I feel exactly the same about radio. I guess I haven't been without some
kind of small transistor radio since I was 11. I'm 50 now, and I still like
'em. I was never in the radio business, but it started with local AM radio
listening in the late 1950's. Then came listening to stations at night from
Boston, New York and Detroit (mostly). As a teenager, the first time I got
paid for actual work I stopped at a little radio shop downtown and came home
with a pocket-sized Telefunken that had the names of European cities on the
dial. Later came a Grundig Elite Boy, and then some Sonys. I too listened to
internet radio for a while, but it's just not the same. I watch TV, but late
at night, it's a radio I like - one that's small enough to be in whatever
room I'm in, and that doesn't absolutely have to be connected to an antenna
or to the wall. To me, listening to a distant radio station makes me feel
like being there. It's exciting, and it's like walking - it's free, in the
air for the taking. For that reason, I really don't get much of a kick from
international broadcasts that are relayed. I want to hear them from where
they are. Of course, I wouldn't mind a nice communications receiver if I
could ever afford one - but not one that runs on the computer.
Pierre


"Corbin Ray" wrote in message
...
I'm still enjoying my new little friend.

You have to understand what I am about. I was born in 1958 here in
Kentucky.
I grew up listening to local radio until 1972 when a friend introduced
me
to
nighttime radio (WLS, WOWO, WCFL, WAKY, WLAC...) and my whole world
changed.
The radio became a magical place where I could get away from the
doldrums
of
the boring stuff around me and escape to wherever those magical voices
were.
I imagined myself being in everyone of those places. Our internet today
was
like my radio then, but my radio had better pictures. Of course, my
first
job was as a DJ at a local station. I worked in radio many years,
eventually
managing a group of top-rated stations. I'm now out of the radio
business,
but I can never get radio out of me. When I go to bed at night, I cuddle
with my radio (my wife cuddles with a TV, but that's another story). And
if
conditions permit, I tune my radio around the AM band just like I did 30
years ago. To me, the perfect radio has nothing sticking out of it. I
have
owned expensive desktop radios, but they have to be plugged into the
wall
and to a bunch of antennas. I even had a computer-controlled radio. That
was
even worse. Listening to radio through my computer made no sense at all.
It's no different than listening to a real audio stream. No thanks. A
wireless radio was sufficient for me in 1972, and a wireless radio is
sufficient for me today. And sometimes late at night, when I hear the
announcer on WLS say that the outbound Dan Ryan is 15 minutes to O'Hare,
then I feel like I'm 14 again, and the magic of radio is still in me.