You're not kidding. (By external speaker, did you mean a built-in speaker? That's what I mean...) I have been looking for a real compact AM(/FM) radio, the kind that was everywhere 30-40 years ago, and even at RS say 10 years ago (no RS in Canada now). I have a "last resort" Optimus that works perfectly, just it's been beat to hell and I'd prefer a newer one for reliability. I have plenty of larger AM/FM/SW and ham radios, but this is for my backpack.

I was pretty interested to hear of that ZN414. Never heard of it before. I used to be quite into AM radio chips, but mostly the superhet types. Anyway, I have a couple of those tiny "matchbox" AM radios, earphone only. One I got in Canada, it is the long-defunct Clairtone brand, probably from '68. The other I got in England, virtually identical electronically, Sinclair brand, '70. They still work, use button cells that last for ages. I always thought they were crystal-based with an audio amp, there's 1 transistor in there IIRC. Unless of course it's not really a transistor and something similar to that ZN414 came out in the late 60s.