recommend a semi-portable radio?

The radio in my (commercial) kitchen just died, and it's so quiet in there I can almost hear my own thoughts. Scary.

I need something small and halfway durable, something on the cheap end with decent sound would be nice.

One of my co workers brought in one of these recently:

and I was damned impressed at the sound compared to the piece of junk we were using. (Hey just being able to hear bass in that noisy environment is impressive.) But she won't let us keep it.

Something a step up from Total Crap would be good. An iPod dock would be cool. And an extra bonus will be given for AM reception so we can listen to ballgames.

Thoughts?

Wood box with two door speakers and a car stereo. If it doesn't sound good enough, get better speakers.

my wife has one of these in the kitchen.. sound quality is great.. its am/fm and ipod capable.. 2 speakers.. i highly recommend it to you.. and under a hundred bucks. http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod1500166#desc

I thought of one of these when I saw "durable", your other qualifiers knock it out.

Actually, I was thinking about getting the Bosch version before all my litheon tools got stolen.

Small-ish is kinda important too. Think desktop size. That's why I dig that little PAL.

I have had that PAL radio for well over 10 years now. Mine is navy blue. I picked it out of an employee gift catalogue years ago. It was not something that I would have thought to buy myself but boy do I like it. It was in my bathroom for most the years. I have hooked my Android phone up to it via the 3.5mm headphone jack style adaptor.
They aint cheap but they are solid. If I were doing it over I think I would look at the digital unit with presets.
http://www.tivoliaudio.com/products/portables.html/

Every Tivoli unit I've ever had my hands on has almost come home with me. They sound really nice and aren't really expensive. The only reason I don't bring one home is because I have absolutely no need for one until my current iHome POS kicks the bucket.

Bose Wave? The very antithesis of "grassroots", but the people I know that own one are quite satisfied with it.

Doesn't qualify as cheap, however.

I've heard a couple waves, and they'd do fine in a kitchen environment where it's competing against the drone of the exhaust hood, cooler motors, dishwasher, ice cream machines (the smallest loudest appliance known to man)... But they're pricey and a bit clunky for this application.

The Tivoli PALs keep looking better. I suppose I'll just have to try to snipe one off eBay.

Used car stereos are almost free!

Wire one up to $20 ipod speakers and a $19 110-12V converter and for <$40 you'ge got tunes and something you won't cry over when it's stolen.

A creative GRMer might even knock out some kind of attractive box.

I've had a Wave. I wasn't a fan to be honest. The music coming from it sounded far too EQ'd. Too much low-mid bass, not enough low bass and nowhere near enough highs. Oh, and I somehow managed to blow the woofer in one in a Bose store.

No highs, no lows.........it's gotta be Bose!

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I have something like this from WalMart for about $30

914Driver wrote: A creative GRMer might even knock out some kind of attractive box.

Heh Heh...

914Driver wrote: I thought of one of these when I saw "durable", your other qualifiers knock it out.

We have one of these at the parents house when we're out in the garage/driveway/garden...etc...Yeah, not that great. Kinda busted up after a while of light/moderate use. Not that it was ever dropped or abused, but just doesn't hold up well. Won't hold a charge on the battery function, presets reset all the time, radio tuner doesn't really adjust the station too well...I dunno, I wouldn't recommend it. My $0.02...

Hm. A buddy I did construction with had one - albeit an older model - and it held up admirably.