Kids don’t even use radio. They don’t know what stations even are. Mine don’t even know what live TV is.
I had assumed that you hold the button in, like a digital radio from the 90s.
https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/how-did-the-old-push-button-radios-work.64445/
I was assuming one of the end ones is the memory button that stays pushed and then you depress the one you want set to the current station which resets both buttons to neutral position. Then one press on the button you programmed moves the needle to the spot from wherever it is
And by assuming I mean trying to remember the earliest car I can remember my parents having.
It was either push or pull. I’ve seen both. Some had you push it in really far, but made that last bit that set it really difficult to push (to avoid doing it by accident, I guess), or more commonly you’d pull the button outwards to set it (the button was basically hollow at the end so your finger could go in to hold on and pull).
Spin one of the doodads until the station you wish for is properly locked
You don’t… Even when it’s “programmed” it’ll still slide a bit short or long & you have to find tune it.
Source: I’m an old fart
Pull the button you want to “program” out, then push it all the way back in.
That was the fascinating part. Only by actually using one you could feel it pull to the station via a literal string inside. Apparently (some/most) auto sunroofs work in a similar way, and you do not want to break that cord.
Manual? Kids today would probably need a YouTube tutorial.
“Hey scuzbits! It’s me, Scuz! Today on ‘old ass cars’ we are looking at how to program this OLD ASS car radio. But first SMASH that subscribe button and ring the bell!”
I mean back when youtube loaded quickly and wasn’t chock full of spammy ads and self promotion, this was a lot more convenient for a lot of things than trying to find a text tutorial (with good pictures if you were lucky). Some things id definitely rather have the instructions there on the page where i can refer back and check them, but for a lot of quick tasks it was way simpler to just search on youtube and watch a 30 second video of someone doing it. These days that 30 second video would be 10+ minutes with multiple ads and sponsor call outs though.
