1. No radio is going to work very well in a subway. But since a subway exists where you are, that says you're in an urban area, so signals should be plenty strong outside the subway.

2. The sensitive GE radio is called the Superadio 3. It runs on six D cells and is great for pulling in distant stations. It has good sound and a big enough speaker to fill a room pretty well. It will run for a couple weeks nonstop on a set of alkalines. It's just kind of big for portable use.

3. In an urban environment there should be plenty of news and updates on FM as well as AM. You can get crappy 2aaa-powered FM-only earbud radios dirt cheap at places like Walgreens. The circuitry is not too bad, they're just cheaply made, you have to jiggle the earbud wire to make good contact, etc. The Countycomm radios are much nicer but they are bulkier. Walgreens also sometimes has one-piece earphone radios that are really tiny (they use watch batteries) and good for EDC. They are terrible radios but again, in a city, the signals are very strong, so the radios work ok.

4. I wouldn't bother with a generator radio unless you're moving to the south pole. Just keep spare batteries on hand.