Don’t get caught in an emergency without a radio!

Hey, remember the radio? Remember the days you spent listening at the beach, or on dates? What about those times when you sat there anxiously with your hands twitching over the record button on your boom box? Great memories, right?

Yeah I know… radio is like, so … twentieth century. You might have stopped listening to radio in your car a few years ago, and chances are you stopped listening to the radio in your home decades ago (if you ever listened at home at all.) After all, you have Sirius XM, Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, plus all those music channels on TV and of course everyone has a massive music collection now. Why listen to the radio?

What radio was really designed for

Radio started out as a way to contact ships in emergencies. Its “big break” came with the sinking of ships like the Titanic 110 years ago, when radio operators could finally call for help. Radio in this country was pushed along by the very idea that people could get critical information when they needed it.

In an emergency, your internet is very likely to go down along with your power. All those fancy services won’t do any good. Remember too, that none of those web-based services are required to give you emergency information for your area. The best source for emergency information is often Twitter, but if your smartphone goes down, or if the cell towers are down, that’s out too.

In a crisis, you need to get seriously old school. There’s a technology that delivers multicast information using a receiver that lasts months on a set of batteries, that takes so little power that it can be operated by crank, and whose operators are required by law to give you emergency information. Sound like a miracle? Nope… sounds like a radio.

It’s old-school, but that’s what you need.

Radio may not be “all that” when the lights are on but you need one in the house for when the lights are off. The best ones can be hand-operated so there’s no worry about running out of batteries. For example, this C Crane Emergency Radio will give you AM, FM and weather alerts and can be charged with a hand crank. How awesome is that, especially if you’re looking at weeks without power. Add to that it’s got a USB port to charge your cell phone! Win-win, and that’s just what you need in the middle of the night when the power’s off.

I know, it’s pricey. If you look at other sites you can find less expensive emergency radios, plenty of them. You can probably find one for a tenth of the price. But is this really the right time to cheap out? You don’t want to take the radio out of your emergency kit only to find it broken. And worse than that, you don’t want that radio to fail one day into your multi-day emergency. Trust me, it’s better to spend more and get more sometimes. With C. Crane, you get top quality and reliability. It’s worth it.

Just get one and put it in your emergency kit

A hand-cranked radio like this really should be part of your emergency kit… and you have an emergency kit, right? Come on, put on your big kid pants and get that emergency kit stocked. Just because you have it doesn’t mean you’ll need it, doesn’t mean that you’re jinxing things or anything. Just get it done. And… don’t forget the radio of course.

If you’re still not convinced, call us! We’re here for you during East Coast business hours. You’ll want to call and find out more before you need something. The shipping may be fast, but waiting until an emergency is never a good idea. Call us at 888-233-7563. Or, just fill out the form below.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.