Tedium Highlight in Radio: How the rent-to-own retail model, exemplified by Rent-a-Center, evolved from a mainstream model in the U.K. to one widely seen as predatory in the U.S. 

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Tag results: Radio

Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too

Pondering “You Get What You Give,” the one-hit wonder recorded by a guy smart enough to realize that it would be a one-hit wonder. It’s a survival story.

What Was ISDN?

For decades, the telephone industry supported a new technology designed to make copper lines more useful to the average consumer. It’s great—if you’re a voice actor.

Interference Wars

The electric vehicle finds itself in the middle of the big debate over the future of AM radio. Could the AM dial get pushed off to the side?

Tuned Out

Why children’s radio—a format once important enough that Disney undermined a competitor to dominate the radio dial—has largely disappeared from the airwaves.

Textbooks of the Air

Long before there were podcasts, there were attempts to use the radio as a way to distribute educational programming.

37’s Signals

Explaining why analog television sets never had a channel 37, despite TVs generally able to tune it. Turns out some scientists simply needed that channel more.

Not-So-Clear Channel

In a time of national crisis, an emergent broadcast radio giant, Clear Channel, banned a bunch of songs from the airwaves. Or did it?

Leavin’ The Light On

The strange, fascinating career of Tom Bodett, who parlayed NPR radio essays into the longest-running spokesperson gig around. Not that it’s all he does.

Buy, Don’t Rent

How the rent-to-own retail model, exemplified by Rent-a-Center, evolved from a mainstream model in the U.K. to one widely seen as predatory in the U.S.

The Invisible Puzzle

Wireless spectrum is scarce, and while mobile providers have made a sport of grabbing as much as they can, the fact is, allocating it has always been hard.

Around the World

The online service Radiooooo, a global-minded vintage music project, eyes a physical form of its really awesome idea.

You’re Wearing An Antenna

Why headphones are often not optional when it comes to portable devices with FM radio functionality.

Don’t Touch That Dial

Why attempts to improve AM and FM radio technologies tend to land with a thud—a thud no harder felt than with the FMX standard, circa 1989.

The Many Lives of Packard Bell

When it was a radio-maker, Packard Bell had a reputation for quality products. When a PC clone startup bought the name, that reputation fell apart—fast.

Waaaaay Left of the Dial

Listening to 87.7 FM? That's not a radio station, but an old analog TV station—channel 6, to be exact. It's a total fluke, but Chicago's all over it.

When Signal Beats Noise

The concept of "DXing"—basically, trying to capture TV or radio signals from far away—is nearly as old as the antenna. It's a great rabbit hole.

Take Me Out To The Riot

From "Disco Sucks" to a jilted city turning on its own team, baseball riots are among the most entertaining you'll find.
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