Why the hell did I buy this? Aren't clock radios a dime a dozen? What kind of a junk blog are you handing us with your fancy shmantzy "stereo" and your fancy dancey "headphone jack"  and your "grade AAA" fancy cream cheese and your frozen Lenders onion bagels and you're tuning in the FM on your dying Sirius radio. Well, this was it. I saw it for many years in Best and U.S. Merchandise catalogs. Imagine, super deluxe STEREO in your CLOCK RADIO!

It just didn't compute in the 80's. Why the hell would I want a stereo radio just to wake my ass up in the morning? A: It was fancy shmantzy!  All silver with fake wood grain top and BLUE NUMBERS! No cheap ass clock radio had the BLUE NUMBERS! I wanted one. Sorta. Eh. I was happy with a cheap Timex or the free GE clock radio I got for opening a checking account. (Still in use!)

I wouldn't think of listening to this through the headphone jack. For that we had the extra option of a portable stereo tape player. "Battery Backup" was another neat plus. If for some reason the power failed, it meant, like your VCR, it would flash 12:00 and you'd miss getting up for your opening shift at Mickey D's so you could make the weekend biscuits. Not that it mattered. You've quit 5 times and that was just last week!

You were smarter than that. You could set the VCR timer. You had too in order to tape David Letterman's summer of '86.  "Get into The Fountain!" "Dave don't make me come over there and HURT YOU." "Once around the course and back to the lodge for some cocoa." "Do you have a plate in your head? I Have a whole set of china!" "Caravan with a drum solo!" "Lady Liberty Cheeze Curls"  (and many more.....)

2 wake times was also a great option. If you didn't like mashing the "Snooze" bar, you'd shut off "A" and wait for the G-Team In The Morning to wake you with "B". Holy SH*T! It was the 80's and this was STEREO! It could wake you to "We Built This City" and you'd hear Grace Slicks knockers banging against the microphone or "M-E-T-H-O-D-O-F-L-O-V-E" being crooned by the dude with the moustache that all late 80's Howard Stern producers had. No sir. It was all MONO for me.

Ha! Those wackos over at the Philippines GE design studio didn't know how to spell "Snooze". There's NO GSNOOZ like GOOD GSNOOZ with GARY GNU. (Skitch! Great Space Coaster. Thanks.) Silver trim. Ever present fake wood grain finish over the finest plastic pieces parts. Plus, real time setting! Lets see, you don't have to fast forward all the way around the clock if you didn't stop quick enough at the actual time! A product that was easy to use? GE! Imagination At Work! Separate switches for every function!

Ever try to set a Casio watch with Telememo and analog hands as well as digital readout? You get 4 buttons and one is the "barely able to" light. You might as well have two watches for every six months.  I'm guessing GE must have thought: "Hell, we have the room on top of this concert STEREO clock radio, why not make it setting it EASY! After all, We Bring Good Sh*t to life!"  Also for lesser/faint stations you had the option to use MONO to listen to your hot rockin "Bernie Bernie! Oh Bay Bee! Superbowl!"

A brightness switch! A man BUILT THIS. It's a STEREO CLOCK RADIO. Hey, tuner for your fancy stereo on the fritz? Headphone OUT baby! Battery door WITHOUT THE F-IN SCREW! Wow. They should have charged a thousand bucks for this little gem. I just couldn't justify the extra money for something that would be tethered to a wall outlet and only used to wake me with Mr. Leonard griping how his lime green Pinto threw a rod when he was on the way to another radio station to do another ding ding wacky morning zoo.

Now to brass tacks. GE clock radios have a reputation for being bullet proof. About the only thing that ever failed on one of my GE's was the knob that set it to "On" or "Off" Or "Wake"  stripped after years of use, and I didn't even let that stop me from using it with a unmatched knob from an older radio. The other thing that was so good about these is the tuners they used were top notch. Almost any 80's and early 90's non-digital tuned GE AM/FM product could bring in FM loud and clear and distant AM pretty decent. The fact that this was stereo sealed the deal as a thrift shop purchase, and shortly thereafter I bought a second backup. I use this in my living room to play my Sirius radio broadcast through. Crystal clear, and decent fidelity for a clock radio. Sorta looks like a BOSE Waveradio don't it? F-Them. Mine cost two bucks. Junk? There's no input for an IPOD. Hmmmmm.

ARF! -Ric