这个“潘多拉的盒子”会带给人快乐

With the simple flip of a switch and turn of a dial, I recently opened the good version of a Pandora's box, unleashing melodious bliss into my surroundings.
我最近简单地通过开关和调节键就打开了“潘多拉的盒子”，让音乐环绕了我。
The palm-sized box had just arrived by courier in Beijing, and it was no sooner out of its packaging than the magic of radio, long absent from my life, was in the air again.
我网购了一个小收音机，久违地听起了广播。
I remember my father and grandmother describing how, long before the arrival of television, American families would gather around huge tube-radio cabinets, which had a single speaker the size of a manhole cover, to listen to music, news and popular radio series. 
我的父亲和祖父曾说过，在电视机发明之前，美国家庭会聚在大型收音机周围，收听音乐、新闻和热门广播剧。
My generation saw the invention of the transistor radio, which gave music instant mobility. My brother and I each had such a radio about the size of a pack of cigarettes, and these tiny wonders went everywhere we did.
我们这代人见证了晶体管收音机的出现。由于收音机只有烟盒般大小，我和哥哥人手一个，走到哪里都带着。
So it was that "The Mighty 1290 KOIL", the hugely popular local AM radio station of my childhood, became an ever-present friend. 
我家乡的热门广播频道成了我无处不在的朋友。
That was many decades ago. But now, in Beijing, I have a friend again in radio — and a very welcome one at that, considering the recent isolation amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.
听广播是多年前的事了，但我在北京的隔离期间，又找回了收音机这个老朋友。
The mysteries of the airwaves were rekindled via a small but stylish radio housed in a wooden cabinet reminiscent of those tube radios of long ago.
我买的这个复古收音机小巧时髦。
Curious, I switched on the radio as soon as I got it, adjusted the antenna, slowly turned the dial, and stumbled onto a Beijing FM station that, much like the Mighty 1290 did so many years ago, dishes out (for the most part) one tasty tune after another, freely mixing genres.
我第一时间调台，找到了北京的调频广播频道，一首首地播放歌曲，正如多年前我老家的电台一样。
Years back, FM turned commercial radio on its ear, emphasizing "album-oriented" music — meaning that any song from an album was fair game — rather than the hit-single approach of AM radio. FM radio also featured mind-blowing (at the time) stereo sound.
多年前，调频广播成为商业广播，重点推介音乐专辑的音乐，即播放专辑中的所有歌曲。而调幅广播则只播放热门单曲。调频广播在当时代表了立体声。
Sadly, the underground feel of FM radio in its 1970s heyday was quickly corrupted by corporate "suits" who killed radio slowly, introducing strict music formats that restricted, and eventually choked off, the flow of all but the most commonplace music.
可惜的是，上世纪七十年代调频广播的鼎盛时期很快被无损音乐打破，这种被严格限制的音乐模式逐渐取代了大众音乐。
Fast-forward to Beijing and Easy FM 91.5, which is one reason broadcast radio has taken up a new berth in my head. 
中国国际广播电台的轻松调频91.5换发了我对电台的记忆。
The Beijing station has startled me time and again by eschewing format and tapping into a widely inclusive play list that ranges from The Clash, King Kooba, Snoop Dogg and Joy Division to The High Kings, Marvin Gaye, JB McPherson, Tom Waits, Rose Murphy, Beth Ditto, Nick Drake, the London Jazz Four and Joni Mitchell. Occasionally the station goes far astray, as when once it played the ditzy fluff of Jack Johnson back to back with AC/DC's real-deal rock.  
这个节目的曲单涵盖甚广，偶尔还会播放小众音乐。
Jazz, punk and lots of funk; music that's old, recent and contemporary; house, rhythm and blues and samba — they all find a niche at Easy FM, which boasts "real music variety from China's biggest library".
轻松调频这个节目会播放爵士、朋克和放克音乐，浩室、节奏布鲁斯和桑巴也能在这里找到一席之地。
But don't stop there. Turn the dial a notch or two higher for a range of contemporary music as well as made-for-radio English-language presentations, including the works of Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw, and still higher for hip-hop and pop heavy Metro Radio 94.5.
但不要仅限于此，转换一下频道就能找到播放当代音乐和莎士比亚、萧伯纳等人作品的英文电台。 都市调频94.5频道还会播放欧美流行音乐。
Further up the dial are a number of Chinese pop stations, a host of talk-radio programs (usually found on AM radio in the West) and even, around 104, a station that plays traditional Chinese music, including Peking Opera.
接着调台还能找到播放中国音乐的电台，不仅有流行乐，还有京剧在内的传统乐曲。
As you can see (or, more accurately, hear), FM radio is teeming with activity in Beijing. I counted 24 active stations late one night (although on some nights all but one or two vanish).
北京的调频电台很活跃，我一晚可以找到24个这样的频道。
Dialing in to broadcast radio, rather than logging in, is pleasing for more than nostalgic reasons, too. Broadcast FM, a truly magical medium whose signal must be "grabbed" with a tuner, just feels warmer than listening online.
通过电台听音乐也关乎怀旧。相对于网络音乐，从电波里“抓取”频道更让人感到温暖。
And you're wrong if you think FM's broadcast signal lags behind high-tech online radio. In fact, that old-fashioned signal has lower latency, or delay, so you'll actually hear it sooner than its high-tech counterpart.
不要以为电波音乐落后于网络音乐。实际上，电波信号更少延迟，能比网络信号更快传输。
At any rate, I now spend many a relaxing afternoon or late night simply turning the dial and seeing where those magic signals might take me next.
我现在经常在下午或夜里收听广播，将思绪带到远方。