Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Quite possibly one of the finest clock radios ever made by any company, General Electric's 7-4880 and 7-4885 "Great Awakening" models hit the market in 1979 and were offered into the early 1980s. Unfortunately, these all have a major design flaw in how the keypad is built, which leads to failure from corrosion and makes finding one today something of a "holy grail".
This uses a microcontroller rather than a purpose built timekeeping IC.
My father had a 7-4880 that he bought new and unfortunately, it was tossed when the keypad failed. It's definitely one of those things I regret, especially when I could have fixed it "if I knew then what I know now".
I found this in a local junk store (and yes, that's what the overwhelming majority of it is), covered in dust and so dirty it wouldn't operate correctly when plugged in. The owner wanted $5 at first and eventually gave it to me free of charge. It definitely cleaned up nicely. Unfortunately, some of the buttons will also need repair because someone was hammering on them, likely in an effort to get the radio to cooperate.
Someone provided the manual to the Internet Archive here: archive.org/details/general-electric-7-4880-manual . This tells us the backup battery (implying just the one?) will last about an hour in the absence of external power. Yikes.
Here's a nice article someone wrote, mentioning the 7-4885 and noting the lack of any decent clock radios on the market today, likely due to the rise of the smartphone: thebulwark.com/p/the-clock-radio-and-its-moment-in-consumer-technology
Finally, here's another video on Youtube discussing one way to repair the faulty buttons: youtube.com/watch?v=P74vjnJfZR8 . I'm also aware of someone who replaced the metal ribbon switches with tactile pushbuttons, which required a lot of modification.
There was a smaller version of this radio with many of the same features. I didn't know of its existence until I found one in a thrift store years ago. Its buttons appear to be far more reliable -- at least the ones on my example still work. I'm not sure of the model number off the top of my head, but will add it later. I'll make a video about that one sometime. You can see it briefly in one of my "April Fools" videos.
Although these have become less common, don't pay too much for one. There are entirely too many people on eBay and other sites selling many things at prices with no relationship to reality.
Quite possibly one of the finest clock radios ever made by any company, General Electric's 7-4880 and 7-4885 "Great Awakening" models hit the market in 1979 and were offered into the early 1980s. Unfortunately, these all have a major design flaw in how the keypad is built, which leads to failure from corrosion and makes finding one today something of a "holy grail".
This uses a microcontroller rather than a purpose built timekeeping IC.
My father had a 7-4880 that he bought new and unfortunately, it was tossed when the keypad failed. It's definitely one of those things I regret, especially when I could have fixed it "if I knew then what I know now".
I found this in a local junk store (and yes, that's what the overwhelming majority of it is), covered in dust and so dirty it wouldn't operate correctly when plugged in. The owner wanted $5 at first and eventually gave it to me free of charge. It definitely cleaned up nicely. Unfortunately, some of the buttons will also need repair because someone was hammering on them, likely in an effort to get the radio to cooperate.
Someone provided the manual to the Internet Archive here: archive.org/details/general-electric-7-4880-manual . This tells us the backup battery (implying just the one?) will last about an hour in the absence of external power. Yikes.
Here's a nice article someone wrote, mentioning the 7-4885 and noting the lack of any decent clock radios on the market today, likely due to the rise of the smartphone: thebulwark.com/p/the-clock-radio-and-its-moment-in-consumer-technology
Finally, here's another video on Youtube discussing one way to repair the faulty buttons: youtube.com/watch?v=P74vjnJfZR8 . I'm also aware of someone who replaced the metal ribbon switches with tactile pushbuttons, which required a lot of modification.
There was a smaller version of this radio with many of the same features. I didn't know of its existence until I found one in a thrift store years ago. Its buttons appear to be far more reliable -- at least the ones on my example still work. I'm not sure of the model number off the top of my head, but will add it later. I'll make a video about that one sometime. You can see it briefly in one of my "April Fools" videos.
Although these have become less common, don't pay too much for one. There are entirely too many people on eBay and other sites selling many things at prices with no relationship to reality.
