While I've not used the Degen model that John S. recommends here, it
seems to be the consensus here that it's the best under $100 portable,
and that it pretty much stands its own across the board among compact
portables.

I'd personally go with the Sony ICF-SW7600GR as far as compact
portables go. The sync detector feature can really make a difference
in certain listening conditions (adjacent channel interference,
fading).

If you wanna go all out, the E1 is a very nice fully featured portable,
but it's larger in size (and in price!).

junius