Ghetto Blasters

Ubbquittious

Where have they all gone? They were a great invention. All replaced by sh1tty bluetooth speakers that emit tinny sound at lower volumes.

Have the people from the Ghetto been "hood"winked into making less noise?

Suckit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-pV_wYGmFY

GIMP

They were left behind when the Ghetto became the Hood🤫

gladvimpaker

https://youtu.be/7_pzk83luwo

sam t smith

I just watched ‘The Living Daylights’. Q had the right idea re Ghetto Blasters.

Ger Roe

My dad brought this monster back to 15 year old me, in 1979, from his first UN tour of duty in Lebanon. It's a Hitachi TRK 8080W radio recorder, with AM FM and shortwave bands and it was the biggest bestest radio I had ever seen.

The AM pirate stations in Dublin were blasting out at the time and this was perfect for listening and recording anything that squeaked on the air, including the Sunday morning European short wave pirates. I recorded hundreds of hours of early pirate broadcasts on that machine and eventually went on to present radio history archive programmes on various stations myself.

There are radio listeners all over Europe that have heard the recordings first made on that machine.

fryup

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

that would have been 'WoW!' back in 1970's Ireland, generous dad

Montage of Feck

Reel to reel ghetto blaster for the hipsters!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118937512#Comment_118937512

Zebra3

Where my mate grew up, the local shop advertised them as “wog boxes”. 😳😳🙈

Dramatik

I have a Lasonic ghetto blaster, rarely use it though, sound quality isn't amazing out of it compared to more modern tech. It's massive and heavy a.f. especially with like 10 or 12 of those giant batteries in it! Used to bring it out the odd time in the summer so people could get the obligatory on the shoulder photo and listen to a few of their favorite hip hop and electro classics :) Although I'm in my 30's now so it's not really socially acceptable for me to walk down the street with "Dave Clarke Presents: Electro Boogie" playing at full volume

BattleCorp

I had one back around 1985. Did the auld Fame thing carrying it around on my shoulder when trying to be all cool in a rural town..........looking like a total gobsh1te.

Got about an hour or so out of a full set of batteries. After a few weeks of buying a million batteries, the ghetto blaster never left the bedroom where it was plugged in until it went in the skip some time around 2002.

sam t smith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118939789#Comment_118939789

Classic.

fryup

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118949474#Comment_118949474

haha can just picture that ....

strutting down the street, makin shapes, givin culchie farmers high fives 'hey my man whats happenin' 😎

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118949474#Comment_118949474

Just think of all of the people who have memories of a lad strolling around a rural Irish town in 1985 with a ghetto blaster. Absolutely brilliant stuff!

Suckit

There was a lad where I lived that used to walk into the centre of the town with a silver tracksuit and bucket hat with a massive Ghetto Blaster on his shoulder. Probably for the same reasons as above, the blaster didn't make it out with him all the time, but those shiny tracksuits were a permanent thing, not always the silver one, but often with the bottom of them tucked into his socks.

Sky King

The AM pirate stations in Dublin were blasting out at the time and this was perfect for listening and recording anything that squeaked on the air, including the Sunday morning European short wave pirates. I recorded hundreds of hours of early pirate broadcasts on that machine and eventually went on to present radio history archive programmes on various stations myself.

"Arrr me hearties! Keep the hatches battened down till after the break, when I'll be rootin' in me treasure chest for this week's ship shape singles! ARRRR!

bogmanfan

A certain Lucan-based politician (former TD, now Councillor) was a great man for a Ghetto Blaster in the 80s. Walked the length and breadth of the area blasting out tunes. Had it on a cross-body strap, rather than perched on his shoulder. Looked a right knob.

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058242028/ghetto-blasters

They're all in the ghetto

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ox1Tore9nw

corner of hells

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118957543#Comment_118957543

I can verify that account , also a friend of mine was arrested in Lucan carrying a ghetto blaster and was asked by Gardai where he robbed the VCR.

CGI_Livia_Soprano

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118937979#Comment_118937979

Did you happen to digitise those tapes?

Ger Roe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118960083#Comment_118960083

it's a long term ongoing process. The tapes were used on radio programmes I presented over many years, some of those programmes are archived here :

http://radiowaves.fm/ire/blog/tag/the-anorak-hour/

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118951015#Comment_118951015

Knew some fella in 70s used to go around town with an old style tape recorder, five white switches and red one for record, playing gary glitter. The batteries would run down and Gary would get s l o w e r and s l o w e r