99 Grand Am Radio won't work/ not showing LOC

[kimberleytx]

Alright, here is the issue. Saturday morning I went out to my car to start it and the car wouldn't even turn over. So, I figured it was the battery and my sister came over to jump start my car. Well, in the process of using the jumper cables, we accidentally put the positive with the negative and the negative with the positive and it was on there that way for about 1 minute. Then, when we saw the spark we realized it wasn't right so we switched it and put it on the correct way. In the end I ended up having to get a new battery, but now my stereo doesn't work at all. I have looked on some automotive forums online and I notice some people say after you the car looses the battery power, it will lock up the radio and you have to enter a code to get it to work again. But in my case, it doesn't have the letters LOC on my radio and I think I might have blown the radio when we put the jumper cables on incorrectly in the first place. PLEASE HELP!!

[Degtr]

I'd start by checking the fuse for the radio. With luck, it did its job and protected the circuitry by blowing. Off the top of my head I can't remember which side it's on, but it's definitely in one of the boxes on either side of the dash, not the under hood box.

P.S. Positive to positive and negative to negative aren't the best way either. The negative end of the cable going to the dead car should be attached to an unpainted metallic part of the engine to avoid sparks near the battery terminals. There's always a chance that a spark near the battery can ignite vapors leaking from the battery and cause an explosion.

[kimberleytx]

Yeah, I had my dad check the fuse and he said that the fuse looks good. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so girly so I would know how to fix things like this! I guess I could just go get a new stereo put in, but I am afraid I blew some big wire and not the just radio itself. I guess if I did that, it wouldn't work whether I had a new radio in it or the factory one that is in there now.

[Degtr]

Is there any sign of power going to the radio? Does the time still display on the clock? Before replacing anything, I'd disconnect the radio and have someone check to see if there is power going to the wire harness that plugs into the back if you don't see a clock or anything on there. If so, it's probably an indicator that things are OK up to the point of the radio, so a new radio is worth a shot. If not, then the problem is further up the line and the new radio will appear to be dead too because it's not getting power.

Also, is anything else electrical not working like wipers, headlamps, blower, etc?