The Lonely Desert Radio (sometimes simply TLDR) is one of The Roaming Music Players written in Tome of Oddities and Weird Stuff: Volume I. This particular instrument is, as the name implies, is presumably found in Redwind Desert with a strange ability to teleport around via sandstorm.

Summary

There's been a rumor that there's a radio in the Redwind Desert that plays the same short looping jingle over and over. The jingle consists of what sounds like a banjo and harmonica. The jingle is rather upbeat and positive. It also tends to fade in an out in radio static, as if the signal that's being broadcast to it is getting interference.   What's really odd about the radio is that it's been playing for years and years without stopping once on no power source. The back of the radio, where you'd expect a small compartment to be where batteries are installed, is empty and the door missing with battery acid being encrusted inside, presumably from weather damage. In other words, even if it had a power source, it more than likely wouldn't be able to get power from the wear and tear. On top of that, no one can seem to pinpoint where the jingle may be broadcast from. Some people that have found the radio have attempted to tune in with their own to no avail.   Even stranger still is that the radio tends to teleport around, vanishing in a small, short but dense sandstorm. Furthermore, every attempt to interact with it physically at all, be it up close or from a distance (because if it's weird, someone is bound to throw a stone at it) a sandstorm kicks up almost immediately as before and teleportation occurs.   No one is really sure if the radio is sentient or just a strange anomaly, perhaps created by Flux, but it doesn't appear to be hostile. The sandstorms that happen around it are unusually harmless, for being so dense and sometimes sudden.   One person reported it appearing nearby (by means they don't know. They only heard the jingle approach and stop some distance away from them out of their vision) when they had heat stroke and near it was a large container of water that they used to re-hydrate and get to safety. So, whatever forces are behind it, it at the least seems friendly enough.

Spread

This story in particular is popular around the Redwind Desert, where the TLDR is usually spotted. It's a common story among the Aracnivids and Elapidids that live in the area.

Cultural Reception

It's about half and half when it comes to people believing the Lonely Desert Radio is real or not. The locals of Redwind Desert will all tell you it's real and a lot of them will tell you their own encounters. A few TV shows and comics and the like have parodies of TLDR in them. The internet finds it a meme to post a commonly referenced sketch of TLDR on social media when they find content that's too long for them to read. This is because TLDR is almost the same as "tl;dr", short for "too long; didn't read"... which you may or may not have said to yourself at some point while reading this article.

In Literature

The reports of sightings and interviews with reporters are all documented in Tome of Oddities and Weird Stuff - Book Series and in a few books and comics in parody.

In Art

There is one particularly rough sketch of TLDR by someone who had an encounter with it and was interviewed by a news station...... it's not well drawn at all, being compared to a melting grilled cheese. Other than that and the memes that occured because of the original sketch, there are some distant photos of TLDR.

4th Wall Break

Inspiration

Inspiration is totally from the theme of Dusty Dunes Desert from Earthbound. Just think of that li'l jingle when you read this. ~Zeta