I went to buy a new radio but the very honest salesman told me frankly that I was likely to have the same problem of not being able to find the radio station I wanted with any cheap radio I bought.
This was baffling but he blamed a lack of financial incentive leading to poor quality parts and subsequent poor performance. He suggested I buy a new aerial for the radio I already had. I went to a similar store, ready to ignore the first man’s advice but sufficiently wary that I wanted to make sure any radio I bought could get the station I wanted.
The sales assistant at the second shop was in his early twenties and had never heard of The National Programme – to be fair, I’m not sure if Radio NZ still goes by that name. Anyway, we chose the best portable radio set he had and tried to find the station I wanted but had no luck. I got the impression he was more than a little suspicious that I had the frequency wrong, even though I’ve been listening to that station since before he was born.
Since that was a bust, I managed to buy a new aerial and went home to try it. Sadly, that was $30 down the drain as it had the wrong connection. Next I rang my husband , the family tech support. It turns out the tuner on our expensive stereo system hasn’t worked for years. Why it remains in situ is a mystery for another day. He had no suggestions for the other stand alone radio I’ve got, though – a misguided present I bought him years ago back before we decided we’ll just buy our own gifts from then on. I then did what perhaps I should have done in the first place – I googled it. The answer was right there, and very unexpected for modern technology – I needed to turn the tuning dial slowly up and down for five minutes. Apparently the grease on the inside of the knob needs to get redistributed if it’s been sitting too long.
And it worked! So there we go, a surprisingly low tech solution to an apparently complicated technological problem. Nice.