Bring Back the Kitchen Radio

Not long ago, I began to notice a particular item creeping across my social media feeds: AM/FM radios.

Maybe it started with a series of #grandmacore TikTok audios that romanticized excerpts from American Country Countdown with Bob Kingsley, a staple of a certain kind of ’90s childhood. Or maybe it was the thrifters, rediscovering the counter-saving technologies of yore, or the nostalgic people looking for ways to deemphasize their iPhones and wind the clock back to 2005 and fix their nervous systems. They’re all right about one thing, though: you need a radio. Specifically, a kitchen radio.

Until relatively recently, a radio was a standard feature of most kitchens—the kind of item so common as to go without comment. They pop up in ads and editorial features across the middle of the 20th century in places like Better Homes and Gardens. Crosley, for instance, sold a model in the 1950s under the name Musical Chef, marketed specifically for the kitchen. For a while, the company even made a refrigerator with a built-in radio (although the real innovation in the model was the addition of shelving in the door). A trawl through eBay suggests that another company once integrated salt-and-pepper shakers into a radio, the kind of gimmick recognizable to anybody questioning why their modern-day appliances need Wi-Fi.

Mostly, though, the kitchen radio was simple and convenient. Ads call out the kitchen as a use case for compact tabletop models again and again—would you like a "Sony to Stroganoff by"? The 1970s saw the emergence of the under-cabinet radio, like the GE Spacemaker, a bit of futuristic technology against all the aggressive earth tones. They started out looking like Star Wars props, all metal and chunky buttons, and slowly morphed into the relatively unobtrusive creams and off-whites of the late-’90s kitchen.

But kitchen radios are one of those things that have slowly disappeared, like telephones mounted to the wall and chunky little TVs with built-in VCRs. For many people, smartphones and Spotify and ubiquitous Bluetooth speakers have rendered them unnecessary and redundant. Who wants to fight against static, anyway, when you can have crisp, clear digital sound?

They deserve to make a comeback, though. I don’t always want a podcast nattering away while cooking; often, I don’t want to pick a particular song or an album or even a playlist. There is a particular pleasure in letting somebody else choose your soundtrack. And frankly, I hate touching my phone while cooking. It’s distracting, and I’m not a great cook to begin with. It’s more than that, though: like a lot of people, increasingly, I resent this little glass brick that monopolizes so much of my attention. I don’t want to pick it up and get sucked into push notifications. I just want a little music; I want to get what I get. I want whatever’s beamed into my home via the FM broadcast band.

Admittedly, the desirability of a kitchen radio depends a bit on your local radio scene; living in Northern Westchester in the suburbs of New York City, I happen to be surrounded by a wide variety of lovingly programmed options. Not everywhere is so lucky; the slow disappearance of kitchen radios probably owes at least a little something to the corporate consolidation and homogenization of radio over the last 30 years. But you might be surprised at what you’ll find if you take a spin through your local FM dial—there’s probably at least one NPR affiliate, local college station, or inexplicable passion project on your local airwaves.

And there is something absolutely magical about hearing a song you’d forgotten you loved and never would have picked yourself, or even a song you’ve never heard before. Sure, you could just let the Spotify algorithm cook. But radio feels like a reminder that there’s still a physical world of giant antennae and other people with strong opinions, and serendipity is still possible.

The first stop if you want to experiment with getting back into AM/FM radio is your local thrift store, where you can find an outlet and test a model yourself. The older and more unique the item, the harder it’ll be to find and the more it’ll cost. But with a little patience, it should be easy to get your hands on a boom box or a simple clock radio, considering how common an item they were in homes until fairly recently. Those 1980s wood grain casings once seemed a little ridiculous; they’re now old enough to constitute an aesthetically interesting item, the diametric opposite of an iPhone. But if you don’t feel like facing the Goodwill bins, eBay is absolutely rich with options—including the under-the-cabinet models that have entranced TikTok.

If the thought of digging through a flea market (whether virtual or physical) doesn’t thrill you—and you need something with better sound quality than a utilitarian clock radio can offer—there are modern options. For the last six years, my kitchen go-to has been the beautiful Sangean WR-11. If you absolutely must have the option of Spotify, the WR-16 model has the same features, plus Bluetooth capability.

The style is a little retro without slipping into kitsch, and I personally love the rounded lines of the wooden exterior and the big, cream-colored dials, which tune smoothly and easily. And if you’d prefer something a little more silver, Sangean makes a wide variety of models. Also nice—though tiny—is the mini model, though in my house it’s been redeployed as my child’s preferred podcast speaker, for carrying around the house while listening to her favorite show about Greek mythology.

Admittedly, I struggle occasionally with a signal, but generally, my Sangean picks up the stations I want. And a little friction is part of what makes the experience rewarding.

Top photo by Ullstein Bild via Getty Images

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