by Dan Robinson
Zero Day, Robert DeNiro’s first appearance in a TV series, is streaming on Netflilx, and in addition to De Niro who plays a former president brought back to head a commission investigating a devastating cyberattack, a radio that will be familiar to many also makes what seems to be its first appearance in a series. This is an easy one so we’ll leave it up to readers to ID this receiver which was released in 2024 and is seen being taken out of a shopping bag from B&H in New York City and tuned by none other than Jesse Plemons playing Roger Carlson, a skilled but troubled political operative working as a body man for George Mullen (De Niro).
There were so many stretches of radio reality it was hard to get past. The radio discovered in the server farm was an old Kenwood TS-700 I believe, and when they were listening to radios in the Ops Center they all appeared to be ICOM IC-736s, conveniently equipped with compact vertical antennas for – presumably – 1400 KHz. Sitting inside a steel-skeleton urban building with an AM radio tuned to 1400 would make such a venture virtually impossible of course. And those radios don’t transmit in the MW band anyway. Finally, there was one shot of a notebook scribble that said 1400 “MHZ” instead of KHz, which by radio standards would actually have been more believable.
Although the closing credits listed everyone from the dog walkers to the craft sandwich makers (I’m exaggerating of course) there was no listing for a radio advisor or consultant. I’m not surprised. If I was asked to consult on that show I wouldn’t want my name on it either.
The one positive I could take away is the notion that analog can cut through when all the rest fails – even if it was very poorly implemented in this case. Despite all of my fault-finding, I always appreciate when a movie or TV show involves the use of radio in its storyline.
Strange to have such conspicuous product placement (B&H branding on the bag ) for a category of products the company doesn’t even supply. A camera would’ve made a lot more sense for B&H.
The front panel gives it away. It’s the S-2000/Eton Elite 750/etc. The up and down arrows for the memories is in the wrong spot for the S-2200x (and are renamed Page + and Page -)..
No, it is Tecsun S-2200x which was eleased in 2024. I own one.
I made a mistake. It is Tecsun S-2000, for the time is shown when tuning and the radio is connected to the AC adaotor.
He gets it to tune in 1400 kHz, because a large radio in Idaho was set to that frequency. Then the scene shows the person transmitting — from an urban room. I see at least two ways reality is stretched here.
1140
When I look closer at the font in which the model has been written, it seems more similar to that of Grundig/Eton Satellit 750. Both these ones and the Tecsuns share the same housing, though.
The fourth photo shows that it is an Elite 750. The blurred text next to the speaker is too long for the S2000. By the way, this power supply doesn’t generate interference in the radio?
B&H doesn’t seem to have any Tecsun products available on their website.
Does look like an s-2200x
Another great catch by Dan. Thanks, Dan.
Tom Stiles