Make AM radio fun again! - The Radio DJ transmitter from Wild Planet
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ต.ค. 2024
- The 20-year-old toy that is actually a real, functional AM radio transmitter which lets you talk and play your own music on the air: the Wild Planet Radio DJ, a.k.a. the Room Gear Radio DJ Studio.
Looking into the Wild Planet Radio DJ: www.geocities.w...
Modding and Hot-Rodding the Wild Planet Toys Radio DJ: web.archive.or...
1989 video clip of "Power 98" from: • Video Aircheck: Gary S...
Had both versions as a child. I had my dad help me modify it to accept AC power so I could be a "real station" and broadcast 24/7. I created pre-recorded "DJ shifts" on cassette that I would assemble taking music from Dad's record collection and dub it onto a tape along with my DJ banter in between the songs for playback at a later time. Yes, I was a very odd child. Haha! And that's how I got the radio bug. Guess what!? I'm still in radio to this day! On air in Oklahoma City. And it all started with that toy.
Dude that's really cool. Sounds like you had a good dad =)
If I had one of these as a kid I probably would have done the same lol
What station?
Goodest Dad! What a wholesome story! Also love how you had a cute little pirate radio lol, but what type of asshole would shut that down!, just like lemonade stands lol.
I love this. Thanks for sharing!
OMG I had one of these! I once made my mom drive until she couldn't hear it anymore just to see how far the range was. I'd set up the radios we had around the house and tune all of them in and have "dance parties" which was just little me and my sister running around, usually in just our underwear. Man I was a weird kid.
How far did it go?
@@recordcollector0665 To the end of our road, so maybe at most 500ft?
@@David_Phantom That's longer than a whole house FM transmitter!
@@warrenf5821 Really?
I clocked in my FM transmitter at 2.5 miles....
I can relate, I miss them good ole times.
Damn. For a kids toy, this thing sounds way better than it would have to.
It's not that hard if it's inches from the receiver.
@@Kalumbatsch The modulation is not that bad
True that
for a kids toy...who designed that volume slider?
Oh invoking 90's memories...100W FM stereo pirate transmitter, 2 cassette decks diy mixer a mic and the FCC at the front door... those were the times 😀
I've looked on AliExpress and you can actually buy FM transmitters there, but they only seem to go up to 25w. How far will that work?
@@Eddies_Bra-att-ha-grejer 7-10 miles no problem I guess.
@@VladoT What about the cheaper 6w ones?
@@Eddies_Bra-att-ha-grejer 2 miles I guess. I am talking about urban range and not open field.
@@VladoT Well, I guess that will be enough for my use cases. My town doesn't really have any taller buildings either.
There is something satisfying about hearing *your* music on the radio. It's nostalgic and a ton of fun.
If i could, i'd run an high power AM Station that broadcasts nothing but old time radio programs like Radio Dramas and music from the 40s and 50s.
Check out KMOX When Radio Was.
I had one of these as a kid. It's probably still floating around somewhere at my parents' house. The cassette player on mine never worked right (the speed would change as the batteries drained), so I normally hooked a Walkman to the aux input if I wanted to play a cassette over it. Connecting it in place of the speakers on the various computers in the house was also a common trick of mine. At that time, I also had one of those "Snap Circuits" electronics kits, which included a few different AM radio circuits in its book of projects. I used to build those all the time and transmit to them with this thing.
The "Snap Circuits" also has an AM transmitter, but it's nowhere near as good as this one.
This is a semiconductor version of a similar gadget from the 1950's that used tubes. One was made by Chicago-based Knight Electronics. Some people added a RF booster stage to get more range.
I regularly did 'radio shows' from my basement. I would tune my boombox to 1610, pop in a blank tape, mash REC and listen back to my shows later. Came across one of those tapes not too long ago actually. Hearing those built in sound effects really took me back. Thank you for reminding me of this cool little gadget from my childhood! :)
There's a couple on eBay... but get ready for the "VWestlife effect" lol... There's lots of music on AM here, but I'm still sick of hearing the same 5 songs on repeat every day, so I wouldn't mind an AM transmitter myself lol
You cannot legally use them in the uk. Shame, cos I'd live one. But if you're caught using one in the uk the penalties are so severe it's just not worth the risk.
We've got about 10 music stations covering the area on AM, and unlike FM stations, they have the music variety!! Commercial free 1220 CFAJ (Niagara Falls) is the latest new station, with 40s to 90s classic hits / oldies format.
i cant save this message with the full ebay link, but a white one is $200 search Room-Gear-Radio-DJ
There’s a really good oldies station on AM in Phoenix. It’s a simulcast of an FM station, so they rarely mention their AM frequency, but in most places their AM signal sounds better.
This is wonderful! Love the idea that thousands of kids having their own AM pirate radio station!
I sorts want one it's the cutest AM transmitter regardless! I would transmit podcasts so no stereo isn't a problem.
Still have mine after twenty years, added a 9 volt clip to the battery compartment and attached 4 D cell holders. Has plenty of grunt. Did the mods wayyy back as well. I use it to broadcast christmas music thru an old radio every year.
This is awesome! My father is still a radio engineer mostly as a hobby but he still works professionally for a couple AM stations and I've grown up around AM radio my whole life. He's one of the few that actually care what AM sounds like today. It's very hard to find a good sounding AM station unless you're one of the blowtorch stations in the biggest markets. Thanks for posting this!!
I was blown away at how good it sounded!
I can imagine a bunch of kids camped out by the side of the road trolling drivers with bogus travel information. Then again, does anyone actually tune in to those stations?
Their are people that still listen to those stations
@@domlimited1264 There are....... not Their are.....! "There" is the dative referring to location while "Their" is the third-person plural possessive, belonging to "them".
I do because road up here close randomly when snowstorm or wind happen
Or you could use it together with an RTL-SDR to sniff the Tire Pressure Monitoring system and give a customized warning of low tire pressure...
@@brentfisher902 Tyre, not Tire.
Good video!
Many enthusiasts still have never heard of these. I found out about these in 2002 after reading a post on the Antique Radio Forums....I quickly made a trip to the local Toys-R-Us and bought a number of them. I know I still have at least one tucked away, sealed new-in-the-box.
For what they are, they actually work surprisingly well, which is I why I decided to “stock up” back in the day.
The only drawbacks are adding an external power supply to rid the need of batteries can cause hum and noise introduction into the audio unless extra steps are taken and many of the really old radios (from the 1930s) can’t tune high enough to receive 1610 kHz. This of course could be changed, but more work then it is probably worth.
This “toy” is now a modern classic-how many items related to AM radio built post 2000 work this well?!
Now the prices on eBay will skyrocket lol
My father was a part time dj when I was younger and he picked me up one of these one day when I was young, and like the other comment, my father would drive around so he could listen to my broadcast and see what the range was. Such a cool toy.
Another good reason for some to go with a low-power short range AM broadcasting device vs FM (if stereo sound as not important to you for your purposes, Such as rebroadcasting old radio dramas, for example), will be all too familiar to anyone who has tried to use a MP3 FM transmitter device in and around a major city/metropolis such as L.A., NY, SF/Bay Area, Chicago, etc.and that is the fact that the frequencies they operate on on the FM band tend to be too crowded on the FM band a king said devices useless except in more rural areas.
FM band has become so congested in past decade. A lot of it is from AM stations that are now using FM translators! The translators became more necessary as AM tuners disappeared from radios, or declined in quality when they were included.
AM is not short range broadcasting. Once the sun sets, oh boy.
@@kevins4736 By “short range AM broadcasting” I meant a low power AM transmitter. I was not suggesting AM is by its very nature short range as your are indeed correct that AM travels much longer distances at night vs FM so I will clarify what I wrote.
I also had this! I remember my parents bought it at a Toys r us in portugal!
I had this at the time! They sold em in Australia. (I forget what frequency they used here) I think the appeal got old fairly fast but It was fun to use. It had a TV commercial i can probably recite from memory which is probably why I ended up getting it.
I remember it being really weirdly specific - something like 102.05 or similar. I probably made some (terrible year-4-standard) jokes about it when using it.
I had one of these as a kid! Unfortunately I have no idea what happened to it, but it's just as well since nowadays I'd probably have issues with that Toronto station you mentioned. I did build a neat AM transmitter kit a couple years back though, this video is making me want to dig that thing out again. It is fun to listen to my own music over AM, even if the range is very limited.
I’m doing an am radio transmitter project for science fair. Your old video of this radio transmitter inspired me!
Omg, if finally found it! I got one of these at Goodwill as a kid (mine was a bit cheaper, no cassette if I remember right) and I shocked my parents when my voice came over the radio, haha. Mine was FM though, I'm pretty sure of that. Edit: the more I think about it, the more it probably did have a cassette. I don't know for sure though. Edit again: heh, I just discovered that editing comments removes favorites. Makes sense I suppose.
My brother had one of these! Just looking at it and seeing the "Wild Planet" logo again (completely forgot this company existed - I think they made other cool tech-relate toys similar to this) unlocked some forgotten memories from my youth. What a cool product.
I can't believe it! I've been looking for an AM transmitter for so long! It looks silly but oh well, better than nothing.
Ok, so I had one of these, and by just adding cable and height I was able to be heard almost 200 ft from my location, that was an accomplishment to me, I didn't even understand the tech behind it, or that it had an adjustment. Too bad I don't have it anymore, but that thing was toast, we used it heavily as a pirate station for years around here, it was fun.
Reminds me of the old "Mr Microphone" from the TV ads of the 80s!
I used to have one as a kid. It was fun being able to play my own tapes and at one point had one of those tape adapters. Mine was fixed to 1610.
Might try to find another one and mod it.
Wow, I totally forgot this existed! I had one of these as a kid and absolutely loved it! I used it to play modern music on my grandfather's antique radios that he had.
Also on AM only radio tuners from Japan as well have AM and Nikkei Shortwave 6 channels.
Wow! Good quality sound for a kids toy.
One of my favourite toys as a kid! I ended up becoming an actual on-air host for a while to boot!
To make AM radio enjoyable again is to take off all the worthless commercials that clog it up now.
CFAJ 1220 has been commercial free 40s to 90s classic hits / oldies, since going on the air several months ago.
yeah AM was king from the 40s to the mid 70s
I have one in the closet. Got it in 2000 when I was 13. Was happy to have something that transmitted on AM. The cassette deck didn’t work too good. Always just fed the thing with the line in. It had so much power that it made my portable CD player spin backwards when I tried to play something with it.
For this being a toy, the transmit audio sounds absolutely incredible.
Holy crap! I remember asking for this for Christmas back in 2000, it was the ONE thing I wanted more than everything else!
Even at 12 years old, I knew the audio quality was suspiciously good, but I couldn't help but wonder if it was just rose colored glasses. I played with that thing for MONTHS, hours a day! (as if anyone was actually listening, haha) I still have it, even the original box. Strangely the instructions and battery cover are gone for some reason.
isnt this just pirate radio
nevermind that doesnt look that strong
Guess only your nearest neighbour could pick that up if you have one.
It produces output, if needed for actual work, feed that into electronics to boost the signal and changing out to a more powerful antenna...
Not saying anyone should do that, but it probably would be possible with the correct electronics... Supercharged WTOY AM ! :-)
Aaaaaar me 'earties, we be broadcastin' Pirate Radio 'ere!
1:26 I absolutely love the OTR of the shadow.
We used to listen to Radio Disney on AM radio. They since went off the air several years ago, but it’s now public radio. Even the new cars still support AM radio, due to local license stations operate at low costs!
The car stereos still have AM radio, but I've noticed it's impossible to get a good signal on all but the most powerful AM stations. Cheap AM tuners and lousy antennas, I suspect. Few drivers care about AM so this isn't changing.
@@marki7040 AM radio is mainly used for emergencies, morning news, public broadcasting, and sports. FM is where it’s at, due to stereo music as opposed to mono on AM.
I remember those sound effect! I would hit the laugh button so much, idk how my parents didn't kill me! I hardly used the mic, though. I would use the aux input with a CD player.
Great job, VWestlife! I would have never thought you would have ever uploaded an updated video of this fun little gadget!!!
Incredible! Never seen one before! Oh man that would have been so awesome. Love how it's AM versus FM too. I would be curious to see how much bandwidth that transmission is, maybe using an SDR dongle or something.
Solder to a special pin on an RTL-SDR dongle to get direct sampling mode and use a 2N2222 amplifier and ferrite rod antenna hooked to the input and you can test that...AND be able to record everything AM....the WHOLE thing...using I/Q data converted to LPCM at 4.8 Million samples per second, a 25 GB Blu-Ray recordable disc will hold over 80 minutes of the entire AM broadcast band (that the antenna is capable of hearing). You can listen to one station on the file for a while...then REWIND the RADIO and go listen to another station that was transmitting at the same time you heard the other broadcast...And in Direct Sampling mode, the recording bandwidth is enough to record the flashes of light and dark patterns of a CD player laser beam and you can be able to get the stereo digital music back from just a positive and negative wire soldered to the RF eye-pattern test point. And the bandwidth is also enough to sample the MFM magnetic pulses off of HD computer floppy disks...
"My name is tom Glasgow and I like hardcore tecno and hardcore metal" best intro ever xD
The original Technoman.
What's the song after that?
@@digit969 I think it's "Higher Octane" by Vans in Japan, a TH-cam Audio Library song. When I heard this song, I thought this is Metallica's "Moth into the Flame" or "Hardwired".
Techno has been big in Europe in the late 80's early 90's?
That was some nice sounding AM coming out of that Denon NAB radio.
I know some of the Tandy or Radio Shack "Science Fair" electronic kits, one of the experiments was an AM transmitter. But the one I had it was rather crude, using only one transistor, and you spoke into the crystal earpiece working as a microphone.
I had that as a kid too. It was really cool, and I added a better microphone and antenna to it.
I'm glad theres decent radio stations on my AM still.
I had one of those and I was a kid, I ran the “antenna” wire out of my window and connected it to the tv uhf/vhf antenna we weren’t using (my child brain thought hooking up a real antenna would increase the range). I would broadcast every day before and after school for maybe a month or 2 but I doubt anyone was listening.
Well you were half right
I’ve just ordered parts for my own pirate analog TV station. How fitting
As a child I had one of these when they first came out. I thought it was pretty cool!
Thanks for another great video! You always manage to find the coolest stuff to make into a video. I always enjoy!
Having been the owner of three commercial radio stations (one FM, two AM), I think that big, corporate radio would do well to hire some of the folks who have little garage stations and let them program their AM stations. We'd have some incredible AM programming, wouldn't we!?
I really believe that it's the people who are not in commercial radio who have some of the most innovative ideas and could probably do fairly well if they they had a real, high power AM station of their own.
If that was around in the early 1970's that would have been the toy for me. I had been fascinated with radio since age 4 and always wanted to be a radio dj. By age 3 I already had an extensive record collection. by my early teens growing up in Brooklyn New York I had a weird radio station come in on Friday nights and weekends on 91.5 fm and 1620 Am. It was a local pirate station just about 3 miles from where I lived. W.H.O.T. was the call letters with Hank Hayes and Jim Nasium . From then I knew I wanted a transmitter for sure. 35 years later I finally got myself a transmitter hooked up to my dj system and with now a huge record collection, I broadcast a 50 mile radius illegally. I can just see myself as a kid having that toy and opening it to modify it to broadcast it further than intended and hooking it up to an ac power adaptor. I still want an AM transmitter as AM travels further at night than FM does. I remember the pirate station from Brooklyn had people calling in from across the United States. That was all fun and games until they were all caught on the ship Radio New York International in 1986. Now they do internet radio but it's not the same. It's NOT radio!
I had one of these as a kid! My favorite toy. I got it along with a boom box for Christmas. Both were actually a big part of my love for radio and music going forward.
Oh wow this brought back some memories! My dad worked at a radio station, so this was a must have for me as a kid.
That's a cool gadget
I recently got myself one of these chinese AM transmitter kits that are 9vold DC powered and allow you to adjust / change the frequency, volume and modulation. Mine even was incomplete and lacked that black trimmer-can thingy but i salvaged that from a non-function AM radio kit i put together once. Apparently this kit is also one of the few AM kits that seem to have the best possible sound on AM compared to other AM transmitters. Originally got it to test out a little Crystal radio project. The kit itself was straight forward to put together.
I actually had one of these when I was a kid in the early 2000s I had so much fun with it on my old tube am radios!
Man I’ve been trying to remember the name of this device for over 20 years ago; thanks for making this video!
TO EBAY!
"there's nothing good on AM radio: sports, religious"
Me: I have never heard anything on MW here in the last 10 years. So I guess I need this toy.
I had one of these as a kid, but when I was 12 we moved and the Radio DJ and a 1964 4" monochrome Sony TV (the smallest consumer set in the world that year) were the only things of mine that weren't found after the move. Even today that transmitter hasn't materialized, though the Sony was found (thank god). A few years ago I picked up another radio DJ and remembered the goofy stuff I did with my old one...It's a shame it disappeared when it did since in the next few years my tube radio collecting would take off. Eventually, I plan to make my own automated music channel with it.
My step brother had one of these when we were kids, our neighbors could listen to our "radio show"
AM transmitters are super easy to make if you just wanna make a proof of concept. A quartz crystal, transformer, audio source, power, a couple long wires. You can even make a receiver out of a 555 timer chip and some cheap components.
I was floored by how good that sounded
I remember being given this promotional Budweiser branded in-ear AM radio, and its ability to tune was like painting with the fattest brush ever. It would only give me three stations - BBC 5 Live, talkSPORT and Capital Gold - all of which would churn out soccer coverage of an evening.
This is actually amazing, a kids' toy that is powerful enough to get a high quality AM frequency. This would certainly has some hidden gems.
Cool! I was a kid in the early 2000s and the target demo for this toy. But I don’t remember these at all. But now I want one!
I had one of these as a kid and i loved it!
Had one as a kid and loved it. I’m from Spain and mine worked on FM IIRC and didn’t had this antenna nor the cable with the alligator clip.
Damn as a Kid one of these Wouldve been Nice.
I actually ran a wireless FM microphone transmitter. I argued with that thing to stay on 106.3 before finally winning that one. Once tried to move around a bit because tropo was bringing France into Germany that night. I lost. Transmitter said 106.3. could cover almost all of Coleman Barracks military base in Mannheim. I also did a direct tap for line in. Was monophonic but very high quality. Had my entire unit jamming out to my mix program. It felt great to have thousands of watts worth of stereos running and i could feel my music on the building! Rumble rumble boom with cymbals crashing in between. SMOKIN'! SOMEBODY STOP ME!
Nice to know that you still have that Sanyo stereo from the 1980s....
I see that you managed to do a slight "update" video if you want to call it on the device.🙂😏
@UCKl-4mSw05pzCk4fmGCKhEQ hmm, interesting.
the original one is at th-cam.com/video/7WIocldgoU4/w-d-xo.html but I like this one as well for the extra information
@@aperson6955 what do you mean? And, I see you deleted your original comment.
Wherever you live, you sir have by far the greatest of thrift stores.
Yeah, all the gadgetry at thrift stores where I am is iPod docks and VGA monitors.
I remember you showed the wild planet radio DJ but i think it's neat idea. Especially when you have a fm transmitter for your own radio station for home use which is really cool to have. At ending it's always facinates me seeing a DJ doing their work like wolfman jack in American graffiti anf then seeing Arnie woo woo Ginsburg on youtube
I had one of these! I can definitely give it a lot of the credit for my interest in radio now! Thanks for making this video 😊
i had this same toy when i was a kid. i remember how much fun it was to play with.
That is neat for a toy. It can be handy around the neighborhood, as well as entertaining. I have a pre-WWII radio which when I repair it, would be fun to listen to popular music from then. In the past, I have built a few tiny transmitters, but this looks like a nice, easy to use package.
Got excited about this thing during the video completely forgetting about my KX3. Whoops! Still sounds more fun broadcasting music than talking to old men about their arthritis
Years ago, we took a Ramsey Electronics FM35-BWT 1 watt transmitter in the car, and parked in front of the local donut shop. There is something very interesting about FM receivers... 1 watt from 50 feet away swamps a 25,000 watt commercial FM transmitter from 20 miles away. They always played this easy listening "elevator music" station at the donut shop. We decided to introduce their customers to "Crack Rock" by The Dogs. (explicit version, not the most polite song to say the least!) What was even better is the cash / servers didn't know where the receiver was to change the station or turn it off!
Friend still uses the Ramsey FM transmitter at his farm, and said it covers the entire 55 acre farm, and can drive more than a mile from the farm and still receive the signal pretty well.
Hey, I have that same FM Sound Feeder you're holding at 3:20! I bought it in 2003 at Best Buy and it still works great. I use it whenever I listen radio audiochecks for the "authentic" feel. A couple years I built an AM transmitter that uses a 1000 khz oscillator chip from a diy TH-cam video.
I had one of these back in the early 2000s I loved it! Always wanted to be an on air radio personality.
Now if only someone could find a toy that could broadcast in stereo......
That Sanyo Stereo at the beginning of the video made me drop some tears because it reminds me of my late grandfather, he owned one of those and I keep the speakers up to this day (I don't know what happened with the stereo, I think a cousin got it in the past)
The audio from this video is playing through my radio DJ!
I wish they had this when I was a kid. I used to play DJ with a suitcase record player and a little reel to reel tape recorder.
Is this, in a way, a newer version of the Mr. Microphone from the 1970s?
Yes, pretty much.
Wasn't Mr Microphone (a) an FM transmitter and (b) hot garbage? This Wild Planet AM transmitter seems a lot better.
@@TheKnobCalledTone. The original Mr. Microphone transmitted on FM. But there were many knockoffs that transmitted on AM.
@@TheKnobCalledTone. I had one of those back around 1980. It was so weak, even with fresh batteries, and you had to position the wire antenna a certain way to even put out a signal on a radio 2-3 feet away.
@@TheKnobCalledTone. Back in the early '80s, our neighbour/good friend of both my sister and me received a Mr. Microphone as a birthday gift. I remember we all used it a few times, but due to the quality, etc. the novelty of it wore off pretty quickly. Certainly not like what the commercials of the time hyped it as.
I have a talking house transmitter I used for my radio station at home.
Woah! Talk about bringing back a long buried memory. I had one of these things when I was 9 years old.
I got one for Christmas in 2001. The model I had (which was otherwise identical) used the FM band, though it could've just been the Australian market (perhaps non-US) models that were FM.
Same here - pretty sure my one was FM and I'm Aussie as well
If i had this as a toy,i would use it in my car as an am transmitter and why not as a car communicator
A friend of mine had a talking house AM transmitter, which she used to obtain a commercial AM radio license from the FCC. She had a data package to transmit to the satellite. Converting it from analog to digital. She used the Sam broadcaster as the software.
Thanks for the credit for the use of my video aircheck.
excellent video, thanks for sharing
I would have loved one of these as a kid....would still like one at 43 !
Wish we had am stereo station sound back,,,it was so popular in the 80,s,,,and the stations go 6 times the distance in klms compared to fm frequency.
I still have an am stereo receiver 2day,,,which works great too. Am stereo/fm stereo cassette recorder.
I used to work for an AM stereo station that had very good sound quality. KLDI in Laramie, Wyoming. I only ever heard how good is sounded at work, though, because no one I knew actually had an AM Stereo tuner.
@@danieldaniels7571 Yes,,,gotta bring back am stereo again,,,as it goes the distance,,always loud and clear.
@@nickfrench7372 unfortunately the push now on AM is for HD Radio, which does distance poorly and causes interference to adjacent analog AM signals.
@@danieldaniels7571 Yeah,,,which leads to so much frustration with hd internet radio troubles with distance in the long run,,,I know all too well about the interference it does to analog am radio signals,,,no good.
This is DELIGHTFUL. I’m definitely going to read those papers, and may need to make some 3D Printed Case or Something to Replicate it Well!
I would want a removable mic though…
Only ogs remember the original video from a couple years ago
I had one when I was a kid! It was fun to play with.
This is amazing.....I want one lol!
I didn't know about this til now! I'd seen plans for an AM transmitter with a fixed 1 MHz oscillator, but the 1610 on this unit sounds more practical. My market has a 1600 AM so I'm thinking there would be too much interference if I used the DJ.
Wow that audio sounds great for am, for some reason I thought only am stereo could do that, even if its dependent on bandwidth.