No matter what kind of music you listen to, if you spend time in the barn you probably play a radio there. We have an old CD player radio with a broken CD door (nothing duct tape and an old horse shoe couldn’t fix) which worked great until a week or so ago. For some reason the CD player won’t play anymore. It might have something to do with the half inch of fur/dirt and hay pile up in the corners of the CD tray or the fact that its floor location means it gets accidentally kicked a lot. Either way, it’s dead and we need a new barn radio.

So here are the three options I have, as I see them:

1) Cheap radio – I could simply purchase a cheap new radio from Walmart and I might even be able to find one that can play MP3’s. I hate changing CD’s in the barn anyway and I can put 150 songs on an MP3 CD. Heck, I could even go low tech and tape around the edges of the CD door to keep the dust out. I might even be able to find one with an auxiliary input jack for an MP3 player. For less than $39 I’d probably have a radio that would last another two or three years.

$37 on clearance at Walmart

2) Resistant car radio – I could build a box to mount a car radio so I could use a boating water/dust front cover. I actually have a car radio that would work that plays MP3 CD’s and has an auxiliary input jack for use with an iPod or something. I would have to buy speakers but this would give me some speaker flexibility. For instance, I could mount maybe four speakers around the barn. I’m not always in the tack room and I hate turning the radio to full volume just to hear it while cleaning stalls. But car radios are twelve volts to work in cars. I could use a car battery and wire a solar charger to it. This option is fun but I have a feeling it would end up costing me $100 or more and take several days to setup and perfect. But it would be neat and would probably last a long time.

3) Durable jobsite radio – What I’m referring to here is one of those contractor radios that home builders use on job sites. I’ve seen them at Home Depot and Lowes. They’re dirt, water and impact resistant. But they’re also $200-$300. But some of them work on battery power and it would be nice for camping and other projects. But that’s a lot of money.

Bosch PB10-CD available at Amazon right now for $140

So what do you use for a barn radio? Any suggestions?