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Why The Public Radio is sixty dollars (2018)

pencerw.com

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Re: Why The Public Radio is sixty dollars (2018)

#11

Post by shantly »

StevePerkins wrote: post #4

This product just seems... like a throwback to the first decade of this century. A time when we rebelled against over-advertised, and over-priced Gillette Fusion cartridges. Not by growing beards (that would come in the 2010's). But rather by shaving with $100 German double-edge razors, badger hair brushes, and artisial shaving soaps instead. This here is a cheap pocket radio, like you could find at Walmart for $5. E…

See also: tiny houses. Mobile homes or RVs were too low-class, I guess. Not enough hand-planed teak or whatever. Tiny home, now that signals you've attended higher education and have made a thoughtful philosophical choice rather than just being poor. eyeroll

Re: Why The Public Radio is sixty dollars (2018)

#12

Post by leoedin »

vyrotek wrote: post #10

For those confused as I was, you can switch the current station but it's not convenient or meant to be done often. You can basically disassemble the radio and press a button to cycle through available FM stations and leave it on the one you want. Why this button isn't just available on the lid is beyond me. While I do appreciate simplicity I really don't understand the value of a single station radio either. > https:…

If it had a button on the lid, it would just be another FM radio - not really a market that a small hardware company want to be in. The statement this radio makes by being untunable is literally the only reason anyone buys it.

Re: Why The Public Radio is sixty dollars (2018)

#13

Post by i_am_proteus »

StevePerkins wrote: post #4

This product just seems... like a throwback to the first decade of this century. A time when we rebelled against over-advertised, and over-priced Gillette Fusion cartridges. Not by growing beards (that would come in the 2010's). But rather by shaving with $100 German double-edge razors, badger hair brushes, and artisial shaving soaps instead. This here is a cheap pocket radio, like you could find at Walmart for $5. E…

A Merkur 34 costs $40 and blades are $6/100. I broke even vs. cartridge razors in three months, a decade ago.

This is not a throwback to the safety-razor hipster era of yesterday, this is a manifestation of the artisan-chic post hipster/hipster-yuppie/yupster reality of today.

Alternate take: in an increasingly complicated world, people are coming to value simplicity and aesthetics, and will pay for these things.

Re: Why The Public Radio is sixty dollars (2018)

#14

Post by vyrotek »

leoedin wrote: post #12
vyrotek wrote: post #10

For those confused as I was, you can switch the current station but it's not convenient or meant to be done often. You can basically disassemble the radio and press a button to cycle through available FM stations and leave it on the one you want. Why this button isn't just available on the lid is beyond me. While I do appreciate simplicity I really don't understand the value of a single station radio either. > https:…

If it had a button on the lid, it would just be another FM radio - not really a market that a small hardware company want to be in. The statement this radio makes by being untunable is literally the only reason anyone buys it.

But it is tunable which breaks the whole 'statement' for me.

Re: Why The Public Radio is sixty dollars (2018)

#15

Post by pencerw »

vyrotek wrote: post #10

For those confused as I was, you can switch the current station but it's not convenient or meant to be done often. You can basically disassemble the radio and press a button to cycle through available FM stations and leave it on the one you want. Why this button isn't just available on the lid is beyond me. While I do appreciate simplicity I really don't understand the value of a single station radio either. > https:…

Hey! Co-inventor of the product (and author of the link) here.

The reason that the button isn't on the lid is because that makes the lid uglier and, more importantly, undermines the philosophy behind the UI - which is to keep the device as absolutely simple as possible. The idea came from my partner (Zach Dunham) and was inspired partly by Radiolab's 2008 episode, "Choice" - it's a bit of a deep cut but I recommend listening to it and thinking a little bit about how choice functions in the FM radio world (which is, obviously, competing with Spotify & podcasts) today.

Also note that we developed the product in ~2013, when everyone in the hardware scene in NYC was all into IoT and making everything bluetooth. I think there was part of us that believed that IoT (and connecting everything to the internet) was misguided and that having a long term relationship with a local news/radio source (which for me is Hot 97, but for most of our customers is their local NPR affiliate) is actually really cool/powerful/valuable.

Lastly, you should note that a lot of our business now comes from selling The Public Radio to radio stations (again, mostly NPR affiliates) to give out as fund drive gifts. For obvious reasons, having a single-channel radio is attractive to both the station managers and their donating listeners.

Re: Why The Public Radio is sixty dollars (2018)

#16

Post by pencerw »

leoedin wrote: post #12
vyrotek wrote: post #10

For those confused as I was, you can switch the current station but it's not convenient or meant to be done often. You can basically disassemble the radio and press a button to cycle through available FM stations and leave it on the one you want. Why this button isn't just available on the lid is beyond me. While I do appreciate simplicity I really don't understand the value of a single station radio either. > https:…

If it had a button on the lid, it would just be another FM radio - not really a market that a small hardware company want to be in. The statement this radio makes by being untunable is literally the only reason anyone buys it.

Exactly - we never wanted to compete with the rest of the home audio industry!

Re: Why The Public Radio is sixty dollars (2018)

#17

Post by pencerw »

imglorp wrote: post #2

The price is a good conversation about globalizing supply chains. But what's really cool is they have a way to program radios which are sealed inside a cardboard shipping box, without batteries installed. https://wp.josh.com/2017/03/18/capacitive-coupling-casestudy...

Yeah, Josh's method of tuning The Public Radio is super cool. We never actually implemented it in production, but our manufacturing line is in some ways even cooler (it's fully just-in-time) and is remarkably advanced for a FM radio in a mason jar :) I wrote it up in a separate blog post here: http://pencerw.com/feed/2018/2/8/the-public-radios-assembly-...

Re: Why The Public Radio is sixty dollars (2018)

#18

Post by pencerw »

vyrotek wrote: post #14
leoedin wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it had a button on the lid, it would just be another FM radio - not really a market that a small hardware company want to be in. The statement this radio makes by being untunable is literally the only reason anyone buys it.

But it is tunable which breaks the whole 'statement' for me.

That's fair, but if I were to guess I'd say only 5% of our customers are even aware that the radio is re-tunable. It's not a secret by any means, but we don't really promote it and even if you did once know about it you could easily forget that it's an option at all.

Re: Why The Public Radio is sixty dollars (2018)

#19

Post by pencerw »

lxe wrote: post #9

I am impressed if this business works. You're selling something for $60 with the same functionality as something I can get on Alibaba $0.30-$1 per unit. And the people are buying it because of all the artificial restrictions.

(Note: I co-created the product, manage the business that produces it, and wrote the original blog post)

In many ways I'd say the answer is still in flux. On the one hand this is a part-time business that has not, by any means, made either myself or my partner rich. On the other hand, we sold our first units in 2014 and are in continuous production today. It's a weird side business to have, but we've figured out a way to make it fit into our careers/lives.

In other words, I'm continuously surprised that The Public Radio continues to be a _thing_ and am always slightly shocked when I see one in the wild. And it's nice to have something like that.

Re: Why The Public Radio is sixty dollars (2018)

#20

Post by [deleted] »

StevePerkins wrote: post #4

This product just seems... like a throwback to the first decade of this century. A time when we rebelled against over-advertised, and over-priced Gillette Fusion cartridges. Not by growing beards (that would come in the 2010's). But rather by shaving with $100 German double-edge razors, badger hair brushes, and artisial shaving soaps instead. This here is a cheap pocket radio, like you could find at Walmart for $5. E…

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