[Milsurplus] The Gas receiver

[Barry Hauser]

Funny coincidence, Hue

I worked at Publisher's Clearing House for about 10 years -- until late '82.
When I left I was Director of Customer Marketing.  Back then, merchandise
was limited to bill stuffers.  Those of us on the magazine side (95%) used
to cringe at some of the stuff that was promoted to the customers.  (My main
mission was to keep as many as possible -- not trash 'em with, uh, trash.)

>From time to time, they sought my opinion on electronic goods -- or I gave
it to 'em whether they asked or not.  I recall reviewing a Soundesign
multi-band radio in the late 70's.  It was one of those 10-band do-all jobs
with only 5 or 6 positions -- right -- some of the "bands" didn't go across
the full range of the dial -- more scales than bands.  Tried to explain it
might disappoint a lot of folks -- not to mention the hyped up copy about
shortwave reception.  They tried it anyway.  Normally there was a very high
return rate with that class of consumer electronics, but abysmal with that
Soundesign thing.

"Emerson" probably comes out of the same or similar factory.  They'll print
any name you want on the things if you buy a container load.

BTW -- the sweepstakes was always legit -- audited and controlled by Federal
and state laws.  However, they "pushed the envelope" with incentivising ways
to present it.  Their major competitor -- American Family Publishers (Ed
McMahon, etc.) went out of business altogether due to going too far.  PCH
got beat up a bit.  People used to show up on the doorstep to collect the
grand prize.  I discovered some years later that my own mother was actually
ordering magazines because she thought her chances would be better.  (Not
so -- would be an illegal lottery.)

If anyone is really interested in buying any of that stuff, wait a few
months.  After response falls off, the surplus gets sold off to the odd lot
stores.  Part of the product life-cycle.

'scuze the OT, but there's a whole 'nother world of "boatanchors" out
there -- on several levels of meaning. ;-)

Back to the real "iron".  Actually, the subject line still fits -- gas.
That Soundesign was a gas receiver -- full of air -- hollow state of another
kind.

Barry

> That's right. I was just looking thru the coupons from a Publisher's
Clearing
> House perpetual lottery mailing, and there was an Emerson crank-up
> radio.  ( Having tried enough of these small radios, i know enough about
> the performance and sound, i would never want another, and there's
> actually practically nothing inside to harvest.)
> Hue Miller
> _______________________________________________
> Milsurplus mailing list
> Milsurplus@mailman.qth.net
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus
>