I’m the leader of the show, keepin’ you on the go
But I know I can’t live without my radio
Back in the 80s, when I was just a little boy, I was fascinated by almost all electronics, especially ghetto blasters. Imagine a stereo you could bring along on the beach to school or to you friend’s house. I was especially fascinated by flashing LED-lights, buttons and sliders. Some ghetto blasters even had a double cassette deck – It was awesome.
First contact
My first real ghetto blaster was a small silver JVC PC 30 with one cassette deck, 5 band equalizer and detachable speakers. I believe that the speaker unit themselves was square. Quite unusual.
I loved this radio. I almost had it with me everywhere in the summertime. I remember having it on the handle bar on my bike when me and my good friend Dennis, took a trip to Herlev. Even with batteries the PC 30 still was manageable to carry around.
Later I got a big ghetto blaster, a black no-name, which I bought from a guy at work. It had a double cassette deck and also detachable speakers with a neat light that flashed to the beat of the sound. This monster was almost impossible to carry around, due to all the batteries is could carry.
The real deal
My good friend at that time, Paul, had the Philips D8534. This was the first time I saw, what I call, a real ghetto blaster. It had a decent size, great speakers and 3 band equalizer a mono/stereo and a left/right slider. What more could you want? And I looked real cool too.
Later
As I got older, smaller and fancier music system was invented – like the Walkman. With a Walkman everyone can bring their own music and not have to drag a big ass ghetto blaster along – And you could also conceal yourself in your own world with your music and at the same time not bother your surroundings, with your music – or noise …
And to quote LL Cool J – ‘I can’t live without My Radio’ – and neither can’t I.