Mike Rowe exposing the scam of college and student loans. We’re not looking to debate whether education is important, we believe in education but we also believe in fiscal responsibility and we believe that hard work is important and college isn’t necessarily for everyone (especially if it means being burdened with a debt you could never repay).

He has a great foundation too, Mike Rowe Works Foundation to help support folks who want to go into skilled trades and labor.

If you listen to podcasts, we’d love to know what you are listening to please comment on our blog post. If you comment you will be entered to win a pair of CC Buds Pro. Drawing will take place 5/29/19 only one entry per person.

Congratulations to awenner1 for winning a new pair of the CC Buds Pro! Thank you to everyone that participated and good luck with any contests we do in the future!

December 23, 2018

Happy Holidays

christmas2018

A Message from Bob Crane

Thank you for your interest in radio! Your support is the only reason C. Crane has prospered for 35 years. Your comments and suggestions make us strive to produce better radios for clearer audio and magical entertainment.

We hope you have a fabulous New Year, and we look forward to serving you.

November 29, 2018

Recommended Gift Guide from C.Crane 2018

Holiday Gifts

Every year we talk to hundreds of customers looking for the right gift, often they’re curious about our own personal preference or what we might recommend. Below are some recommendations that we’ve gathered to help you in your journey to picking out not only a great gift but something that will actually be used!

Check out this year’s holiday gift guide for more ideas and as always – you can contact us directly to answer any questions or help you with your selection. Continue Reading

September 20, 2018

The Only Communication Immediately After a World-Wide Internet Crash will be Radio . . .

The Internet is about 20 years old, yet we depend on it as if it was an amendment under the Bill of Rights. It has given a quantum leap in knowledge to half of the world’s population. Probably each one of us is concerned about content, speed and how it changes all facets of our lives including our jobs. The pace of change seems to be accelerating.

I have taken very small excerpts from the well written articles listed below. They are probably the most frightening articles I have read in 10 years. We can safely presume many more hacks and viruses have made their way into our computers without becoming public knowledge. The full articles below are available on Wired Magazine and the Wall Street Journal online or mobile. Search the title and publisher for the full article (a subscription may be required to view the full articles).

September 7, 2018

Is the government going to close WWV, WWVH and WWVB?

C. Crane loves radio and are here to make sure you’re informed when something might impact radio in a negative way. The NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) has proposed cutting their radio stations (WWV, WWVH, and WWVB) from their budget next year. This is the only reliable source of shortwave to see how band conditions are. This would equate to all three stations being closed down. We’ve heard from our friends in the field that shortwave radio listeners are gutted by the idea of losing WWV and WWVH–both stations are staple references for listeners and hams alike. The loss of WWVB would mean that all of the atomic clock-synchronized time pieces out there in North America (clocks, watches, weather stations, etc.) would stop synchronizing and automatically changing from DST to standard time. We’ve heard conflicting reports as to whether WWVB would be impacted or not.

Our good friend and radio advocate Thomas Witherspoon was recently interviewed by NPR as to what impact this would have and why it matters. You can listen to the full interview here: https://www.npr.org/2018/08/25/641835302/what-closing-a-government-radio-station-would-mean-for-your-clocks. Continue Reading

August 15, 2018

It’s Wildfire Season on the West Coast and Flooding on the East Coast – Here’s What You Need to Know to Stay Safe in an Emergency

When logging into PG&E’s (Pacific Gas and Electric) website, the following message appears. WILDFIRE SAFETY – ACTION REQUIRED.

pgewildfireactionrequired

A quick Google search leads to the following information.

PG&E on Tuesday warned customers in the Bay Area about a new policy that will cut electricity to certain neighborhoods during extreme fire weather conditions.

Customers were told to be “prepared” for when the alerts go into effect and the power could be abruptly cut off….

PG&E is talking about using these pre-emptive power outages specifically during the threat of wildfires like the ones that destroyed nearly a quarter of a million acres in the north bay last October.

PG&E has now been blamed for some of those fires. 90,000 people were evacuated and more than 40 people died.

Southern California Edison has a similar program in place…. Continue Reading

July 23, 2018

Why AM Listening is Better at Night

If you listen to AM radio stations at night that are just impossible to pick up during the day, chances are you’re benefiting from sky-wave propagation. Propagation is just the technical word for how radio signals travel through the air. Sky-wave propagation is the specific name given to radio waves that travel through the sky. Sky-wave propagation takes place between sunset and sunrise. It’s the flip side to the ground wave propagation used to transmit during the day. Continue Reading