2018 holiday radio-themed gift ideas. Empire of the Air book, Lee De forest book, chocolate FM radio, Retro Radio kit, and dolphin shower radio. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

2018 Holiday Guide: Quirky Radio-Themed Gifts for the Audio Obsessed

By Jennifer Waits on November 26, 2018 in books, Electronics, Pop Culture

Being a radio fanatic, I keep an eye out for unusual radio-themed items. With the holiday shopping season upon us, it’s as good a time as any to share some recent finds, particularly since we haven’t done any Radio Survivor gift guides in awhile.

With that, here’s my 2018 Holiday Gift Guide for those in search of quirky (and not-so-quirky) radio-themed gifts:

1. Chocolate Radio

I picked up this novelty radio at Archie McPhee in Seattle and there’s something incredibly satisfying about an item that is so unusual that you can’t find it anywhere online! It looks like a tasty chocolate bar, but sounds like a radio. It’s not the best radio. The tuner is comprised of a scan button and a reset button, so it was tough for me to locate many stations. A personal listening device, it does not have external speakers, but you can listen to it with the chocolate bean ear buds included with purchase.

Chocolate FM radio. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

2. WVKR’s Dolphin Shower Radio

After seeing the cute dolphin shaped shower radio posted on social media by WVKR (Vassar College), I was even more motivated to schedule a station visit. Lucky for me, there were still some of these promotional items on hand when I stopped by and I plopped down my donation so that I could have my very own dolphin shower radio. Although it’s tricky for me to get fantastic indoor reception on a shower radio in San Francisco, the adorable quotient makes me willing to put up with some static.

WVKR’s dolphin shower radio. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

3. The Radio Historian’s 2019 Calendar of Early Radio Remote Broadcasts

John Schneider puts together annual calendars featuring spectacular vintage photographs. The latest one includes “colorized photographs of field reporters transmitting from outside their broadcast studio.” A few older editions of the calendar are also available, with images of vintage radio buildings and studios.

Calendar and radio buffs will also enjoy Scott Fybush’s 2019 Tower Site Calendar. This will be the 18th edition of this wonderfully geeky foray into radio tower sites.

4. Haynes Retro Radio Kit

I’ve experimented with a few radio-making kits over the years, with varying levels of success. The 1970s-style radio design pictured on the box for the Haynes Retro Radio Kit piqued my interest; so I picked this up for a future radio-making foray. Unlike some of the other radios that I’ve made, that were all solely FM or AM, this one results in a combination AM/FM radio. A similar item, the Haynes Build your own FM Radio Calendar Kit is styled like an Advent calendar and features 24 daily experiments.

Haynes Retro Radio kit. Photo: J. Waits/Radio Survivor

5. Lee de Forest: King of Radio, Television, and Film

I’m in the midst of reading the Tom Lewis book Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, which casts inventor Lee de Forest as a bit of a scallywag. The well-read tome and resulting Ken Burns documentary Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio has influenced popular perceptions of de Forest. In his extensive and well-researched biography of de Forest, Lee de Forest: King of Radio, Television, and Film, Mike Adams points that out and works to complicate the story of Lee de Forest, highlighting his profound influence on radio, television and film.

6. Freeplay Encore Buddy Self-Powered Radio

In March, the inventor of the Freeplay hand-crank radio, Trevor Baylis, died at the age of 80. In 1991 he came up with the concept for a wind-up radio. The New York Times writes, “…he saw a television program that mentioned one obstacle in the growing AIDS crisis in Africa: Reliable information was not reaching many people, because electricity was scarce or nonexistent and batteries were prohibitively expensive. A radio that ran on muscle power, Mr. Baylis reasoned, would give everyone an opportunity to hear the news, not to mention listen to music.”

His hand-crank radio Freeplay Radio has been recognized for both its function and design and is even part of the collection at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum.

7. Software-defined-Radio

On episode 168 of the Radio Survivor show/podcast, we had a fascinating discussion with Thomas Witherspoon about how one can create a radio time machine by making radio spectrum recordings using a software-defined-radio (SDR). Essentially, it’s possible to capture everything on a given radio spectrum using that tool, so that you can, for example, save a glimpse of the AM radio dial in your community on a specific point in time. I’d be hard-pressed to recommend a specific SDR, so I’ll direct you to Witherspoon’s three-part primer on SDRs on his SWLing Post site.

8. Wooden Walkman Clutch

OK. It’s not a radio, but I think of Walkman cassette players as radio-adjacent. This wooden purse is imprinted to look like an old school Sony Walkman and I think it’s just adorable. It comes in red, white, or baby blue.

9. Wooden Phone Amplifier

Again. Not a radio, but vintage-leaning audio lovers might dig this petite “wood acoustic amplifier for smartphones/mobile devices,” which features an antique phonograph horn design. At the bargain price of $15.99, this is on my Cyber Monday wish list (hint hint).

10. Portable Shortwave Radio with Built-in Recorder

Our conversation with Thomas Witherspoon on last week’s Radio Survivor show/podcast reignited my interest in exploring shortwave radio. So, it’s likely the perfect time to take a look at this cool little portable radio that my colleague Paul reviewed earlier this year: the Tivdio V-115. It not only gets AM and FM radio, but also shortwave. A serious bonus is that it also has recording capabilities so that you can capture air checks of interesting radio that you encounter. Another option that Paul mentions in a follow-up review is the Kaito KA29, which also gets a variety of radio bands and has recording capabilities.