Replace monaural SS radio for talk show

My wife bought a cheap transistor radio for a morning talk show she likes on FM dial while in the kitchen area. After a year or so I listened and the radio sounded terrible. The 3" speaker sounded high pitched and voice punctuation was just poor. I ask her how could she stand it? It was simply disgusting sounding.

I bought a NOS tube type AM-FM clock radio. It is the American 5 tube set with the common 35W4 rectifier & 50C5 audio output tubes. The 4 inch speaker reproduced voice so clear & the audio tube accuracy sounded like the person was almost in the room.

Are you this picky with a simple monaural radio?