I want to thank you all for your comments, which were all worth reading.
A bit more, I actually was talked into buying the unit, I was aware it didn't have a radio, and it was always an issue. But yeah I bought it. And I discovered how much a radio means to me! The immediacy of hearing a living human voice has a quality to me that belies the trivia of most radio broadcasts. And of course, listening to NPR!
I bought a very lightweight mp3 /radio unit at Costco. It was just what I could use. It was about $90 with 256 Meg of memory and not only FM radio but a nifty carrier strap, very light in weight and removable disposable/recharageable battery. Two comments on this:
1) Per unit of memory, the iPOD was a better deal!
2) It broke down within a week and I returned it.

Mick mentioned precisely some of the problems I've had with iTunes, partial loading of the library and Amos alerted me to keep trying to work with the program that ultimately I will grow happier with it. So a powerful word of thanks to you folks. I won't be giving it away and I'll try not to throw it into the street as far as I can.