GE Clock Radios of the 80s

[ssetta]

I have mostly thought of GE as a cheap brand of radio. But I heard that GE made some very high-end clock radios in the 80s, with a lot of interesting, and weird features. I know there was the 4-7880 and 7885 programmable clock radios. You could actually PUNCH IN the number of the station you wanted to listen to. Like you would push 1-0-4-5. I don't think there has been a radio like that since then, and I wonder why. But I've heard that the main thing about GE radios is that the sound quality wasn't very good. Do you think GE clock radios in the 80s had good reception and sound?

[KeithE4]

I have mostly thought of GE as a cheap brand of radio. But I heard that GE made some very high-end clock radios in the 80s, with a lot of interesting, and weird features. I know there was the 4-7880 and 7885 programmable clock radios. You could actually PUNCH IN the number of the station you wanted to listen to. Like you would push 1-0-4-5. I don't think there has been a radio like that since then, and I wonder why. But I've heard that the main thing about GE radios is that the sound quality wasn't very good. Do you think GE clock radios in the 80s had good reception and sound?

I bought one of those clock radios in about 1981 or so (I forget exactly).  And I wouldn't call it "high end."  IIRC, I paid about $80 for it - not cheap, but not top-of-the-line either.  That radio was one of the best for AM DX I ever had - CBL, WSB, WJR, and WABC came in decent in NW suburban Chicago even with WBBM and WGN within 10 miles of where I lived.   

Unfortunately the electronics lasted far longer than the buttons.  They corroded in about 8 years, making them unusable.  I finally junked it when I moved to Arizona in 1994 after many attempts to repair it.  The radio part worked the whole time.  I just couldn't tune it.

[The Dude]

Older radios were made MUCH BETTER for am reception and i loved them!!

Todays crap sucks,they assumeno one likes AM radio so they dont add anything to it

[WDAE-FM101]

I've got a GE Clock Radio Model 4885 since 1986.  You can enter the exact frequency. I haven't seen too many clock radios today that allow you to do that.  Reception is excellent.
In Issaquah WA (15 miles E of Seattle) I can get KVI on 570 and KPQ 560 from Wenatchee without much interference.  Can get most California Stations KGO, KNBR, KNX regularly.

FM is a different matter -- since I live so close to the Cougar and Tiger Mountain transmitters - I get lots of harmonics and bleed across the entire FM band.

[radiorob2.0]

GE was always known for a good AM radio back in the day.  The cathedral radio replica introduced back in the eighties not only had a good sound but excellent sensitivity and selectivity.  I always purchased their clock radios and was always pleased.  Of course, there is the GE Superadio.  I have the "II" and love it. 

[chrish]

The GE clock radio you are refering to is called "The Great Awakening" model 7-4880
When I was the CE of WXKS-FM "Kiss-108 owned by Heftel Broadcasting our
morning show was called the "Great Awakening" Congressman Cecil Heftel saw one
in the window of a Peoples Drug in DC and sent what he could find to Boston.
The station did a promotion with GE and gave away thousands, I still remember the pallets wrapped in plastic. I still have two, one still in the original box.

[ssetta]

The GE clock radio you are refering to is called "The Great Awakening" model 7-4880
When I was the CE of WXKS-FM "Kiss-108 owned by Heftel Broadcasting our
morning show was called the "Great Awakening" Congressman Cecil Heftel saw one
in the window of a Peoples Drug in DC and sent what he could find to Boston.
The station did a promotion with GE and gave away thousands, I still remember the pallets wrapped in plastic. I still have two, one still in the original box.

What's the difference between the 7-4880 and the 7-4885? That's cool you still have one in the original box. Do you think you may sell one of them on eBay sometime?

[Tom Wells]

GE was always known for a good AM radio back in the day.  The cathedral radio replica introduced back in the eighties not only had a good sound but excellent sensitivity and selectivity.  I always purchased their clock radios and was always pleased.  Of course, there is the GE Superadio.  I have the "II" and love it. 

The reproduction GE cathedral radios made in the Phillipines in the early 1980s are darn near perfect consumer AM radios.
12 khz usable bandwidth on AM, and really good sensitivity for a built-in loop antenna.
They do overdrive the dial light, and I put a lower wattage dial lamp in mine when it burned out.
The dial mechanism has some backlash, which makes critical tuning (to avoid iboc hiss or optimize high freq info) difficult.
Mine was not at all difficult to realign to pick up the expanded band up to 1710.


The Philco reproduction cathedrals radios from 1975-6 are pretty darn crappy in the same categories.
Sounds bad, AND low sensitivity.
But mine was also pretty easy to realign to pick up the expanded band.

[WPPCProductions]

I Have one of these radios. Excellent DX piece.I like to find a new keypad for it.mine  is shot.Ditto on radios today. The selectivity and sensitivity sucks altogether. I'll be lucky to pick up as station  20 miles away.

[PAJake]

I had an old GE clock radio for many years.  It's what woke me up since I was in elementary school, and I remember my grandmother would borrow it to hear her NYC radio stations when she'd visit us in PA.  I had that radio for a good 10 or 15 years and then one summer in the mid 90s I took it with me on a road trip out west.  In a hotel room in Minot ND I picked up KGO from California and WBAP from Ft. Worth TX like they were nearby stations.  Unfortunately I accidentally left the radio in the hotel room and didn't realize it until I was in Billings MT three days later.  I called the hotel and they said they'd check, but no luck.  Someone got themselves a great old radio.