As I grew up, I had very little exposure to HIFI equipment. I was always a mono dog because $tereo was expen$ive. I have mono tape recorders, mono record players and mono AM/FM radios. There was the short time my brother had a stereo 8 Track player, but he didn't own any tapes. (It was loaned to him by a friend along with tapes. )  I had moved and received a 70's Soundesign record changer (BSR Rock On Rock) and a Soundesign 8 track tape receiver plus speakers. I only owned a few records and still didn't have any 8 Track tapes. When I got my first gig at a participating fast food restaurant I had a cheap car to fill with cheap gas and the stores were flooded with cheap portable stereos. "Walkman clones" Of course, if they weren't a big name, they generally had crappy headphones and the stereo jack was the first thing to go. I had "Unisef" and "Crown" and "GE". (All failed when the jack failed.) I'm lucky to have two artifacts from that era in my junk collection.

Westminster's finest. *cough* This one got a lot of use and the headphone jack hasn't failed. It had some better features for a cheap walkabout.

Likely because this was a STEEL headphone jack rather than a plastic one, it survives and still works.  The separate switches for mono and stereo helped to clear up the weaker FM signals. Granted the three AA batteries is a bit odd, I never liked that back when alkaline batteries cost a bit more (or at least seemed that way when I was making a little less.)

The battery clip was the cheap out, all plastic, but it never broke. I also have the battery cover. All in all, it's a good portable. Around this time, I started getting cheap TAPE walkabouts with AM/FM radios from the above names manufacturers. (More headphone jack failures.) So, I didn't need a stand alone AM/FM anymore. However, I was in a store (don't remember which, probably Zayre) and bought this one because it was $4 closeout.

FM Stereo only, with separate left and right controls. I remember that it seemed to tune FM a bit better than the above Westminster, plus, it was a bit smaller and fit better on my waist. Trusted CAPRICE quality. They made taxis and police cars right?

Again, it's got a metal headphone jack. It has TWO leds, a green power and red stereo indicator. That was high tech to a electronics deprived  (cash starved) child of the mid 80's. I do remember tuning some far away stations in the dark and admiring the LED light. See what thrilled us before the internet?

Again it's a 3 AA battery affair. Ahhh, but the belt clip was metal. It came off the hip with a satisfying "clap". Now this isn't proven, but I guessed the FM signal was helped with this piece of metal being attached.  Can't look up PRON with it. Mmmm, two LEDs and they are different colors. Sexy.

BONUS JUNK BLOG PIC

It was a few years later when I started working at college radio stations and I wanted something to bring in the signal without using the dreck headphones that every college radio station had. Someone told me about this GE radio having just great FM performance for $10 so I bought it. GE was known for their Super Radios, generally the best FM/AM tuning radios that pulled in even the most remote signals. Indeed this walkabout  performed great and the AM section was no slouch. It allowed me to move all around the studio and keep an ear on what the broadcast was doing. It was smaller but it was chunky and a little heavy for it's size. (Like a bath sized bar of soap.)

Volume, tuning, one LED, 3AAA batteries (grrrrr) . Strictly cheap but again, great performance. It had a detachable belt clip on the back but somewhere along the line, it became detached from my possession.  Funny thing about this one, Boomer the Dog has the same radio that he used for the same radio reception reason, but it's got a different name on it. We both used these for our pirate radio broadcast at AAC98 and others. 

I still have this in my collection. I used this until I got a MP3 Player that got FM signals and I've now replaced it completely with a vintage AM/FM digital Sony Walkman. It helps to shop thrift shops for digital cameras because you can find some of those things you always wanted, but not enough to pay for it full price.  Ahhh, but find it for $2 used? YOINK.

ARF! -Ric