This comes up on the heels of this article by one of my favourite radio writers based in L.A. 

He recalls two radios he really loved as a kid - both of which he wrecked by trying to make them better!

The one that fits the category in my case was a portable Koyo radio, a rare one in the 60s in that it had both AM and FM. This thing came everywhere with me - on Christmas car trips to Miami and all over my neighbourhood. At one point, I recall wrapping it with bungee cords to my bike so I could listen to CHUM or CKFH as I wheeled around the neighbourhood. 

Those were great times and it was a great radio!

Except once. It's a bizarre story, but as you can see from the pic below, this radio had a cover with little holes to protect the speaker. One day, on the drive to Florida, I fell asleep on the thing while listening to it. When I woke up, my mother almost had a heart attack! My face was filled with pockmarks left by the tiny holes and it looked for all the world like a case of measles. 

She started telling my father to find a hospital ASAP because she thought I was sick. In a few minutes, it dawned on all of us what happened and we had a good laugh out of it. But I never fell asleep directly on the speaker again!

(Notice the red lines on the dial - a remnant of the day when you were instructed to tune to either the 640 or 1240 frequency in the event of a nuclear or other attack, so the government could tell you what to do.)