Don't look now, Baby Boomers, this one slipped away while you weren't looking!
The AM push-button radio, the same we used to yank out of our dashboards and throw away when we replaced it with a shiny new AM/FM/8-track player, is extinct.
Now I haven't confirmed this, but every new car I've seen, even the most basic economy models, have AM/FM electronic radios or better in them. But when we were kids, and even adults just a few years ago, the push-button AM radio was what you got when you bought a new car.
The push buttons were ingenious. When I was a kid, I wondered how on earth my dad's favorite stations would come up when he hit the buttons. I thought it was amazing that Plymouth (dad always bought Plymouths) knew ahead of time where KMOX was on the dial!
Eventually, I learned that you programmed the buttons yourself. Perhaps "programmed" isn't the best term to use, because it very low-tech. You manually found your station, pulled the button you wanted to find it with out with a mighty yank, then push it all the way back in.
As a teenager, it was great fun to get in a friend's car and switch his WLS or WOAI buttons to, say, the local gospel station.
Every Boomer probably threw away at least a dozen of these venerable, solid-as-a-rock receivers of static-plagued AM. Perhaps we should have stashed them away instead. I found this site, where you can buy classic refurbished AM push-button radios for, in some cases, hundreds of dollars!
I have a sweet car stereo system now. It has a subwoofer, numerous tweeters, mid-ranges, etc., and a multimedia in-dash unit that lets me load mp3's onto a flash drive and play them. But sometimes, I tune in a scratchy AM station just to remember what it used to sound like driving down the road.
Comments (3)
I am blessed to have a '66 Ford Mustang. I know that I well re-install a push button radio in my car, that's the finishing touch. Along with my "Kirk and Spock in "68" Bumper Sticker, boy, I'm set! Now they make them withall the new goodies on them. Sat,I-pod,that can work with a CD changer. Come to think about it, now is not too bad a time to live in too.
Posted by Craig | February 21, 2007 11:10 PM
Posted on February 21, 2007 23:10
I remember these well! Our 66 Ford Fairlane had one. And some of my own cars had them.
Posted by Rivers End | May 31, 2009 6:43 PM
Posted on May 31, 2009 18:43
I remember these well! Our 66 Ford Fairlane had one. And some of my own cars had them.
Posted by Rivers End | May 31, 2009 6:43 PM
Posted on May 31, 2009 18:43