I really used to be into FM when there were more good stations to be heard. One of my earliest purchases (I was probably about 19) was this Kenwood Tuner:
Man, I loved that thing. This all seems so foreign to me now to even try to remember, but it had IF wide/narrow controls, an output on the back to tune via oscilliscope, a
really nice feeling flywheel, and the perfect face lighting at night. Stupid, stupid me for selling it. Wish I had it now.
My parents house was on the water in Rhode Island, and I had this thing hooked up to a roof antenna on a rotor. I'd sit there at night like a shortwave guy with headphones on, noting these cool stations I could pull in from Connecticut, NY (especially Long Island straight across the water) Boston and the North Shore, Cape Cod.... it was great. This was the late seventies/early eighties when there were "album cut" stations out there that would play the greatest obscure stuff at 3AM....
I have an FM antenna in my attic now, but the Denon Receiver and the Cambridge Soundworks clock radio I have had it hooked up to aren't the same. FM tuners just outright suck in comparison to what was out there 20 years ago. I remember
Stereo Review basically throwing their hands up and saying the same thing maybe fifteen years ago... everthing they reviewed had only a marginal tuner in it...
