Requiem For A Clock Radio: Sony Dream Machine Discontinued

Previously Editorial Director at AOL for their automotive group, Reilly Brennan is now working on his own project, Carmagnum. Today, he took a break from that to lament the discontinuing of a longstanding clock radio line we all probably know: Sony’s Dream Machines. Now without further ado…

Sony discontinued their Dream Machine clock radios in the US at some point over the last year. This proved to be a non-event for most of the consuming public, but when I found out directly from Sony’s PR team last week (they’ve moved over to the “Dash” line of clock radios), it struck me as the death of another great consumer brand. Is it that Sony can’t manage technology brands through format evolution? Or is it that they just have too many things going on, too many new brands to create, and too much…stuff to do? I wish I knew. When you search for the Dream Machine on Google, your first result is Sony’s own page for the ICF-C180 (“Start your day with the ICF-C180!”), sadly reported as “No Longer Available”.

Dream Machines weren’t historic works of art, nor were they the stuff of business school case studies, but they were… everywhere. My sister and my mum both had white ‘digicubes’ and those sounds (my sister’s radio tuned to 89X, my mum’s buzzer) woke up our house every single day until I went to university. I eventually got my first in middle school, probably around 1990, although I rarely set the alarm. Nearly all of my friends had one and practically every guest bedroom I slept in had one. They just existed — the helvetica of clock radios.

Sony’s 8FC-59 was the icon that started it all — the first breakout digital clock radio, with flip-over numbers and eventually a 7-segment display. Before that time our bedside tables lit with the dull glow of actual clock dials, forcing us to make sense of hour hands in the ungodly hours of the morning. The “Dream Machine” (as my friend Sam pointed out, a curious name for a product that wakes you up) innovation proved to be the palm-width snooze bar called the Dream Bar, right up front on top, exactly where you want to smash it with your fist. It worked.

In no particular order, here is a litany of old Dream Machines dating back some 30 years. Tomorrow morning when you wake, think of all the mornings they faithfully broke you from your slobbery lullabys and helped you start your day, your life.

Published with permission from Reilly Brennan. Be sure to check out the full Dream Machine gallery at his site.