Before the thread went off in a completely different direction,
(Dennis M) wrote:

Hello radio enthusiasts,

I own a General Electric "Superadio III" that I purchased new back around
2001. I've never had any problems with it until this June when I was
vacationing on the beach down in Florida. The FM band suddenly went out and
only a low static sound could be heard, but the AM band seemed to pick up
as normal. Turning the radio off and back on again didn't fix the problem.
But when I tried it indoors the next day, the FM seemed to pick up fine.
But when I was at a local beach yesterday, the same thing happened.

My question is, could weak batteries possibly cause this kind of behavior?


Yes! That is *exactly* what happens as the batteries come to the end
of their lives in the Superadio.

As that time draws close, you'll have to turn the radio up a little
more to get the same volume, but you probably won't notice. Then, the
sound will become a little distorted, and you might eventually notice
that. Not too much later, what you describe will happen. (The FM
section takes more power than the AM and will stop working sooner.)

When you tried the radio the next day, as you wrote above, it worked
because the batteries had had enough time to build up a little charge,
not because it was inside (although some might argue the heat of the
outdoors could have increased the resistance of the components in the
radio more than it could have increased the output of the
simultaneously-dying batteries and was, thus, a factor). You'll
sometimes be able to operate the FM a little longer if you do it at a
low level.....