Time Capsule #19: the alarm clock radio

How did you wake up for those 9 o'clock classes?

In 103 New Hamp, I had one of these 'solid-state' radios with a clock built in. It pushed out DCR broadcasts through its 2-inch speaker just fine.

Lot of good it did me. Although the alarm function worked perfectly and started playing DCR's classical music show at 8:50 every MWF, somehow it always got turned off, and I opened my bleary eyes at around noon.

Musta been the mellow Eine kleine Nachtmusik. Good golly, miss Molly! Mitch Rider & the Detroit Wheels would have been more effective.

The clock radio I took to Hanover was 'solid state,' a buzz-word version of transistor, which had come to be associated in the early 60s with pocket-sized radios.

Now there's the many-generations-later solid-state

flashlightcomputercamerarthermostatmaprecorderstereoweathervanenewspaperpagerbrowsercardiogramphoneclock

on your wrist or sitting on the nightstand with two dozen different wake-up sounds.

And here I don't even need a wake-up alarm anymore.

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