Red Cross Radio

Twelve years in California, and I finally just bought one. Although I’ve long been in the habit of keeping five gallons of water on hand.

Note that the “cellphone charger” may not charge an iPhone. But if you have cell service, you’re probably in good shape.

I got one of those. I’m thinking about a solar cell phone charger for my elk hunting trip in October.

…runs off crank…

Just like Faye Dunaway in the 70s.

Keep safe NYC.

What do you do with it, beat someone to death who is trying to eat your pets or you? Listen to the screams of the last survivors in the radio station, howling in terror at the doors being splintered by the starving neonazi cannibals?

@ManchuCandidate: I think we’ll be fine
@nojo: don’t think I mentioned that I gave up the Droid to save some money and simplify my life – I now have a plain old flip phone that does … almost nothing. It’s all good.

@blogenfreude: I may lack health insurance, but at least I can deduct my toys and iPhone hotspot.

@nojo: Are iPhones not compatible with micro USB? (At least, I assume that’s what Bloggie’s radio has; mine is a few years old and has USB mini.)

@mellbell: I literally just ordered, and one of the older Amazon comments said it wasn’t compatible with the iPhone 3G — which I presume carries forward to the 4.

iPhones use the old iPod connector cable: regular USB to the computer or power plug, fancy custom connector to the gadget. I imagine you could find a extra cable to bridge the gap, but I’ll have to wait until it arrives to figure it out.

NYC dodges a bullet: Dave Matthews concert canceled.

@mellbell: all I know is that new Red Cross phone charges antique cell phone but NOT iPad. Damn.

Right. I can listen to crap on the radio. I am so happy.

@blogenfreude: The iPad’s another thing entirely. “Conventional” USB will pump five watts through the wire, but the iPad requires ten watts.

You can only charge it with the supplied 10W wall plug, or newer Macs where Apple’s cheated the USB specs.

@Benedick HRH KFC: After the Apocalypse, all that will remain are cockroaches and AM Wingnut Radio.

@nojo: Which is to say, the ONLY thing that will remain are cockroaches, because let’s face it, nothing says Periplaneta americana more than a right-wing talk show host.

BTW: Chris Christie’s “GET THE HELL OFF THE BEACH” rant this afternoon was actually really good television. Especially compared to Mayor Mike’s boring competence.

How it all looks on teevee is the important thing, of course.

@nojo: Hey! Don’t knock the AM band.

The ABC (aka Australian Broadcasting Corporation, aka the Gay.B.C) is the national broadcaster and is the radio station to turn to in case of emergency. And they broadcast on the AM band!

That’s why the battery operated radio is pre-tuned to the ABC right next to the spare batteries, torches, candles and machete.

The rest of the AM band is a wasteland of bigotry and sponsored shock-jocks.

@CheapBoy: My first radio gig was in college, as a news stringer for KBDF/KZEL in Eugene. KBDF was AM Top 40; KZEL was FM Album Rock.

And both had live DJs 24/7.

This was in 1979.

I remember well good ol’ transistor-radio AM, but it died here more than a generation ago. NPR got lucky — it started on all those public stations on what was then an FM ghetto, and then technology caught up.

@nojo: Cockroaches? I haz them … but if you got ideas about charging iPad during Irene I am all eeerz.

And we still have 1010 WINS here in NYC – AM radio NEWS! At its WORST! But it’s still what you listen to in an emergencia.

@blogenfreude: None that I know of — but unless it’s a 3G model, there’s not much you can do without wifi.

@nojo: My first radio gig was 3 to 5 am Sunday morning on WOBC FM (10 watts of juice – barely enough to reach the outer dorms).

They didn’t mind if I wanted to play two hours straight of hissy live Grateful Dead tapes (or plain old static).

@Walking Still: Gawd, I loved doing radio. Waking up at 4 a.m. I could do without, however.

@Walking Still: @nojo: I did “Night Beat”, from 11pm to 2am which was when our 10 watt shop shut down. Except for the week that I convinced the station manager to try a 24 hour format – during which I volunteered for three 2am to 6am shifts just to show him that more than cows and prisoners picked up our station out there in the boonies.

Radio was hella fun – three hours to force people to listen to whatever you have to play or say? Sign me up…

@Nabisco: So I’m at the Eugene jazz station, doing a volunteer weekday afternoon shift, and I play a transcendent Coltrane solo.

Music director rushes into the studio: “You know you just lost half your audience?”

I didn’t last much longer there. Chickenshit management.

@nojo: Sunday at 3:00 am wasn’t too bad. I just had to extend the Saturday party or poker game a little late.

I did eventually graduate to a daytime slot by volunteering for the folk music slot – one of my better decisions. I got to greatly broaden my musical horizons, and people actually listened to my show.

I would have tried for a jazz slot, but at Oberlin those were in as much demand as the rock slots.

From about 1980 to 1988 I kept a radio tuned to a local AM news station. The manager would come on and do live interviews with news managers or politicians overseas at about 7:30 a.m., 12:15 and 5:15 to get international perspective on current events. Really interesting stuff. They eventually had to compete with another station that had Rush Blowhard. They picked up someone named Bob Gallagher I think his name was to compete. He even sounded like Rush. It was terrible.

They eventually sold out to Clear Channel. The last time I tuned in for a traffic report I couldn’t keep it tuned in long enough for the report, I almost punched the dashboard.

@nojo: I had inmates from the local Club Fed calling in requests. Other than that, no audience to lose.

@Walking Still: I scored the afternoon album of the week show once, a plum gig, and played Double Fantasy. Mark David Chapman interrupted Monday Night Football that night.

“One hundred thousand microwatts strong – Radio K.A.O.S. , University of Denver.” Spinning the likes of Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream” for the evening dinner shift back in 1979.

Radio got me out of my dusty little Indian village in northern New Mexico because the reports from ABC News correspondents around the world on hour long Sunday night shows plus having been a few other places got me interested in a world beyond the rez.

Okay, guys. I’ll be in touch when I can. Lights keep flickering, so here we go!

@JNOV: “Uh oh oh oh, here we go!”

“Row row row!”

“Ding ding!”

One of the things I miss about London is the radio. The Beeb has people reading books and it’s very nice. They also have plays – fewer now – and they did some fine if eccentric documentaries. One of them The Long March of Everyman was pretty spectacular. I like radio. And I am buying me one of them red things.

I am number four

@redmanlaw: <3!

power come, power go, modem reset, back online, power go…

Power to the People!

Golly, what a cute little radio! Fits in your palm, tunes in Warner Brothers.

Wait, no. WB is Weather Band.

But does it charge an iPhone? The NojoPhone says no.

Ah. Switch the tuner to USB, plug it in, and crank like there’s no tomorrow. NojoPhone slurps it up.

The StinquePad also seems to like it. But no telling how much cranking is needed to get a decent charge.