I am doing a boombox show and I am collecting narratives--why we collect, stories in our lives that make radios significant, I have a bunch already, but I thought it might be a c=great thread...I know someone has something similar from before, but I could not find it. Lasonic's recent post about 1983 made me think how great a thread would be with just stories about our lives and our radios. I will post one in the morning!

A show? Like TV, Radio, or art? Sounds interesting. My boxes will be part of a colaboration with an artist buddy of mine coming up in April in Columbus.
Should be cool, I'll be there to basically make sure no hipster F@cks with my sh!t!
Good luck.
Paul Z.

Its an interactive art installation which is part of the New Forms Art Festival, I am also worried about the same thing!

i collect them because they are cool to look at.
i mean thats the primary reason i guess.
i think they are important because in many ways they are a extension of the tradition of human beings gathering in a group and listening to music.
yes as hard as that is to grasp it is really the final device pre internet that actually brought people together in a group.
lets face it technology is now used to bring people together in a different fashion.
i mean the internet is something that i can use to exchange thoughts with but it can also be very isolationist.
throughout centuries in many many different countries people would gather around a fire and sing or play instruments.
boomboxes really are kind of the same idea as that. its a device where you can sit it in the middle of a group of people outside and listen to music news or what have you.
it is something that i think represents a better time without a doubt.
its also a intresting how the manufactuers put out so many different designs without the aid of autocad or computer designing.
so while i do not think they are pieces of art i do think they are wonderfully cool to look at.
i also think i collect them beacause it is interesting how they all sound different.
lets face reality when you are dealing with a portable audio device that you carry in your hand and run on batteries there is going to be a sacrifice in sound reproduction.
sorry its just the way it is, now that being said they still sound great,and it is interesting how the makers tried different things with different circuits to compensate for the limitations of the sound.
it is also a interesting thing to remember how many people made music with a mixer two turntables and a tapedeck.
as primitive as they are they are devices which were a part of a musical movement.
perhaps they are not historically important,but without a doubt the image of a boombox is iconic.
i guess being interested in old technology for me is important,because we have entered a time where tangible product is becoming less and less viable.
soon your computer will be everything.
in fact in many cases for people it already is.
i have a great disdain for the people who blindly accept less as being more.
i mean i sort of think its sad really. these little black rectangles that fit in the palm of your hand with your entire music collection on them. your photographs and your films.
no liner notes no coverart other than the whole digital stuff in your ipod or other device.
i am not someone that thinks that tape is better than digital or digital is better than tape or vinyl is this or that.
a great macintosh stereo will not make a crappy song sound great,nor will the worst boombox make a fantastic song sound poor.
i know that i would way rather turn on a boombox and watch the flickering leds and bouncing needles,than the lsd inspired visualizer on itunes.
so many things have been sold to us as being better throughout the years only to reveal themselves as being junk in a couple years.
we kick ourselves for getting rid of our tube amps our turntables our old cars ect ect.
i mean to me i think it is cool to realize that to buy something like a m90 today would cost three maybe four thousand dollars in todays money.
even something like a sanyo m9998k in todays dollars would be thousands.
while there has been some really nice sounding modern boomboxes like the kaboom and the panasonic dt707,they are completely different.

i mean lets say if they made a brand new m90 at a price point people could afford.
it would have so many corners cut and so much taken out of it that it would be like comparing a fender strat made in the usa,to a indonesian squire strat.
you would have two things which kinda sounded the same looked almost the same from a few feet aways,but would be so far apart in quality that it would not even be funny.
high end old boomboxes are of such high quality and made in a time where things where still meant to be bought once.
nowadays things are meant to be bought over and over again.
used and chucked out,gone is the repairman industry for eletronics.
now they seem to exist to do warranty work.
no one fixes a five year old tv any more or a five year old radio.
old boomboxes are to me in many ways the same as a campfire.

My story is this .

In my home when i was a child there was allways playing music , from the radio, from tapes and from vinyl.My father loved 2 listen 2 local music (volksmusik ). So when i got a little older , it was i think when i was 13 or 14 i just asked if i can have his radio and play some music . Sure he said yes and this was the point it started it all for me. I started 2 record my fav songs from the radio and then playing the fresh tape loud on the box from my father mounted on the handle 2 my bike. The other kids around liked it and it was just so much fun and a great time back then. Then some christmas , a brand new Philips Compo was under the tree and it was my all time best christmasgift i ever got . With this BB i recorded more and more songs from the radio and starded 2 try some editing 2 the tape´s. The boys & girls around my neighbourhood liked my tapes and i was in heaven.

So thats it it , i like tapes i love BB´s and there is almost nothing more enjoyable like listen 2 good music .

I posted my story a few month ago here!

These are great! Thanks so much to all so far.I would love some of the old timers to pitch in and tell their tales, or link to them if they've been told before, Panfan, Litfan, Iso, Gordie, JLF, Enskanker, I call you all out! Give us your boombox tales(RBJ of course and Skippy among others as well!)!

Well for me it all started when I was small. My mother always was musical and was always playing the radio or records. I got a GE tape recorder for Christmas one year and used to record popular songs from the radio.
Then my cousin got a Sanyo M9902-2 boombox and I had to have a boombox I was bit by the bug.
I used to browse through store when shopping with my parents at variety and electronic stores trying all the boomboxes out on the display shelves.
I remember begging my parents to stop at American tv and furniture in Madison Wi so I could check out the latest boomboxes and walkmans. That place was awesome back then.
My obsession for a particular boombox came when I was with my friends one day and we stopped in our local drugstore and they had a soda fountain there. The owner of the store had a new Aiwa CS-880, I had to get one I loved it smooth sound and great bass. But I knew that my parents would never buy me a expensive boombox like that.
My friends brother had an Aiwa CS-660 and he used to let my friend bring it to school once in a while. That was a very nice radio and quite loud compared to my Sanyo M9902-2. I loved playing that Aiwa and wanted one of my own.
I remember I had never heard off Aiwa until then as you couldn't just go to Shopko or Kmart and buy an Aiwa,you needed you had to go to a real electronics store for an Aiwa,it seemed exotic almost magical to me.
I remember working after school at night to save money to but a bigger boombox.
I lusted after a GE 3-6000 at my local True Value hardware store. I remember it was $109.95 and that was a LOT of money but I bought it anyway and I played that GE all the time and I loved it.....
I also remember taking my Sanyo on the schoolbus to school and playing it for my friends. We listened to Ratt,Quiet Riot,AC/DC,Vanhalen,Men at work,Asia,and home made mix tapes.
Another fond memory was at school when it was Home coming float building day. You could bring your boomboxes to school and walk around campus and blast them,it was awesome. There were boomboxes of every size. Very memorable for me.
So I guess I collect because of the fact I have always loved electronics and boomboxes in particular. I found stereo to go while on a search to find a Aiwa CS880 to buy. I found this site by accident in October of 2003 and been here almost everyday since. Now I just collect boomboxes that I like or have some personal memory feeling,or reason.

good thread idea , james-

i am so much in agreement with the billpc55 story-
not much to add to his terrific explanation -
-------------------

except - down here in florida - we live an outdoor life --day and night--

boomboxes are mostly beautiful, exiting sounding , social and portable --

bunji them to a golf cart --driving around with a discolite blinking away all night
--is a blast !!!!!

every time
-----------------------

also --as my own contribution to 'the hood'--
i buy lots of junker/beater boxes --
for no other purpose than to stock my 'free rental program' --
there are beach bonfires -at least 50 nights per year -

and whats better for that --than a cool box

It started in 1982, when I started High School in South Texas. I was about 14 Y.O. and listening to artists like DIO, Ozzy, AC/DC Van Halen, Aldo Nova - all while still into Newcleus, SugarHill Gang, GapBand, BarKays, ArtOfNoise and Malcom McLaren. This was an awkward age and I was all over the place with my music. Growing up poor, I begged my parents to buy me the best boombox they could afford. I received a modest Sony CFS-500. While I was grateful, I had my eyes on the bigger Sony. I never got it. After working a summer job, I bought a Pilot double cassete boombox which had a fold out turn table. I enjoyed this entry level box which allowed me to play both cassettes (mixing) and scratch with the turn table at the same time By now, I was so hooked on big radios and breakdancing.

I joined a breakdancing crew called "StreetLife". We had a huge Fisher PH492 boombox to play at all our breaking battles. The Fisher was the biggest & baddest radio and gave us bragging rights. We were all so skinny back then and we all had to take turns carrying this monster box. After graduation from High School, I moved to Pomona,CA. There, I bought a new Lasonic TRC-931 at a local swap meet(flea market) for $180. I enjoyed it so much and blasted all the great tunes from the great Los Angeles radio stations. I recall how my Lasonic's snow white woofers moving some serious air when playing those MasterMix radio shows. Fast forward to 2007/2008, All my radios had long disappeared. Probably sold off by my parents while I was serving in the ARMY while stationed in Germany.

Fast forward to 2006, I was surfing ebay and stumbled upon another big Fisher PH-492. I ultimately lost to a higher bidder. The following day, I received an email from an unknown guy named Hugo. He told me he noticed that I lost out on winning the Fisher and offered me his. He told me he was a trusted member on 'Stereo2go' and that I might be interested in verifying his credentials there. I quickly joined and never regretted it. In 2007/2008, while serving in the Air National Guard, our Security Forces Squadron was Federally activated under Operation Enduring Freedom to serve 6 months at an Air Base in Manas, Kyrgyzstan. Along with lugging all my heavy weapons, I brought along my trusty Fisher boombox (disguised in a large Gorilla case). My Squad Leader had no idea that I brought it along until we had to open all our weapons cases at Baltimore International Airport for screening. You should have seen the look at the X-Ray tech's face when he saw this huge radio inside the case. I was asked to open it up and take the Fisher out for closer inspection I had everyone's attention. It received the same adoration at Manas Air Base when I brought it out for volley ball games and burger burns. My Commanders actually laughed and enjoyed the idea that we could boom out some of THEIR tunes.

During a shopping trip in downtown Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, I found a relatively large boombox and negotiated a fair price. I began visiting this very poor country's Childrens Cancer Hospital and Orphanage. It broke my heart and I fell in love with these great children. The children at the Orphanage put on a special play for us Airmen. I was so moved, that I donated my locally purchased boombox to them. I guess I was trying to impart this 'brotherhood of BoomBoxery' onto the young ones who will carry the torch. I am now trying to collect and restore many of these iconic radios which have played a part in our lives. For me, it's part of who I am. I'm completely comfortable with my quirky hobby and glad to share it with whoever cares to look and listen.

OK - time to fess up on my madness.

Here is a slightly different (and totally off the wall) story as to what sparked my interest/obsession:

Went to a music festival last summer and was chilling with a group of mates with a bunch of beers in the middle of 'tent city'. Heard a nice bassline coming our way and looked around to see a guy picking his way through the crowd with a 777 on his shoulder. Everyone, including us, were completely gobsmacked at the look and sound.

I didn't think this had affected me in any way, however, 3 weeks later I had an incredibly vivid dream where I was on a beach (I think in the med somewhere), and stacked up on the sand was a colossal wall of blasters. The wall was similar to the jaw dropping radiohier avatar. As per alot of dreams, this one contained very specific feelings, and the feeling I had was they were mine, and I was proudly showing them. From that next morning of waking, I have been totally hooked and straight away spent weeks on the web increasing my knowledge and then buying/cleaning/fixing furiously.

At some point during that period I discovered S2G, and the rest, as they say, is history.. I think I have 25 or so now. If anyone discovers a cure, please PM me.

Here’s my story.

As long as I can remember, I have been a huge music fanatic and still am today. Since I was born in 1969…I was into the “regular”music of the 70’s & early 80”s. Now I started out listening to the regular music that everyone else was listening to…until I became familiar with rap music and breakdancing…which was in the early 80’s. There used to be a rap show that played once a week locally on AM 1000 radio only. I used to record the shows and listen to the tapes over and over. I then started getting into breakdancing, and I remember being one of the only white breakdancers at that time around. My friend and I used to listen to our music NON STOP out in the streets…and it was with us everywhere we went. My friend had purchased a brand new Lasonic LPC-82 when it first came out…I had a small Sanyo at that time. We used to bring the Lasonic everywhere, including downtown in the city (We lived in the suburbs) and we used to plug it in to the AC outlet in the subway stations and breakdance for hours on end. I had many ghettos throughout my childhood…but as a young teenager I will never forget going downtown regularly, to an electronics store that sold ghettoblasters. My friend and I used to stare through the window of the store at the big Conion C-100f/Clairtone …and we dreamed of possibly owning one some day. Although I never got the funds to buy my dream ghetto back then…I figured one day I would eventually get just one and today I am lucky enough to have 19 of them in my collection

As a small/skinny white b-boy …I used to get picked on throughout high school by many…simply because of my choice of music, and because of the way I dressed (b-boy style!). People used to tell me rap was just a fad and that it wouldn’t last but I didn’t care nor did I let it discourage me…it’s what I chose to listen to and I still do to this very day…even at 40 years young!

As I became older, I put my breakdancing on the backburner, and had ventured into different things. I had now discovered I liked cars, and of course women, and partying. My love for music has never changed, and it most likely never will…it’s in my blood and it will always be.

Now, many years had passed by and my passion for music is the same…if not stronger. People ask me ALL the time why, and how did I start to collect all of my 125 ghetto’s that are in my collection today. So let me explain how I got into this hobby all these years later.

In 2005, I had a traumatic experience. I was living in an appartment with my wife and son, and I had been taking care of an 89 year old gentlemen that lived upstairs from me on the 2nd floor and we had become very very good friends…he was like the grandfather I never had. Well, sadly, I had discovered him dead in his appartment on Christmas day…he had been dead for 2.5 days and the way I found him was very very unpleasant. This experience had affected me psychologically and emotionally, and I needed something to keep my mind pre-occupied so that I could get through the healing process. That’s where collecting ghetto’s came in. I decided that going out and looking for old ghetto’s would keep my mind away from my bad experience that I had been through. I drove around and walked all over my city looking for ghettos…all flea markets, second hand stores. Pawn shops old electronic repair shops, thrift shops…everywhere. I took this new hobby of mine to the extreme and I have been very successful throughout my searching. While on my hunt to find ghettos, I never did forget about my friend who I had found dead in his appartment on that Christmas day …and I still think of him periodically as we had a lot of good times together.

So, I would like to dedicate this post, and dedicate my entire ghetto collection that I currently possess today to my good friend & neighbor that passed away on that Christmas day, who got me into this addictive, yet fun hobby, and I would also like to thank all the members here for making S2G like no other place…it’s been a tough & wonderful experience both at the same time.

-gsbadbmr

Wow! I am loving these stories! Please don't stop, I will post mine tonight...

OK so I have loved music since around 5th grade (1978/79). My Parents let me have their huge am/fm console stereo with turntable (this thing was loud and awsome). I remember my uncle replacing the needle on the turntable for me because original wasn't any good. I then started collecting albums. Then around (1981) my parents sold the console to make room for new furniture. My father bought this very expensive pioneer component stereo and he got me an am/fm stereo/turntable with double cassettes from monkey wards for $189, totally blew me away. so now I have to start buying tapes. By this time I am starting to want more. Everything my friends have, I have to have too. First I talk my father into buying me a lennox mono am/fm/tv1/tv2 box for about $20. Then I have to upgrade to an emerson am/fm cass. mono for $35. Now by this time (1982) walkmans were at there peak, so of course I had to have one. So my father again took me to zayer to buy I believe it was a uniden am/fm stereo walkabout with headphones and mini speakers (cool). Over the course of time I went through an abudance of walkmans ranging from GE to Sony, and from just am/fm to tape to both. Now about 1983 sophmore year I went to venture and bought my 1st boombox for $50 a panasonic rx5010. Even though it was a nice bbx I dreamed of getting from Polk Brothers (furniture store) a sharp VZ2000. This was such an awsome box at this time where you could actually walk around with a portable turntable. The only problem was the price tag of 900 big ones. So instead, a couple of months after I got the panny, I put it nice and neat back in the original box and took it back to venture for a refund (yeah I know what your thinking). I then went and purchased a sound design 3 piece for $30 more ($80 total). The 3 piece sounded better than the panny but still was not what I wanted. Now mind you I was working a paper stand on the weekends making $1 per hr. I took home maybe $16 a week. A couple months later I seen it in a zayer sales add a CEC OL7540 for $99.99. How awsome so I packed up the sound design and took it back to venture for refund and then went to zayer and got my kick -ss bbx. That whole summer me and some buddy's had a blast going every where with our bbx's. My best friend had a marantz superscope 4000. I remember cranking out Def Lepard Rock of ages, drinking beer and smoking at the woods, totally kick -ss. Those were the good ol days. I remember the handle came loose so I took it apart to fix it but could not get the guts out to tighten the handle. So I did put an extra LED in it for power on light. but some how my brother got to it and dropped it and that was it, G O N E. Then came high school graduation (1986). My parents again went out and got me another awsome home stereo, a Fisher component rack system, over 200 watts for around $700. I moved out a year and a half later they wouldn't let me take the stereo, (they did not want me to leave). So my brother got a hold of it and cranked it all the way and boom. That was the end of the fisher. So I was living with my girl friend and she asked me what I wanted for Xmas (1990). I said a huge bbx. Well she got me a 3 piece black sony with CD. It was OK but I really wanted something like I use to have so I went looking and low and behold I found the Lasonic TRC931 for $150 at Woolworths. I asked my girlfriend if she minded taking the sony back so I could get the lasonic and she did. Anyways a few years went by (1993) and while shopping again at Woolworths I seen it, a behemoth lasonic TRC 975 for $180. I had to have it, so I bought it and ended up giving my 931 to my sister. She had it a few years and gave to my brother. he had it for a while and gave it my friend who had it until last october when he let me have it back in really good condition. Over the years my 975 went from a basement bbx to a garage bbx until I cleaned it up last year and started to display it. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it

Hey Ewen, what festival was that? I hauled a 777 & a RC550 to Clapham Common festival a couple of years back where we had a lot of fun. I made a sub from a plastic oil barrel wired to a 12v car battery, all synced up via iPod transmitter. We got more attention than I could deal with.

I was born in 1972 and was only about 10 when the ghettoblaster/breakdancing culture hit on a world scale, but this didn't stop me but it was around the period 1984-86 I got to experience it for myself. It was through a friend of the family I managed to make this my own experience. My mother's best friends son was a couple of years older than me and they lived in Melbourne (my state's capital) and holidayed in Torquay (small coastal town) where my family lived and grew up. As we both grew up he began to get involved in graffiti art, electro music, breakdancing and such and I was in awe of him. My little town was still very stuck in the 70s and all this incredible modern 80s lifestyle became my passion. I'd see incredible ghettoblasters in music videos and always wanted to know if I could get them locally, but most times when I could remember them they'd be well out of my realistic price range, but it never stopped me marvelling at their awesome power, LED meter's and seemingly endless switches and button.

On occassion my family would go up and visit his family and I'd get to see his latest graffiti designs and he'd make me compilation tapes on his big 3piece ghettoblaster of the latest 12inch singles off his Technics turntable. I decided I needed my own but had to wait till I was 13 and could get a part time job working in a local butcher's shop cleaning up after school. I save every piece of junkmail with any portable audio in it. I'd marvel at the amount's of features, LED's and TWO antennas (always thought that was a true sign of a ghettoblaster) and imagined myself carrying one around Torquay blasting the my latest mix tape my friend had made me. But I had to wait, it took me a long time to save up enough money to get one and I had to settle for something with less features and I scored a TDR(or possibly TDJ) 3 piece. It was was rebadged something or other, only had one atenna and only 2 LED's, but it did have a lovely array of chrome switches. I loved this radio. I'd constantly be either playing tapes on it, carrying it around to friends houses, running her on batteries (on the few occassions I could afford them) and dividing her up and placing the speakers in various positions around my pokey little bedroom looking for the best stereo separation. Great times.

Around this time my friend in Melbourne got me on to a local radio station (can't remember if it was EON FM or Fox FM) that played Casey Kasem's American Top 40 every sunday night. This was a massive revelation to me. I could never find anything I really wanted to hear on radio after being spoiled by my friend's import 12inch collection and this was like a direct line into all the coolest music coming out of the u.s!! For a regional Australian kid like me this was a very big deal! So every Sunday night I'd turn my ghettoblaster to the lowest audible volume (as I was supposed to be in bed early for school the next day) and listen to Casey's Coast-to-Coast. Hearing band's like Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys for the first time was a life changing experience. I was soon making weekly tape compilation's of the latest u.s chart buster that would get me through the whole week. These were really good times, and gave me a taste of the world outside of where I lived, which I found very exciting.

After much use, probably beyond it's intended design, my TDR(or J)'s tape mech broke down. It was like losing my hearing all together... I was forced to listen to all my tapes on a mono that had been in my family for years and it often chewed tapes.. terrible. The worst part was my parent's holidayed overseas in Indonesia at that time and I'd given them a massive list of tapes I wanted (cheap pirates were rife in indonesia even then) and they brought me back all these incredible album's by hip hop and dance acts of the time... and there was no way I'd entrust these gems on that tape hungry mono. It was coming into summer again now and I managed to get more hours in the butcher shop so I decided I'd save up for a great new blaster. I found a marvellous Philips compo in junkmail catalogue from a local hifi store chain called Brashes. I instantly fell in love with the little black and white low resolution image. It's features were amazing, it had soft touch controls, a huge (by my standards) LED meter a 3 band Equaliser and even Dolby!! And even an LED just for Dolby!!! Heres a pic on a compilation tape cover:



This had to be mine, so I started saving. Every time I got the chance to visit her in person at my local Brashes store I made sure I talked to a sales person about it's performance and features. As I was working more it only took a few weeks to save up for my Philips, plus I sold my TDR to my brother so he could use it as a shop radio. I remember it was just before my birthday that I picked up my Philips Compo and loved it to bits, but even more audio additions were yet to come. For my birthday I received the best birthday present my Dad ever gave me: a component turntable. A lovely Sanyo semi-automatic model that I loved just as much as my new Philips. I was able to now copy my vinyl to tape and, best of all, start collecting 12inch singles and albums which I did immediately. My set up then branched out to another little Sony mini and then a cheap 4channel mixer that I used to hack my own mixes together,.. which never really worked out but was lots of fun when I was 13.

My Philips and Sanyo set up kept me going long into my teens, but I felt I never had a twin aerial true ghettoblaster like the ones I used admire from afar, and as my music tastes expanded it became less important to me and it wasn't until the mid 90s that my love affair was rekindled. I'd been getting some regular work, had my own place and was building up my first 'real' component stereo. I'd experimented in the past with second hand gear but thought I'd make up a whole new system, all brand new and quality. So I ended up buying some nice speakers, Yamaha receiver and their top of the line cassette deck. This was great, but one day, and I remember this vividly, I was sitting back listening to some old tapes and I remembered how much I loved my old 3 piece Philips, and how much I loved ghettoblasters and I realised, like being struck by a lightning bolt how simply not fun any of my current audio gear was. No bouncing LED meters, soulless design, it was like the system was made to be invisible so as not to dilute the purity of the audio listening. At this moment I realised I wasn't enjoying my music half as much as I used to. Call me shallow but I guess I grew up watching and tuning the music and just sitting back and listening didn't seem like nearly as much fun.

I talked to some friends about this and they thought I was a being a bit stupid, but some friends from my own generation understood what I was getting at. I actually thought 'Wouldn't it be cool to collect ghettoblasters and use them as they were intended?' But this was the CD age, and I just didn't have the networks to follow through on starting my collection. After a while I settled back to my old stereo and lifes others concerns and interests lead me down another path.

It wasn't up until last year that I was browsing randomly on ebay and, like another bolt of lightning, I thought to look through the Cassette Players section and found all my long lost friends just waiting to come home. Some more searching online found Stereo2Go which instantly become the lynch pin to finally begin the collection I attempted to make as a teenager, and then in the mid 90s. But now it's finally happened! I've got about 30 so far after a year of collecting and every new radio brings to me the same magic and enjoyment as it did when I was a kid. Without this place and it's incredible posters I'd not be able to realise what I have so far, I thank all of you greatly for getting me well on my way.

That's my long-winded story, hope it wasn't too boring, and thanks for reading.



Rock On.

AO - my experience was at Bestival on the IOW.

I'm not at all surprised to hear about the attention you got with your crazy oil drum set up, these boxes do snap necks like a Ferrari, especially amongst a bunch of music fans.

I am so gratified by teh responses here, the least I can do is post mine, its in two parts as I am bit wordy:
Part 1, what roles they have played in my life:

I grew up in Saskatchewan in the 1970’s after my parents moved to Canada(after a stint in the UK) from Trinidad & Tobago. Caribbean folk tended to emigrate to three locales in those days, London England, Brooklyn New York, and Toronto. My Dad had decided to be different, se we lived far from most black folk, and thus our summers were spent driving across the world’s largest country to visit our relatives.
In the early 80’s, I had an older sister whose boyfriend had a JVC PC-55, and I looked up to him tremendously as he was from Toronto, and seemed so cosmopolitan to a 14 year old kid from the Prairies. I became a courier on my epic summer driving vacations to Toronto and New York with my family for his best friend Hugh who was a local DJ. I would pick him up records that he found in vinyl magazines when I was in Brooklyn and when I got home he would make me these amazing mixtapes of electrofunk that were the envy of all.
His living room/mixing studio had a Technics 1200, a Bang and Olufsen turntable that was actually suspended from the ceiling, and a nice home deck, but what caught my eye was a JVC ghettoblaster as his second deck. It was a JVC RC-M70c, and I loved that boombox! Imagine a young kid who had this 24 year old man willing to spend Sunday afternoons letting me watch him create his magic! He had his two turntables, and a microphone, and he would rhyme and scratch, and I was spellbound! My tapes with Master Hugh mixing, rhyming and scratching were my greatest treasure and I am a bit ashamed to say that I did not like to share them much! I felt then and later that I was on the frontier of hip hop, although Hugh was mixing bands like Dazz Band, Midnight Star, and Newcleus, his style of production was what we all equate now with the roots of old skool beats.
My brother was four years older, so he was able to buy a boombox from a Canadian catalogue company called Consumers Distributing. He bought a Citizen 1292, a bit bigger than an M70, but with a cool digital tuner that was constructed to look analogue! My brother would let me hang out with him and his friends and I would have my tapes blasting from his radio while I got to carry it! I felt obscenely cool as an awkward teen hanging with older boys and being in charge of the beats!
My dad went to NY the next summer(I was about 16), and I asked for my own bombox. He brought me back a minibox, a Sanyo M7770k, a nice radio, but not the boomer I was accustomed to by any stretch! In retrospect, he had to fit it in his suitcase, but I was not as understanding back then.
When I left home at 19 or twenty I convinced my older siblings o pitch in and I bought her a Panasonic RX-C52 with a turntable so that she had a nice little system that was fairly easy to use. She used it until she died in 1995, and I was so distraught, I never thought to find out what happened to it. It was the single most expensive item that I bought for my Mother and I was always proud of the fact she had a classy and cool stereo…
For myself I purchased a Sharp GF-810 in 1987 I think), it had detachable speakers and a ten band EQ, and it was loud! Not as cool or as nice as the PC-55 had been, but certainly respectable, and I cost $600! I owned it for a decade and moved it to two different cities before its fateful demise.
I was living in Vancouver and had met a Francophone woman and one night we at my apartment “making the love,” and I had candles on top of a shelf and my Sharp underneath providing the atmosphere—something Sade-like I am sure. Anyway, in mid—act, she screeches in a new way and I look up to see my radio on fire and a column of flame shooting up the wall to the ceiling! A candle had been knocked over by our enthusiasm, dripped into the radio and started a fire! I leapt up, ran to the kitchen, filled up a pitcher of water(I know! Worst thing for an electrical fire!), and doused the flame. The unit was melted and I threw it out after we both calmed down and had a laugh(side note: when I began collecting boomboxes, I found the tape had mistakenly thought it had burned up in the radio! I still love it).

Part 2:What brought my desire back?

A scant three years ago(seems like forever), my friend and roommate at the time David bought me a ghettoblaster-shaped belt buckle and a book for Christmas called The History of the Mixtape, edited my Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth. The book was a collection of mostly famous people’s cassette tape art, and I loved the book as I was one of those Jon Cusack in High Fidelity types, and made any a mixtape in my day. Anyway in Moore’s introduction, he had several pictures of an old school boombox that he called the Conan, a Conion C-100. He explained that as a band manager, he blew half of their travel budget on this giant boombox, and how great it was.
I looked at the radio and it seemed familiar, but I did not know why. I was fondling my new belt buckle, and suddenly realized that the buckle was modeled on the Conion! That was why it looked somewhat familiar. I decided that it was a coincidence I wanted to pursue and I went to Ebay. I was shocked to discover a variety of boomboxes available for sale, and shortly after I found the Boombox Hall of Fame site and then stereo2go. Before long I had a collection of at least 50 and no ability to slow down!
I have met people from around the world and have been to the homes of people in Berlin and Hong Kong, this obsession has taken me places I never expected and this show is just another rung on this crazy ladder that the love of these radios has had me climb…

Good story James. Very sorry to hear of your loss (sharp GF 810)

Awesome story James! Thanks everyone for their stories and learning more about you too.



Rock On.

No probs Bill, Masterblaster gave me a GF-810 last week to play with! We hang out fairly often,

Thanks Glucifer, your story was amazing as well! This is a great way to know about boombox folk! I am still waiting for the more venerable members to weigh in, I hope they do not consider this below them!

Will write up something.

Despite that my story is not compelling as those posted, I shall endeavor to make it a enjoyable read.

Somehow I doubt that Easy Ed! You could make crossing the road an epic and inspirational quest!

Why we collect boomboxes?

Because collecting stamps, coins and buttons is lame.

I hope you have a better reason than something else is not cool!

c'mon people, its the weekend! You must have time to share!

more stories --
MORE STORIES

( )

Will certainly post something up tomorrow... Nice reading other's stories too!

For me the beginning was 1978 when I really started to take notice of boomboxes. I would scour the Best Products, JCPenney and Consumers catalogs daily checking out the boomboxes. I would also ride my bike over to the local Pacific Stereo and drool over the boxes they had snagging any brochure I could get my hands on such as Sanyo, Panasonic and JVC. Needless to say I was hooked and had to have one, problem was I was only 13 and my income was about $2 a week from my allowance.

Well I set out to get my first boombox so I scrounged, saved and did some odd jobs for extra money. By the spring of 1979 I had amassed a then huge sum of $100 so I started looking and found the black Sanyo 9902. I loved that box and took it everywhere I could, it was even the entertainment system of my Junior High graduation picnic.

The summer of 1979 brought a change for me, I got a job as a paper boy. Although I didn't make much and was terrible at saving I managed to set aside enough to look for a cooler box so with about $125 in my pocket I went to Pacific Stereo and bought a Pioneer SK-21 and for the next two weeks blasted the hell out of it. The problem I had with the SK-21 was it wasn't any louder than the Sanyo 9902 so I boxed it up and went back to Pacific Stereo. They had a Panasonic 5100 on the shelf that I could afford so I checked it out and sure enough this box could easily out blast the Pioneer so I made the switch and headed out the door. I enjoyed and used that box extensively for the next two years until I turned 16. Everything changed at 16, I had a car, was chasing the local honeys and having a good time. Since I wasn't using the 5100 anymore I sold it to my cousin and really kind of faded from boomboxes.

about 4 or 5 years ago I started to collect little things from my youth but still hadn't thought about the boomboxes. About 3 years ago I ran across a Panasonic 5100 on eBay and suddenly like I was hit with lightning the pasion came back for these old boomers, especially the really cool ones I could never afford. A few months later I found S2G and the rest is history, I started buying the boxes I had dreamed about over 25 years earlier. The passion hasn't waned, I'm still enamored by these vintage boomers and can't see ever being without some of them again. It's a wonderful feeling to know I can afford and have the toys that were for so long out of my reach.

I no longer walk the streets dragging boomboxes around while blasting Nazareth's Hair of the Dog or Blue Oyster Cult's Godzilla but I do play them at home or where ever I get the chance. I keep the volume a little lower and the songs a little less hard core these days but I still get as much pleasure as ever out of seeing and hearing these works of art doing what they were designed to.

Great story MB84! I know all about Consumers! Thanks for sharing!

quote:

Originally posted by jameswp67:
Great story MB84! I know all about Consumers! Thanks for sharing!

When I was younger, music, had played a major role in shaping the person that I eventually became today. Being the youngest of 4 brothers allowed me to get information from a wider generation then most kids would. My oldest brother was into the glam scene back in the early 80’s. My second oldest brother was into the more metal scene like Ozzy and Metallica. My third oldest brother was into the real deal death metal/thrash/punk music. Also with in the NYC scene early rap was become ever so popular and the whole street element of it all was so f’ing appealing to me that I couldn’t resist to explore it. It wasn’t until I stole my brother’s copy of Public Enemy’s “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” that I found my true love.

All the older kids would set up shop on the pavement with the boom boxes and cardboard from a refrigerator box or whatever. Every kid in my class would be doing the worm in gym class. My pops used to work near Union Square Park on 14th Street in Manhattan and in the summer when I would go to work with him, we used to go to the electronic stores on 14th. My brother and I used to be in utter awe in the size of these radios they had on sale. Being the little kid I was, naturally the Discolite radios were just cool to me. After finding S2G, flashbacks came to me being so young in those stores with images of Sharps, Lasonics, JVCs, etc. If I found Emmit Doc Brown and the DeLorean, I know exactly where I would go back in time. But of course with 4 mouths to feed we just could never afford something that extravagant.

So after years of teenage angst, society rebellion, and drug use, I matured and vowed that I would get everything I ever wanted as a kid. After spotting that GF 777 on the street waiting for trash pick up my life has changed. I now had a piece of my childhood memory and needed to figure out how to fix this. After some serious Google search I landed on S2G and the rest is just history.

Now I can’t go anywhere with out trying to spot an old radio. (Or old BMX bikes now that I decided to get back into my other youth’s passion.)

My first encounter with a boombox was back in the 80, I was born in Gettysburg Pennsylvania but lived a few years in Puerto Rico, As i turned 17 my dad gave me permission to come back to the states with a friend from church i ended up in Philly i lived there for awhile.Remembering one day this lady invited us for some lunch so i was in the livingroom when all of a sudden the co-pastor walked in with his gorgeus daughters but what was he carrying in his hands? it stunned me it was a sanyo 9998,that was it no girls for get it i was druling for the radio very badly for the rest of the week, but not having anyway to even consider ever having something like that i kepted working and settled for my first boombox a toshiba rt-8990 i was happy with it,it was really all i could afford at that time,from there i moved with my aunt in Camden New jersey i ended up trading it for a kasuga which i have the kto version i took the kasuga back with me to Puerto Rico by that time the kraz of boombox was getting around i ended trading for a couple of different boxes there was a friend of mine that had a jvc-m70 boy did i want him to trade with me but never got him to. But you know that after all these years where i had not been in touch with a box for about 25 years all of a sudden a friend of mine gave me a panny 5090 that was given to him by some friends that they were going to throw it out he asked me if i wanted it , it had a bad channel but hey it was free at that point i really did not know that i was getting bitten by the boombox collecting, then i started looking up on ebay boomboxes and that was it i got hooked, But the real cool part is that everytime i go outside to hear one of my boxes i go back in time and remember when i was just a teen sitting in the porch holding on to my radio on my lap playing the radio and recording some cassettes watching my mom or my dad outside how would i have fealt having that box like if every box it had a special miricle touch to them which to this day i really belive they do wow those were some great times,,up to now i have most of the boxes i had when i was a teen and the famous sanyo 9998

Great stories Ramon and Petey, it occurs to me that some folks might be shy about their writing? If so just Pm me your story and I can ghost write it for/with you! Lets keep this going!

Still waiting for old timers to weigh in...shame on you! This is the sort of thread we all should be supporting, its about why we do what we do!

Yeah, I'm callin' you out!

quote:

Originally posted by jameswp67:
Lets keep this going!

Still waiting for old timers to weigh in...shame on you! This is the sort of thread we all should be supporting, its about why we do what we do!

Yeah, I'm callin' you out!

-gsbadbmr

As some of you might know The JVC PC-11 is a personal grail of mine. I have one that's been with me since I can remember and Hip hop has always been the soundtrack of choice. I got it for Christmas in 84'. My pops got it for me on sale at Highland Appliance in Toledo. It was a demo model and it didn't come with the accesories, (handle, strap, or back cover). After years of trusty service being lugged around to school, taken to ball courts, straped to bikes, taken to campsites and numerous house parties, I got tired of looking at it with a homemade hack job handle and thought I would bring it back to it's former glory.
On the search for parts, I ran into this great website (Stereo2go!) and saw so many ill machines that I've always wanted, but couldn't afford in the 80's. Well fast forward to today, boxes aren't too expansive and I enjoy repairing them. I'm a tinkerer. I always need something to mess with. Some of my other hobbies include Cars(SCCA autocross), motorcycles(vintage Hondas), bicycles(road and track), and electronics. Compared to most of these other hobbies, Boomboxes are definatley more economic when it comes to adding the receipts.(excluding grails!)
So it makes sense to me to collect them as a hobby. I love the astetics, the technology used (or not used). They are, in my eyes, works of art. Coming from a time when electronics had "soul" as they say.
It gives me a chance to work on these sweet time machines and gives me great pride(read-sh!t eating grin!) when one is complete and fully operational.
I mean c'mon, who doesn't like a dope boombox pumping out their favorite jam!

Peace,
Paul Z.

Great stories still coming in...

james - are we going to get to see the final results of your cool project ?

Can I do a Walkman story?

I bought my first Walkman in 1982, it was a Sanyo M-G1, it wasn't the Sony WM-2 I wanted but it cost half the price and I only had £50 so that was that. I used this Walkman throughout my student days in Lincoln & leicester but it was never really an item I was proud of. Although i didn't know it at the time, I was well and truely 'bitten'.

It was only in 1990 when I finally had the money to buy the Walkman I really wanted. I had been living in Leeds for two years & following a relationship break-up (well, 'down') I decided to save some cash & just go somewhere. I was a keen cyclist at the time so the plan was to cycle to wherever it was I went.

So, for some unknown reason I planned to cycle to katmandhu, I had what I thought was enough money (it turned out to be not even close) I got Visas for Afganistan, pakistan & India & off I went. It was only while killing time at heathrow (I flew from London to Colgne) I went to Dixons (electrical retailer) & there it was, just begging me to buy it. A Sony DD30 Walkamn (still have it). It was £120 with tax free reductions so I bought it. I had some cassettes in my bag of all my favourites - Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Primal Scream, Chillipeppers etc, so the scene was set for the best 7 years of my life, although i didn't know it at the time.

To cut a very long story short I cycled down through germany, italy & hopped accross to Greece & then to Crete, the idea was to visit some old chums I met there on holiday the year before. I met my good friend Tony in Crete we took some trials bikes down the beach (he worked on the rent-a-bikes) & I set up a jump made from a pile of sand with a scafolding plank on the side. I landed wrong, the bike flipped, it flew in the air & landed on my chest. Great. 13 busted ribs, a fractured colar bone & a dented DD30 later, I found myself at the hospital being quoted 25,000 drachmas (around £3k I recall) to get fixed up. I had no mediacl insurance so sticking around was my only option. I found a room & with a roll of duck tape plus some sheets I managed to fix myself up. I stayed in bed for a month with my DD30 as my only friend (Tony went home). I managed to get jobs working outside bars trying get folks inside even with my arm in a make-shift sling. Getting paid around £10 a night plus the odd cassette from the DJs. I did this for the entire 1991 season & after a while became very, very good at it.

At the end of the season I went off to Israel to work the farms until it was time to get back to Crete for the next season. I did this for seven years, working in restaurants, on beaches, DJ'ing, renting jeeps etc & popping over to Israel every winter. best time of my life, met the best/weirdest people, with some of the happiest & most traumatic memories of my life.

So, back on topic. This one trusty DD30 stayed with me throughout this entire period. In the field repairs were done as & when, a fag butt as a head spring, a condom as a belt, plus ducktape around the case. It's even been dried out after a couple of dips in the sea.

So 15 years later after the friends have vanished & the sun has stopped shining I have my dear friend the DD30 still here beside me.

it was my quest to find an identical replacement off eBay in 2001 which got me into this collecting lark. 8 years & over 1,000 walkman's later I am here.

If asked which two things I would save from my burning house it would be the DD30 & maybe one of the twins.

Why we collect? Well, I'm sure it's different for everyone but for me I am very new to collecting or should I say re-collecting. AS of last fall when I joined here I have been on the hunt for a Panasonic RX-5085 because that was my fave radio from the 80's that I owned. However, that search has come up dry so far.

However, I have had the opportunity to come across an amzing find that I would like to share with everyone. While searching for the aforementioned 5085, I came across a Panasonic RX-7700 (all silver) on Canuck Audiomart. This radio by the pics was easily 9 out of 10. I contacted the seller and he was willing to sell but since he was in Vancouver, BC he had no idea how to package and sell to the U.S - I live in Buffalo, NY 'burbs. Anyhow, I contacted James ( we all know and love James from this site) and asked him if he would check out the ad and see if it was legit. James was more than happy to check it out and I told him that if it was in as good of shape as it looked and all functions worked to let me know so I could purchase it. James texted me when he checked it out and confirmed that it was in great shape and all functions worked perfectly. At that point he purchased it on my behalf. I was able to get the payment to James about a week later (being a PayPal newbie to individuals there was a time hiccup). Anyhow, about 10 days later I received this magnificent box in the mail. James packed this box so wonderfully that I don't think even DHL or FedEx could have damaged it!!! The sound is awesome!!! It's not the loudest box, but the sound is clear and doesn't distort at higher volumes. I am very happy having this grail box and of course I have to say again that James is the best for going to all the trouble of getting the box for me and doing an amzing job of packing it. So now I am back on the hunt for an RX-5085 but in the meantime I believe I am also getting later this week an RX-5150 from another member here. Can't wait to have that box either. So...I love the vintage boomboxes - my wife was skeptical until she heard the 7700 and thinks it's awesome. Even hooked up her iPod whcih sounded great! So I am going to continue to collect a few and enjoy them.

WOW !!
thats a true hall of fame performance tribute to james

Why I collect?


I was given my first box in the early 80’s to listen to while I did my artwork. It was an upgrade from the all black one speaker Realistic tape deck that I had been using to listen to mix tapes on. My developing years were spent training as a painter from the age of 10 years old onward with music as my constant companion. In 1986 I picked up a JVC model that got thoroughly trashed over the next 5 years. I grew up in Calgary, a city in Western Canada. While in High School through College I worked in silkscreen shops taking my Boombox from gig to gig until it gradually was entirely covered with ink, paint, and caustic solvents. At one place I worked with a bunch of headbangers who did duty as screen printers, while collecting unemployment insurance. This was 87/88. Their goal was to buy a van and move to LA to join the hair metal scene. The lead singer of the band rolled in to the shop every day with sweatpants rolled up to his knees wearing hightop sneakers and hair reaching skywards to the gods of rock. He could imitate the vocal yell of any lead man of the day – Ozzy, David Lee Roth, Ronnie James Dio, Sammy Hager, Steven Tyler — you name it, he could dish out a scream exactly like them. While working the presses he would emit these incredibly loud half minute long panther-like screeches. He’d arc them up in the air like a three-pointer jump shot. I’ll never forget that sound being lobbed over my head as I printed some dumb sponsors logo onto a softball jersey or something like that. Two years later I moved to New York to continue on in University majoring in Graphic Design. I lived on 41st Street in an industrial building a few blocks from the center of Times Square. It wasn’t long before I hit up one of the electronic shops for a Lasonic box. That box stayed with me through many moves, different girlfriends and some really odd living situations.

In 1999 I left New York and went traveling around the world in an effort to develop my career as a photojournalist. While I was away James (Jameswp67) stayed in my apartment. I just found out about this the other day. We reconnected through this site when he found me through a posting that TPR put up about my pictures in another forum. I first met James in 1988. It did not take long before we shared the same group of friends. Once I left for New York I lost track of a lot of people, but he still kept in touch with my roommate who was from Calgary. Seeing how many friends James has on this site it’s obvious that he continues to be a respectful guy – that’s a Canadian trait. I’m sure that when he crashed at my crib that he did not mess with the EQ on my Lasonic!

As life goes on, I ended up developing my career as a photographer in some pretty hairy situations both in Africa and New York. Whenever I came home music was a HUGE part of my life and a way to escape. After the events of 9/11 ripped apart my neighborhood I took every assignment I could to travel. In December of ’01 I was in Japan on tour with a band. While on a few hours off in Tokyo I lucked in to picking up a beautiful and absolutely mint Victor at a market – I was stoked. It went everywhere with us. The band (American H-Fi) insisted having it on stage with them placed next to the drumkit at each nights gig. I was directing their tour documentary and had full view of my prized possession at all times. The box saw so much fun on that trip. On the last night of the tour the band headlined in Tokyo at this really huge venue. MTV Japan was there filming the gig. Hi-Fi pulled out all stops and rocked the joint. Stacy Jones (the lead singer of Hi-Fi) destroyed his Fender in the last encore and then turned and grabbed whatever he could get his hands on next… my Boombox! It was sitting comfortably in front of the bass drum. He snatched it and in one quick swoop pummeled it into the stage like Godzilla swatting down a tiny fighter jet. I watched my beautiful mint conditioned box obliterated in a rockstar crash test. Pieces were everywhere… A crater-like hole was in the stage. After the lights went up I found my box and dragged its remains backstage. The venues crew was really pissed about the hole. A group of them stood staring at the punctured stage like an asteroid had come through the ceiling. I still remember Stacy laughing and apologizing. The picture I took of the ruined remains of the box became the front of their Live in Japan Album called “Rock N Roll Noodle Shop” – it made a great cover. After that I was determined to find another one like it. Fervid searches expanded my collection through flea markets eventually leading me to eBay and then gradually on to Stereo2go.

In between my travels I needed a hobby to keep my mind off of some of the horrible things I saw in my line of work. Somewhere along the way I decided to photograph my obsessively growing collection. When my girlfriend moved in a couple of years ago I put most of my collection out of sight, but blew up a huge print of one of my favorite boxes and framed it for the house. Every once and a while someone would drop by and say that the pictures of my collection should be hanging in a gallery. In reality it was just a fun thing for me to obsess over. This past summer I decided to put the images on my website which sparked a huge amount of interest from bloggers and magazines. I went away to Africa for a large part of December and January – when I got back a few weeks ago I had some e-mails from members of this site. Because I go to parts of the world without internet for extended periods of time I’m not always able to communicate as much as I’d like. However out of the haze of e-mails, I got a message from Jameswp67! It’s my friend James! From 20 years ago! Who stayed in my place in 1999! Wow. He recognized my name on the Stereo2go site and connected the dots in a second. We’ve been laughing the last few weeks straight bewildered how we found each other again through collecting Boomboxes. I can’t wait to visit him in Vancouver.

So where does this lead? Boomboxes are a passion. For me, I’m involved in an obsession blended with music and the fascination about an iconic collection of electronics, lights and plastic that shaped the course of my youth like nothing else could ever compare too. However, after reconnecting with James, now I know why I collect. It’s to be part of something bigger — a community of voices — a part of a larger form of creative expression, where there are no rights or wrongs, just different ways of appreciating.

In a compressed few paragraphs that’s my story of the last 20 years.

Thanks James for finding me again. It couldn’t have been at a better time or place.

— Wonderlust

Some great stories! Thanks AO! I always wondered what moved you to be the consummate walkman man!I know there are many more origins that do not concern me!

James, I'm still contemplating how to tell my story. I will post here, I think it's a great thread and the stories really reflect well on why we all continue to show up every day to see what's new at the 'Go

same here... although i have in the past mentioned it in similar topics...

Most everyone has basically the same reason for collecting vintage boomboxes,( a certain bbx or walkman from there past). They just have different ways of telling their stories.

That is what I like about it Badbill! It tells us what else we have in common! Blaster, I know we have all put something like this out there, but this one thread is getting pretty comprehensive! It may become the first stop for all newcomers! Thanks PF! I am looking forward to yours!

Well, I guess it is time for me to chime in with my story about collecting boomboxes.

There are a number of reasons why I love boomboxes. To tell the story properly I have to return to 1988 when, as an 8 year old, I was first introduced to rap music. There was a kid in my neighborhood we all called Fat Jeff (there were two Jeffs, one fat one skinny) and he was cool. He was four years older than me and he had older uncles and cousins and he was down with cool stuff. I first discovered and lusted after Air Jordans (the IVs to be exact) because of him. He also opened my eyes to rap.

Well this one day we were hanging out and we were deciding what to do. I told Jeff that I had $10 birthday money and he said "lets go buy a tape at A & B sound". I was thinking at the time that I'd rather go buy hockey cards and candy but Jeff was an influential guy and needless to say we made the long trek down to the Hastings St A&B. When we go there I had no idea what to look for cause I wasn't that into music but Jeff said "lets get a rap tape". After looking at the rap tapes (which there weren't that many of at the time) he decided on "Now Raps What I Call Music vol.2" and I thought that was as good a choice as any. This tape was cool. There was Kurtis Blow, James Brown, Mars and a number of other artists. It was my foray into rap, and really music for that matter. It brought music into my consciousness and from then on I was hooked.


The next part of my story happened in 1989 or 90. I was in Winnipeg visiting family. It was winter vacation and this one day for some reason I ended up going with my Aunt to her work. She was the manager of a retail store selling trendy but really crappy clothing ( Le Chateau - for all you Canadian guys). At the time this was a cool place to work I guess (or at least my ten year old self thought so). Well I had to stay in the stock room and there was this guy working back there. When I saw him I thought that he was super cool, high top fade, nikes etc. In the back room he was blasting a big ol black boom box. I'd like to think that it was a super jumbo (or something with big leds). He was blasting Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet. Another first for me. I thought that that combo of music and ghetto blaster was just about the best thing I had ever seen in my life.

Fast forward about 12 years and that is the time my desire for a ghetto blaster really began. I was shopping in a store and the owner was a collector of 80's paraphernalia. There were a number of large black ghetto blasters like the one I had seen and admired all those years before. I immediately liked them when I saw them when none of my friends really thought much of them. I went back there again and again and every time I would see them I would think about how cool they looked. They made me happy. I then thought that I should start looking for one for myself. I thought that this would be an easy thing to come across, seeing as how the technology was so outdated. Well I looked and I looked and looked and was able to find nothing. Finally one night I thought that I would search ebay and what I found blew my mind. These things were worth major bucks. I was definitely going to have to find one of these things in "the wild". I found S2G as a result and the Boomboxmuseum and I got an idea of what to look for in a box.

I looked and looked at garage sales, thrift stores etc and found nothing until a summer day driving down the street... I saw it out of the corner of my eye and immediately slammed (literally) on the brakes. I jumped out and ran to the garage sale. There was a little girl there and she was sitting behind a beautiful Sharp gf 8989 (still one of my favorite looking boxes to this day). She wanted 20...I did some grinding and got it for $12 (I felt bad later cause she was 12). I finally had the thing I wanted for so long.

When I bought it my intentions were to blast it everywhere. I needed tapes to do so. I started searching high and low for old school tapes (mostly rap). I would take the blaster out and play music and I would get the same response everywhere - smiles, laughing, people reminiscing. Everyone who saw it loved it and would ask me where I got it. I was hooked. I bought more and more old school rap tapes, and I now have a collection of more than 500 tapes.

For me they are a reminder of a time somewhat forgotten. Blasters are a thing of community and connection. Walking down the street people are engaged whether they like it or not (almost 99% of the time they like it). They are the antithesis of the walkman where one removes themselves from the world around them. I love radios. I love their place in rap history. I love the looks. I love the fact that they are so well constructed and high quality. Buying something as well made as an m90 today would cost thousands (actually I guess an m90 would cost that too... you know what I mean).

I guess boxes are the ultimate melding of form, function, and history for me.

I have been so lucky to have found the ones that I have had. I have met people and made friends cause of these old radios!

Thanks to James for this great thread. I have really enjoyed reading these posts.

Very, very awesome post Masterblaster. Thanks a bunch for taking the time, a true window into your passion.



Rock On brother.