C Crane Company - CC Radio Plus Review

I used to listen to AM radio at night to help me sleep. I just used your every day cheapo alarm clock to tune in. When I lived in Utah, sometimes I could get in a Denver radio station, and even one in Los Angeles occasionally. I kept hearing about the legendary CC Radio. It was made specifically to get in AM stations and had a huge range even without the need for an AM antenna. I listened to the testimonials for months, and finally decided to invest in a CC Radio Plus, which was the best one available at the time. It was very expensive for a radio - $150.00, but I had horrible insomnia, and no TV in the bedroom, so I went for it. It would be nice to hear the Denver and LA stations all the time, instead of it being hit-or-miss.

Well, the shipping was free. Good thing, because  this thing is huge and heavy. It has a cord, or you can put in 4 "D" cells. The batteries last a really long time... like months. It has a collapsible, telescoping antenna for FM reception. A big screen with digital numbers. You can turn the backlighting of the screen on or off. It has a grounding point, and a place where you can even attach an optional AM antenna booster. There is also a place to plug in an LED lamp, which also can be purchased on their internet site, or by phone. There are five buttons so you can pre-set stations. It's got an "Auxiliary In" port and "Line Out" port. You can use the dial on the side to tune in the stations or the up and down arrows on the front, which will scan and go to the next strongest station. The screen has a meter that shows the signal strength of the station you are listening to. 

You can tune to AM, FM, local TV audio, and NOAA weather band stations. You can also set it to alert you to an impending local weather issue. It will beep loudly and a light will come on. It has bass and treble knobs on it to get the sound just right. There is an alarm clock feature. The clock is really loud, and has a sleep timer and snooze feature.

Wow, that is some pretty impressive things to put on something that works as well as the Timex with Indiglo alarm clock did. It was a huge, complete, and utter disappointment. It didn't get the stations in any better than the cheap clock! The TV option didn't tune anything in. There was such huge hype for this thing! Callers would call into programs and say "I'm listening to you from (wherever) on my CC Radio!" The company may have taken it back. I didn't try. It had the "may not work as well in all situations" thing on the website. The optional AM antenna was $40! I don't think so.

They are making the same claims for their new awesome radio, the even better CC Radio 2. With all the claims they made about the Plus model, I don't see how you could improve on such greatness. Well, it is a really good alarm clock. It will wake you up from the next room. I wouldn't normally spend $150.00 on an alarm clock, but this one sounded so great I had to give it a try.

Waste. Of. Money.