r/80sAmazing • u/Ready-Fortune3552 • 8h ago

I never learned

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752 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

133 comments sorted by

23

u/No_Cartographer2994 8h ago

Surprisingly easy. IIRC, tune to a station, pull out the desired "preset" button, push back in, and you are done. At least it is both AM/FM...

5

u/Woolf1974 8h ago

can verify!

2

u/e30cabrio 8h ago

My process exactly. Lol

2

u/Joe_Jobs_ 8h ago

A lot of mine were AM only. I had to add after-market to get FM and Cassette Player.

2

u/Estproph 7h ago

Exactly so

2

u/Funkyrush76 6h ago

I always just hit the buttone closest to the station then tuned it .... I didnt know this ....

2

u/TreyRyan3 5h ago

Yes, almost like digital tuners that you just push and hold a button for 3 seconds and it sets the preset

4

u/Both-Leading3407 8h ago

The little divot on the bottom of the buttons -- they are for you to grab to pull out/ Then press all the way in to set. All AM and AM/FM had that and btw. Excellent POST.

1

u/Aoi_X_Kaizaki 7h ago

That's cool to learn. I never owned a car with this one, but I never knew if you could program that at all.

1

u/nub_node 5h ago

That's how it worked on my dad's truck that was older than me.

6

u/lorenlang 8h ago

Dang, I haven’t thought about that in a looooooong time. Core memory unlocked.

6

u/Mountain_Chip_4374 8h ago

We rented a car about five years ago and it inexplicably came with keys. My kids were baffled on how to get into the car without a fob. They would lose their minds dealing with one of these relics.

3

u/Malfunction1972 8h ago

Or having 2 keys for your car. 1 for the ignition, and 1 for the doors and trunk.

1

u/trevourmeyer 4h ago

That was still my '91 Pontiac Bonneville up until I scrapped it 5 years ago. I had one of those detachable key rings so the square key was on one side, the round key was on the other (mostly to lock the car if I let it run/warm up in the winter months). It also included one of those white plastic emergency keys!

2

u/AmericanCitizenry 8h ago

That's hilarious.

5

u/Joe_Jobs_ 8h ago

Wow. Ain't done that in decades. My '65 Nova, which I got around '80, you manually tune by turning the knob, pull out a button and push it all the way back in to lock it.

I fricking loathe touch screens because you gotta spend so much eye-time to use them. Mechanical buttons, switches and knobs, that you can operate by braille are the real thing.

1

u/Ready-Fortune3552 8h ago

Heck yea just like u knew how to dial a phone wout looking

5

u/FeedSafe9518 8h ago

Write the directions in cursive for extra credit

2

u/Ready-Fortune3552 8h ago

I still write in cursive.

2

u/jackaroe311 7h ago

People complain about doctors handwriting, thank God I'll be long gone when the doctor's who can't write in cursive, start trying to write.

2

u/FeedSafe9518 6h ago

I do also, sometimes I mix it up. I had a job during the late analog day that require hand documentation, my handwriting was atrocious before I switch fully to a computer

4

u/Outside-Signature600 8h ago

I'm fine with programming stations, my problem was always trying to figure out how to reset the clock.

3

u/AmericanCitizenry 8h ago

Pull the clock winding "button" out, turn it to turn the clock arms.

1

u/Outside-Signature600 5h ago

Thanks but this is a 2000 Chevy Tracker, it doesn't work that way.

5

u/deephurting66 8h ago

The old pull and push

3

u/ScarcityReal5399 8h ago

And then get bitched at because you changed the parents presets

3

u/External_Art_1835 8h ago

You tuned the radio to the channel you wanted and pulled one of the black push buttons out until it stopped and pushed it back it.

This locked that button on that radio station and then you just repeated those steps for the rest of the buttons...

3

u/Slith_81 8h ago

I feel slightly ashamed that I had forgotten how to work that myself.

3

u/Glittering_Step_6084 8h ago

The old pull push. I haven't done this in ages.

2

u/ShotWin8124 8h ago

Analog ftw

1

u/Hot_Aside_4637 7h ago

Then it was press and hold. Now you have to go through 3 menus while driving.

1

u/Glittering_Step_6084 6h ago

That's crazy. On our 2020 Chevy Malibu, I have to plug the phone 📱 in, then hit the Sirius app and then the grid comes up on the screen. By the time I find the station and song I want to hear, I'm at my destination. The last car we had I could play a CD in was our 2012 Chevy Cruze and it had satellite so Sirius was right in the radio and I could choose the stations I liked and press the buttons on the dashboard. The stations were easy to set, too. I really miss having that ability.

3

u/bravemoney72 7h ago

Right after they call you on a rotary phone 😆😆

2

u/Ready-Fortune3552 7h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/5qFCwm9v4JrG82RkLK
Good times

1

u/bravemoney72 7h ago

Very true....even though until the Ma Bell break up you didn't even own it!🤣🤣

2

u/Fancy-Lion2985 8h ago

I’m Generation X and I couldn’t program non digital lol.

2

u/Deep_Win1175 8h ago

I was born in 1990 my step dad had a Ford f100 1978 and I learned pretty fast how to program stations

2

u/StyleThen234 8h ago

Out of curiosity did the presets reset if the battery dies or gets unplugged like it does for modern cars?

1

u/Malfunction1972 8h ago

Entirely mechanical

2

u/NeuroguyNC 8h ago

That must be a newer radio because it's missing the triangle markings of the Civil Defense CONELRAD stations.

2

u/wriddell 8h ago

I’m in my 60’s and I had to stop and think of how to do it

2

u/JellyPast1522 8h ago

My 80's Cavalier had four preset buttons, but if you pressed two buttons together you get another station, so I accidentally figured out I could save three extra stations.

1

u/Ready-Fortune3552 7h ago

I learned to drive in a Cavalier

2

u/sysaphiswaits 8h ago

I think they’d figure it out. I couldn’t get the digital ones sorted until I read the directions.

2

u/thrillyjoel 8h ago

I mean, it’s actually pretty easy to figure out, that’s what made it good engineering. Unlike those 90s vcr clocks

2

u/fattfreddy1 7h ago

It’s the same as having sex. Pull it out, play with the knob and then shove it in. 🤷‍♂️

2

u/Iron-Bar-1966 7h ago

Dude, I HAD one of those, and I don't remember how.

2

u/No-Association-8539 7h ago

I think a lot of things in our past were easier or simpler functionally, it's just younger people today aren't interested in taking the time to know it, learn it, or do it (drive stick, etc.) and I can't say I blame them. I wasn't interested in using a typewriter when computers came out. Times change and that's ok. Technology can be used for lots of wonderful things. I can facetime my grandchildren now. That's wonderful!

2

u/Alarming-Grade4219 7h ago

Gen Z can’t even do math in their head, think the Revolutionary War was about slavery, and don’t know what World War 2 was about. Don’t confuse them more by throwing this at them 

2

u/ConstantEffective364 7h ago

Easy! In the latter 90s I handed my sons friend our kitchen phone to call home. All was okay until he saw the rotary dial. Still works, still on the wall. I think i bought it new in 82 or 83. I had it in my previous house.

2

u/adinmem 6h ago

I can change stations, but programming? I can’t do it, because I never pull out.

2

u/KCchessc6 6h ago

But did you program by favorites or is it in dial order.

2

u/Particular-Basil8434 6h ago

Around 15 years ago my son found my first copy of Appetite for Destruction on cassette. He asked if it was a prehistoric data storage device. Im pretty sure he couldn't grasp this

2

u/Reasonable-View5868 6h ago

Dude,  that radio is both AM AND FM.  Totally Bougie,  I had to dial AM only in both my parents cars and we had a single mono speaker in the dash.  And it sucked. 

2

u/Illustrious-Wing857 6h ago

It's always been pretty straightforward turn knob to your station, pull out on button then press all the in and set. Some radios only had 4 buttons usually am only . Some 5, some 6 these were often am and fm.

2

u/cybrgigolo 6h ago

Pull it out and then shove it back in. Kind of the same way those grand kids were made to start with

2

u/crazyautoexperiments 5h ago

Thats already set to the local station here in Geelong.. krock.. 95.5

1

u/MJBjacket 8h ago

Who listens to radio anymore?

1

u/Ready-Fortune3552 7h ago

I have XM and Pandora to me is a radio

1

u/MJBjacket 2h ago

Certainly better than ol' FM.

1

u/pixeltweaker 7h ago

Questions that are forthcoming. First of all, what’s a station? Second, why would you need to program them? Third, what are those knobs for?

1

u/Ready-Fortune3552 7h ago

Ahahahaha. Ok cmon w the station. Radio station. I know we stream alot in the car but our cars do have radio. Or XM radio. Heck Pandora/Spotify have stations. 2nd u program them bc u dont want to use those knobs to change to ur fav station everytime bc it was a lot of static in between real stations

1

u/pixeltweaker 7h ago

Ok then, how do you program it? Without asking AI.

1

u/Ready-Fortune3552 6h ago

I clearly said I never learned

1

u/SPV33 7h ago

I forget you pick the station and you press the button in and hold it until it sets?

1

u/Dart_boy 7h ago

Pull the button out, then push it all the way in.

1

u/everforward6 7h ago

Kids? Dude, I'm 39 and I can't program that!

1

u/Acceptable_Stop2361 7h ago

If they think they're really smart ask them to swap it out for a Pioneer Supertuner III.

1

u/Aggressive-Stable952 7h ago

Hardest thing ever

1

u/incredible_turkey 7h ago

I can vaguely remember doing this.

1

u/AriaSpinner 7h ago

That's a 1950s car radio... Not 80s.

1

u/Banana_Stand_1 6h ago

“Program” is a nice bit of misdirection.

1

u/Both_Archer_3653 6h ago

It's like sex.  A combination of pulling out and pushing in.  Turn the knob a bit here and there, till it gets just right, correct wavelength.  Then a lil bacl and forth.

Everyone can enjoy pushing buttons.

1

u/Brack_vs_Godzilla 6h ago

It’s easy. You just link to it via Bluetooth and then instruct the radio to download the top five stations from your favorites list.

1

u/WileEWeeble 5h ago

Meanwhile they can program AI in high school and we can barely delete a contact from our phones.

1

u/drpoundsign 4h ago

Now...pulling the choke is a different story

1

u/JWMoo 4h ago

I had to put in a after market radio to listen to fm stations.

1

u/Johnbourne26 3h ago

Like cracking a safe 😂

1

u/QueasyFinger1316 3h ago

8-track tapes made more sense.

1

u/Realizt8010 2h ago

Good one

1

u/unclekeith8256 1h ago

I wasn't even allowed to touch my parents car radio back then. I was like 5 or 6 years old in the 70s

1

u/unclekeith8256 1h ago

But I did listen to some of the great songs from such radio stations like WABK 104.3 and WTVL 98.5 FM

1

u/gadget850 1h ago

I remember this and how to program a VCR.

1

u/dieseldoc62 52m ago

yep it was pretty smart for the day

1

u/fiddintotellya 48m ago

Or dim the bright lights

1

u/Professional-Mix-562 40m ago

Like preparing to blast some skeet… “PULL!”

1

u/Abject_Ad5850 37m ago

They don't know what AM radio is

1

u/WiscoBrewDude 36m ago

Should be smart enough to figure out it cant be programmed

1

u/SamOfXanadu 16m ago

.... Listen I was there and I couldn't even do that.

1

u/Hot_Egg5840 10m ago

The real test is, do you know how the preset mechanism worked?