Radio

Radio is a red vacuum tube-based dial-meter radio that appears in the 1987 animated film The Brave Little Toaster and its sequels.
==Personality==
Radio is prone to exaggeration and boasting. Also, he often narrates his own adventures in a rather overdramatic style. He sometimes does radio-talking from early 20th-century radio announcers, and he repeats major references referring to that era.
==Physical appearance==
Unlike his fellow appliances, he is the only character who lacks an anthropomorphic face, except that his yellow dial with its red pointer is possibly his eye, and his speaker is possibly his (immobile) mouth. His shiny antenna is his arm. He also has a black cord and plug. The only emotion he can physically show is sadness, by turning down the pointer on his dial.
==Relationships==
Radio seems to get along with the other appliances in the first movie except for Kirby, until near the very end. In the film's sequels, Radio helps out his fellow appliances whenever they need it. He can be heard broadcasting minor events that occur or playing music from different stations.
==Appearances==
===The Brave Little Toaster===
At the beginning of the film, on a bright and sunny morning in the bedroom upstairs at the Cottage that was the childhood home of Rob McGroarty "The Master", Radio wakes up and makes a morning announcement, which angrily awakens Lampy the gooseneck lamp, who was still attempting to sleep. The two get in a fight on the bed, where Blanky the electric blanket is also sleeping, but wakes up as well. They then jump on the floor, causing the Air Conditioner, Kirby the vacuum cleaner, and finally Toaster to all wake up downstairs. The fight between the two continues as they chase each other down the stairs, much to Kirby's astonishment, and to Toaster's amusement. As Blanky slides down the railing, he lands on top of both Radio and Lampy, covering them up, but then Kirby comes by, accidentally vacuuming up part of Blanky, and finally ending the fight.
After Toaster says "Good Morning" to everyone, they all get themselves unstuck. Then, they all gather around to discuss what they should do. Kirby mentioned chores, which were supposed to be work, not fun. But since their beloved master had gone, Toaster decides to play a game, which Radio asks what kind, and Lampy asks what the rules are, but Toaster says the only rule is to not stop until the house is clean. Radio volunteers to get them started, so he goes up to Toaster, whispers his plan, which Toaster agrees with, and launches him up to the stair railing above. Radio starts playing the song "Tutti Frutti", and the others get to work on cleaning the cottage. However, he was too busy dancing, and not helping with anything.
When the song is nearly finished, Lampy, Kirby, and Toaster start dancing with him, until Toaster notices that Blanky is up to something, and tells them to stop, so Radio obeys. Blanky thinks there is a car coming with the Master, much to their surprise, so they all bring a stool, chest, and other tall stuff to make a tower for Blanky to reach the attic above, while Radio guides him. They all ask Blanky if he can see the master coming, which the latter believes, but it was only his imagination. Blanky feeling sad, brings down the Master's framed photo from the bedroom, which Kirby tries to take away from him. The tug-of-war ends as the photo flies up in the air, and lands on the floor, shattering the glass, and damaging the frame, much to their horror.
As they all stare at the photo, something starts blowing it from the broken frame, which turned out to be the Air Conditioner laughing at them for no reason. They talk to him about who the Master was as a kid and why he loved them. But because the Air Conditioner was designed to be stuck in a wall, the Master never played with him. This makes the Air Conditioner really angry, that he explodes. After that, they all hear a person driving outside, whom they all think might be the Master coming up to the front door, so they all go to their places and wait. But instead, they look out the window and notice that it was actually a real estate agent putting up a sign that said "FOR SALE", much to their disappointment.
Radio starts humming a sorrowful tune, causing Blanky and Lampy to cry, but Toaster tells them to stop, and comes up with a plan: They go out and find the Master in the city. Radio agrees and tells them he used to be a mountaineer. Then, they wonder what their method of transportation will be. Lampy comes up with three unsuccessful ideas, but before he can come up with a fourth, Radio and the others tell him to "Shut up!", and let somebody else come up with a better one. Radio thought maybe they could ride on Blanky like a magic carpet, so Toaster decided to wear Blanky as a cape to see if he could fly, but he could not. Then, Toaster finally figures out a solution: Kirby pulls a four-wheeled office chair carrying them.
Just as Kirby starts to pull the office chair carrying Radio, Lampy, Blanky, and Toaster, his cord gets unplugged from the wall, and he stops. Toaster thinks they need a longer cord, but Radio says they need an alternate power source. In the closet, they find a car battery and attach it to the office chair. Now all prepared, they open the front door, and finally leave the cottage. As they start their journey, Radio tells Lampy to look up at the sun, which he thinks is the really big lamp, making him wonder where its switch is. When they enter the countryside, Toaster says he can't see the road anymore, and wonders if they're heading the right direction, which Blanky doubted. However, Radio said he could send his signal to the city to know how to get there, and the result was North by Northwest.
All afternoon, they all feel excited to find their master, and celebrate by singing their song "City of Light", until the end of the day, when they come to to a thick brush. They enter and stop at a clearing to sleep for the night. Kirby asks whose idea it was to come that way, and Radio tells him it was Lampy's. Lampy angrily calls him "Mr. Loudmouth", until Toaster stops them. Radio finds a little rock and pretends it's a baseball by hitting it across the others and making an announcement that the player hit a home run. As they start falling to sleep, Radio draws a circle around himself, and tells the others that his own sleeping space, and that nobody crosses the line. Then, Lampy tells him that he'd better not wake them up at 6:00 A.M. as usual, and they all fall asleep, except Blanky, who attempts to cross Radio's line, but he stops him, and Blanky finally finds his own place to sleep.
The next morning, they finally find their way out of the thick brush, and come across various singing animals at a meadow and lake. Radio pretends Kirby is a drum by tapping him with his antenna, but he didn't like it, and told him to cut it out. As they continue their journey, they enter deep dark woods, which Blanky thinks there might be lions in, and Radio adds in "Tigers and bears, oh my!" As night falls, the battery starts running low, and they give it a rest. When looking for a place to sleep, Lampy find a spot inside a tree, but it has a spooky jack-o-lantern face on it, making it too scary for them. So Blanky hangs on a tree branch like a tent, giving shelter to the others. Radio plays the "National Anthem" and then they all fall asleep. Later, a storm comes, waking them all up, and Blanky blows away. They try searching for him, but Lampy's light was too dim, and the battery had gone dead. To recharge the battery, Lampy makes himself a lightning rod, knocking him unconscious.
The following morning, they continue searching for Blanky, until they hear his voice far up above. Radio thinks he's an angel calling from Blanket Heaven, but Kirby tells them that he's just stuck in a tree. After Kirby saves Blanky, their journey continues as they exit the woods to a cliff by a waterfall. The waterfall makes Kirby dizzy, that he accidentally starts chewing on his cord, and Radio tells Toaster to switch him off. When Kirby feels better, they all wonder how they're going to get across the waterfall to the cliff on the other side. They make themselves into a chain by tying all their cords to each other. Kirby swings the chain across the waterfall and Toaster makes it to the other side. Radio asks Toaster is he's alright and he responds "Yeah", but later gets dizzy by the waterfall, like Kirby did earlier, that he loses his grip of the chain, then they all come back and fall off Kirby's cord into the river below.
As Kirby comes to the rescue in the river, Radio pokes him in the vacuum bag, thinking he is a whale, until the latter tells him to climb on, and he recognizes him. When they all get to the shore, Radio puts a leaf on Kirby's face, pretending it's a medal awarded to him for saving their lives, which he immediately blows off. Then, they all seem lost as Radio is unable to pick up any signals in the forest. And without any method of transpiration, they all walk with their cords tied to each other, until Kirby bumps into a root, and falls into a mud puddle, sinking. They all try pulling him out, but he is too heavy, and they sink too, except Radio. Radio, now the only one left, plays the song "Mammy" as a rescue signal, which works when an overweight man named Elmo St. Peters grabs him by the antenna, pulling him and the others out.
Elmo then loads the five appliances in the back of his monster truck, climbs up in the driver's seat next to his dog, Quadruped, and drives away. They arrive at Elmo's Parts store, where he takes apart appliances and sells their parts, much to their surprise. Elmo takes them into his private room, where they meet a Hanging Lamp and a bunch of other Junkshop Appliances. After that, a customer named Zeke arrives, asking for a blender motor, which he has one of. Elmo moves the five appliances off the counter to a baby carriage to take apart the Blender, and remove the motor, which they all watch in horror. Elmo leaves the room to sell the blender motor to Zeke, and the five appliances wonder how to escape, which the others laugh at, and then sing a spooky song called "It's a 'B' Movie". After that, the same customer asks Elmo if he also has any radio tubes, much to Radio's horror, and begs them to hide him. So they quickly move to a shelf, where Radio hides behind them. But Elmo finds his antenna sticking out and takes him to his disassembling station. Toaster asks Kirby what they should do to save Radio, but Lampy immediately comes up with an idea: The four of them combine together to look like a ghost and scare Elmo unconscious. Their plan works and they finally escape the store in the baby carriage, which they use as a replacement for the office chair that got lost in the river.
They finally find the city ahead of them, where they hope the Master is still waiting for them in his apartment. But unbeknownst to them, the Master, now an adult, is just about ready to head to college, starts packing stuff for the dorm, and leaves the apartment with his girlfriend, Chris, to go back to the cottage for them, not knowing they're not there anymore. When they arrive at the apartment room A113, they knock on the door, hoping the Master will answer, but then they realize that he's not home and it's locked. So Radio knocks on the door again and taps the others, and a lamp named Plugsy answers, whom Radio greets, but runs back inside to tell the other Cutting-Edge Appliances, who are more modern than them, that it's the old appliances the Master had planned on taking with him to college, much to their jealousy. They let them in anyway.
Radio tells them all about their journey and then they go look at the Master's photos of him as a teenager and high school graduate. Later, they are reunited with their old friend, T.V., who also used to live at the cottage, too. They ask him where the Master is, but before he can tell them that he went to the cottage, Plugsy changes the channel to Spanish, much to their annoyance. Then, the Cutting Edge appliances sing a song to them called "Cutting Edge". While the Master is still at the cottage looking for them, the Cutting Edge appliances knock all five of them out the window, right into a dumpster below. They all get dumped into a garbage truck headed to Ernie's Disposal, much to T.V.'s horror. Meanwhile, the Master and his girlfriend leave the cottage to drive come back to the apartment, while the five appliances are on the truck to the junkyard of cars and trucks.
After they all get dumped, a Giant Magnet comes down, which they avoid, picks up a the vehicle they were on, and drops it on a conveyor belt leading to a Crusher, much to their horror. While they try to find a place to hide, Radio accidentally wakes up one of the Junkyard Cars, and asks it if it was the first in line, but immediately leaves to join his friends as the giant magnet comes to pick it up. Then it, along with the other broken down vehicles, sing a song called "Worthless" as they each get picked up by the magnet and destroyed by the crusher. Meanwhile, back at the apartment, the Master, worried that he never found his childhood appliances, wonders what he should bring to his college dorm instead. His mother suggests he take the Cutting Edge Appliances to which Chris agrees, but he rejects the offer. Then, T.V. makes advertisements that Ernie's Disposal has cheap appliances for him, but he disagrees. So T.V. decides to make it sound more interesting by calling it Crazy Ernie's Bargain Circus, and sends them the address.
When Rob and Chris arrive at Ernie's Disposal, the five appliances get picked up by the magnet, and recognize him as the Master, much to their excitement. After getting off the conveyor belt, they go find him, but the giant magnet comes back and get them before he could find them. While on the conveyor belt again, Toaster whispers them to jump off and split up to avoid the giant magnet. They attempt to get the get the Master's attention again, but Chris calls him to come back to her before he could find them. They see a shadow coming toward them, thinking it's him coming back, but it's actually the magnet. They make a run for it, but the giant magnet gets really mad, that it gets all of them, along with everything else around them. Once again on the conveyor belt, headed for the crusher, the Master finally finds them all, except Toaster, who escapes alone. But the magnet stalks and takes Radio, Lampy, Blanky, and Kirby away from him, much to his anger. So he grabs ahold of Kirby, as the magnet drops them all on the conveyor belt to the crusher, but he can't escape because he gets stuck underneath a metal board. Toaster, the only one who can save their lives, makes a sacrifice by jumping into the crusher's gears, jamming it. Now safe, the Master takes them back to his apartment, and fixes Toaster. Finally, he loads them all in the trunk of the car, and drives with Chris to college. Radio makes a special news announcement to celebrate as they start a new life with further adventures ahead.
===The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue===
While in college, Rob takes Veterinary Class to become a veterinarian. At the animal lab, Radio looks out the window for the Master, and accidentally knocks down a plant. The other appliances ask him if he saw the Master, and he did. Lampy asks Radio to help him out the window, which he does, accidentally dropping him. Then Lampy rushes over to Rob's dorm to give him light for his college thesis on his Computer and Mouse. Back at the lab, all the animals are introduced: Alberto the dog, Maisie the cat and her kittens, Murgatroid the snake, Sebastian the monkey, and Ratso the rat. Then Radio starts playing music for their song "Remember That Day", while they clean the messy room, and each animal shares their backstory, except Ratso.
When night falls and everyone starts to sleep, Radio decides to play them a goodnight song, but it wakes them all up annoyingly instead, so they all throw clothes at him, but he sticks out his antenna from the pile, waves, and says "Nighty night." Then they all happily fall back to sleep. Later, that night, they hear something outside, Radio, looks out the window, and notices that it's Lampy when he accidentally knocks down a plant on him. After they bring Lampy back in the lab, he tells them the bad news about the Master unable to finish his thesis on his computer back at the dorm. They decide to let Sebastian test the Lab Computer to see if she has the same problem. As Lampy and Ratso help Sebastian up on the chair to the computer, Radio makes a fake announcement that it's the Great Ape trying to reach the Empire State Building. When Sebastian starts typing on the computer, she wakes up and invites her older computer friends to sing their song "Super Highway". After they leave, the lab computer starts getting a virus, so the others unplug her from the wall, and she is safe.
Meanwhile, Ratso mentions that there is something in the basement, which might be the cause of all the computer viruses, so he, Radio, Toaster, Lampy, and Blanky all go through the vent to see what it is. There, they find a malfunctioning TLW-728 computer named Wittgenstein, who has a bad computer virus, which is the causing all the power to go haywire. Radio says he is made of tubes, just like him, which is the problem. And they both have the same one: WFC-11-12-55, which is a rare, discontinued cathode tube. When they look inside Wittgenstein at all his tubes, which Radio calls Tube City, making him tingly inside, he asks Lampy to give him light, and is surprised to notice that the film is almost burned out in the main tube. So he and Ratso head over to the college campus supply storage to see if they can find another WFC-11-12-55 tube there. They split up the search, but Radio gets distracted by a spider that chases him, and tries killing it. Ratso finds the tube, grabs Radio, and they head back to the others.
Back at the basement, the others are excited to see that they found it. Ratso knocks the tube out of Radio's grip so he can put it on Wittgenstein, but Radio gets cross with him because he was the one who told Ratso that because he was the one who told him to look for the tube in the first place, he wanted to put the tube on Wittgenstein instead. Toaster tells Radio to stop, but the two get in a fight with each other on installing the tube, and it breaks. The others get mad at Radio for his terrible mistake and he regrets his actions, until all of a sudden, Wittgenstein gets a message that the animals are in danger with Mack McCro, who is planning on shipping them to Tartarus Laboratory. Wittgenstein does his best to stop that, but he blows up the last tube, and dies. Ratso blames Radio for it all, that he sadly walks away and hides behind boxes. Ratso then asks Radio if he has any bright ideas, so Radio, deciding there is no other option, sacrifices his own tube for them to put on Wittgenstein, leaving himself nonfunctional.
After mourning his sacrifice, Toaster installs the tube on Wittgenstein, reviving him good as new. Wittgenstein fixes all the power around the campus, and then the others come up with a rescue plan for the animals. The next day, after Rob completes his thesis, he, Chris, and Charlie go to the basement to find that Wittgenstein was the power source, and decide to move him to the Science Museum. Then, he finds Radio, and tells Chris that the WFC-11-12-55 tube is a rare cathode tube and impossible to find. Later, when he and Chris talk about all the animals getting new homes, except Ratso, who becomes their own pet, graduating college, marrying, and their new life ahead of him, he gives her a wedding ring. Then, he starts naming all the appliances they have, and is about to mention Radio, but just then, Chris has a gift for him too, which turns out to be a WFC-11-12-55 tube, that she searched for online and found in Nome, Alaska. He installs the tube in Radio and tests it, playing the song "I'm Into Something Good". Now functioning again, Toaster asks Radio how he feels, and he responds that he's getting cold feelings, which Blanky explains is because his tube came from Alaska. To celebrate their happy ending, they all sing a song called "Hang in There, Kid", and await their next adventure of their new life ahead.
===The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars===
At the McGroartys' new house, Radio plays the song "Bread and Butter" to get everyone up and ready in the morning. Toaster likes the song and they all dance to it as Radio tells Blanky to turn up the volume. Ratso interrupts, but Kirby tells Radio to hit it, so he nearly finishes the song, until they get interrupted again by the Hearing Aid in the junk drawer, accompanied by the Calculator, who were both there when they moved in the house. Then, they look out the window to see the Master and Mistress, now married, come home with something all wrapped up, which Lampy thinks is a sausage, making Radio add in that it's one hungry sausage, until Toaster tells him that he was silly because it's not a sausage. To their surprise, it's a baby, whom Rob and Chris named "Robbie", although the appliances refer to him as "The Little Master".
When the Master and Mistress bring their newborn son inside, he starts crying because he's hungry, making them notice that he sounds just like the Master when he was little. But then, the Microwave rudely tells all five appliances that he is needed for usage instead of them because he is a hot one, just as Rob heats up Robbie's baby bottle inside him. Then they all wonder if the Little Master will like them as much as the Master did. As the days go by, he starts liking them after noticing that they're all alive and play with him, as he likes playing with Radio's antenna. One night, Hearing Aid sneaks out of the junk drawer quietly, but only Toaster wakes up and secretly follows him upstairs to the attic, wondering what he is up to.
The next day, Toaster explains to the others that Hearing Aid is up to something, and they must all stay up tonight and stop him. But of course, when night falls, they all fall asleep. Then, Hearing Aid sneaks out of the junk drawer again, and goes back upstairs to the attic, sending signals to outer space, trying to get in contact with someone, which wakes up Robbie, who wonders what's going on, and follows the sounds upstairs. Suddenly, Toaster wakes up, surprised to see that Hearing Aid snuck out of the junk drawer again, wakes up the others, and they all go up to stop him, until they notice the baby crawling up the stairs, but are too late to stop him, too. When they all finally make it to the attic, a tractor beam appears, which was supposed to take Hearing Aid, but it accidentally takes Robbie instead, disappearing up in the sky, much to their astonishment.
After accusing and blaming Hearing Aid for the loss of the Little Master, they connect green wires from him to Calculator to see where the Little Master has gone, and the result is Mars. After wondering how to get there, they use the computer to contact Wittgenstein for help. Radio tells him that they need travel arrangements, which turn out to be a laundry basket, ceiling fan, microwave oven, and microwave popcorn, so they set to work. When removing Fanny the ceiling fan from the ceiling, she starts telling them what she likes about the Little Master, but Radio cuts her off because they all know she's his biggest fan. Then, they attach her underneath the laundry basket.
With their flying machine all set up, they put the popcorn in the Microwave, it starts popping, Fanny starts spinning, and they all take off. As they're going up, they all wave goodbye to Ratso down below, who stayed to be safe from outer space, and to watch the baby monitor in the crib while the Master and Mistress are asleep. Then, Calculator tells them to hold on to their tubes, bulbs, knobs, and wires as they're about to be boosted into hyperspace. While flying in outer space, they see nothing at first, but later, a bunch of balloons show up and sing their song "Floating" as some of them explain how they left Earth. After that, they start approaching Mars, which looks scary to them at first, but Blanky, thinking the popcorn is done, turns off Microwave, and they all start plummeting down on the planet fast, as they make a bumpy landing.
They are later welcomed by some satellites and Viking 1, accompanied by a Christmas Angel named Tinselina, who introduces them to the Wonder Luxe Appliances. Then, they notice a shark-like missile pointed up, which the Wonder Luxe appliances say is for the self-destruct of the planet Earth, much to their horror. Tinselina tells them the history and why they were sent to Mars. While looking for their Little Master, they ask where he is, and they say he is their prisoner. They find him in a bubble, and he is excited to see them. Then, they are taken to the Supreme Commander, who appears to be a giant refrigerator. The Supreme Commander welcomes them and tells them to enter a campaign with him, but they tell him that they came to Mars for their Little Master, not to join him. Toaster volunteers to enter the campaign, wins, and becomes the new Supreme Commander.
Meanwhile, they are told that the Ex-Supreme Commander has invited them to come inside him. The door opens and out comes a ramp, turning into an escalator. As Toaster gets on it, he invites the others to join him, but they feel unsure about it at first, however Toaster assures them it's safe, so they all get on. When they all make it to the top, inside is an ocean, and Radio spots an ice tray on the shore, which they all board on like a boat, where Lampy spins his cord like a motor. They arrive at island with an icy mountain, which they all climb up, and the top is another refrigerator. Then, they hear a voice inside it that welcomes them, which Radio tells the Hearing Aid sounds a lot like his. The door opens and reveals who the Ex-Supreme Commander really was inside: the Hearing Aid's long-lost brother. The two are happily reunited and he explains to them that the human touch of the baby's hand was what made him change his mind about hating humans and destroying Earth.
Before heading back to Earth, Tinselina and the Hearing Aid's brother decide to join them. They all board their laundry basket, load another batch of popcorn in the Microwave, and take off, saying goodbye to Viking 1 and all the Wonder Luxe appliances. All of a sudden, the Hearing Aid's brother noticed that he forgot to deactivate the missile that was sent to destroy Earth as it was getting ready to launch, and only he knows the abort code. Knowing Earth must be saved immediately, Toaster jumps off the laundry basket, rushes him over to the missile's launching station, and he successfully deactivates it. The others cheer, but since they don't have enough popcorn for another ignition sequence, they can't go back down and save Toaster along with Hearing Aid's brother, so they all form a chain, and their rescue plan succeeds. Afterwards, Tinselina gives up her real human hair and goose-feathered petticoat to put in the Microwave, as they are organic, which makes Fanny spins faster, and they are all headed home.
On the way, Toaster sings a song called "Home Again", and they all daydream of all their usages of the Master and Mistress, to which Radio's is playing music for the Master while he types on the computer, accompanied by Lampy giving light. When they all land back on Earth, Radio uses his antenna to pop Robbie's bubble, setting him free. But since it's morning, they all hurry back in the house to their places, and send Robbie, who had learned to walk, up to his parents. The next day, it's Christmas, and before opening presents Robbie says his first word: "Toaster" to his parents, and brings all five appliances in the room, much to their surprise, and they say: "Like father, like son." Then, the Christmas tree is all lit up, with Tinselina, now a new Christmas Angel on the top, which Robbie says is "Pretty." And they all live happily ever after.
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*In the novella by Thomas M. Disch, Radio is an Alarm Clock Radio (AM only).
*Radio bears some resemblance to from .
*There is a cameo of Radio and friends in the series in the episode "Christmas in Oz".
*Radio was the first character in the original film to speak (though the second one proven "alive" via movement after the rudely-awakened Lampy) with a morning announcement, referenced later in the same movie to be "6 as usual."
**Considering that the Master left them behind as a little kid, it is most likely that 6 A.M. was the time that the boy had to get up and get ready for school in the morning.
*Radio's cord is not always shown for animation purposes.
*Jon Lovitz was replaced by Roger Kabler as the voice of Radio in the sequels for budgetary reasons. 
Category:Characters
Category:The Brave Little Toaster characters
Category:Males
Category:Objects
Category:Machines
Category:Heroes
Category:Those brought back to life
Category:Anthropomorphic characters
Category:Animated characters
Category:Non-Disney characters