I have a 10 band Sw radio with FM, MW, and LW. In the USA SW seems empty for all but a handfull of stations, either religious, Hispanic or anti American propaganda news from Cuba. Actually that last one is quite interesting. With the advent of the internet, satellite radio, Pandora and high speed mobile phone data I see the air waves getting quieter still.
I've even started using YouTube in the car on my phone to listen to European music they do not play here.
Great thread!
We had a good old wooden telly with just 4 channel buttons on it, similar to this:
After years of yanking aerial cables out and in whenever I wanted Atari VCS (or later, Speccy) time, I remember the bliss of our first Y-shaped aerial-combiner which allowed two cables to be plugged in at once and I could just have the 4th button tuned to the "gaming" channel! :)
That backfired when Channel 4 launched though.... :(
I also remember our first VCR - betamax of course! :))
The spot on the tuning dial for that was the same frequency as the Speccy's RF input, which caused grief if they were both on at the same time - until I worked out how to change this frequency via a hidden switch on the VCR :D
It was a late 60's one I think, valveless and sounded quite nice. Was very comparable to my cheap all in one radio, tape and record player (looked like a stacking unit) from the very early 00s. A nice warm sound, sounded great with records of it's day. Also, because it was covered the volume controls etc did not get full of dust to it's longevity was increased.
What always seemed weird to me was the idea they were pushing that most two-story houses have a room without windows in the centre of the ground floor.. I don't think I've ever seen that.
It is rare for modern houses to have such a room.
My uncle converted a large house into flats including the basement. The basement had a room nearly like that, but that is the only town house that I can think of like it.
Old farm houses however may have such rooms, as the buildings were often expanded piecemeal. I have been in such a building and it had at least one small room in the middle, but this was on the first floor. I did not get to see most of the ground floor (different bits were rented out to different people).
Now, really old buildings did not have passageways or corridors. So to move through the building you had to walk through each room. I suppose some of these may have such rooms. But, as this was before electric lighting was widespread, I can't see a builder having windowless rooms...
! Standby alert !
“There are four lights!”
Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb!
Looking forward to summer in Somerset later in the year :)
The two bathrooms in my house don't have windows either, but they do have extractor fans, which I'm sure would let fall-out in no problem if they weren't running..
Most of the stuff they suggest in those videos is preposterous though.. How's a family going to stay entrenched in the cupboard under the stairs for 2 weeks solid? It barely accommodated Harry Potter! :P
re: that wooden telly that Gwyn posted with the sticking-out switches.. I remember those.. You had to pull the switch out and tune the channel and then you popped it back in to lock the tuning in place.. We never had one, I just remember messing around with one as a kid.. My Nan's or Gran's perhaps?
Not including cupboards and wardrobes I only really have one inner sanctum, it is in my basement and is a toilet. Might be a good place to go as one half my basement is underground. However, if we did have a nuclear blast I'm sure the ensuing Forrest fire would wipe out my home and us. I'm not sure the sh!t house fan could cope with that much Carbon Monoxide.
I live in a 100 year old building that was originally built as a school building. It is brick and there are a few rooms in the basement that do not have any windows. Might be a good place to hide out. It's not very nice down there though...
So In Awfull QI News it was asked by RebelStar what does Sandie Toksvig actually do? I dunno now but I do know then when I first saw her it was on a Wooden Telly.
On this show:
BTW why do all these enthusiasts think its cool to leave a time code in the video. Is this a vain attempt to look like a television insider? Or is there something I'm missing. Please turn them off, let's see the whole picture!!
Remember having to tune the TV in to find the spectrum channel?
I once picked 4 on the main TV in the living room and my mum and dad went mental when my dad had to retune it in to watch Brookside (these were the days where you did a manual scan of channels).
He wasn't happy and wasn't allowed to use it in the living room again, because i also somehow knocked off the VCR channels! :))
Oh sh*t I made a joke about Number 73 in that thread, now look what's happened here, somebody else not only got there first, but made it much much worse :))
Remember having to tune the TV in to find the spectrum channel?
I once picked 4 on the main TV in the living room and my mum and dad went mental when my dad had to retune it in to watch Brookside (these were the days where you did a manual scan of channels).
He wasn't happy and wasn't allowed to use it in the living room again, because i also somehow knocked off the VCR channels! :))
Isn't it funny how parents over-reacted like that. My dad did the same thing. It's not like its hard to tune one of them wooden tellys. It;s almost as if they were willfully blind to the simplicity of it, or just over-complicated the process in their own mind. It only got fidly when they removed the manual turner and you had to do it though the remote.
I guess I was lucky, all my family members were so sh*t at everything it was usually me who ended up tuning TV's, Videos, DVD's and whatever, even when I was a little kid it was like he knows what he's doing he's got a spectrum ;)
re: that wooden telly that Gwyn posted with the sticking-out switches.. I remember those.. You had to pull the switch out and tune the channel and then you popped it back in to lock the tuning in place..
Funnily enough, ours didn't have pop-out switches. They stayed out all the time, and yes you twisted them to tune that knob. The problem with this was that each time you pressed one to change channel, the knob might turn a little bit, so over time they could wander out of tune. This was clear because the picture would go slightly fuzzy and/or turn B&W, so you had to twiddle them back in tune.
This completely flummoxed me one Christmas when I settled down to watch The Wizard of Oz and was perturbed to find the picture was B&W (I think it was only my 2nd time seeing it and distinctly remember it not being B&W - Follow the "yellow" brick road etc.). I furiously spent the first part of the film fiddling with the knob to try to get the colour to work, only to get the shock of my life when Dorothy lands in Oz and it all suddenly turned to "Glorious Technocolor (TM)" :-O
I'd forgotten the first part is supposed to be B&W #-o
Yes, unfortunately I remember this.. That heartless b@stard!
Granted a crap tune. The video is kind of a nice record of how the Big London night clubs used to look in the first half of the 80's. Notice the lights, quantity not quality and the best they can do is have them spinning round. The clothes too, vests were still seen as cool.
As for your second video. It makes me wonder how Les Dennis managed to stay in the spot lite for so long, his act consisted of inferior impressions (inferior to his contemporaries) of other acts. In any case the whole impressionist genre was naff, as all acts typically had at least three of the following of Frank Spenser, Jimmy Cricket, Tommy Cooper, Thatcher, the current US President and someone from Corination Street.
Its funny but the way he holds his hands and the way he smiles... Every guy I've known who 'carries themselves' the same way, were always someone who thought they were the life of the party but were in fact a pratt! :)
It was a late 60's one I think, valveless and sounded quite nice. Was very comparable to my cheap all in one radio, tape and record player (looked like a stacking unit) from the very early 00s. A nice warm sound, sounded great with records of it's day. Also, because it was covered the volume controls etc did not get full of dust to it's longevity was increased.
yeah i started listening to my punk music on one similer to that lol
Professional Mel-the-Bell Simulator................"So realistic, I found myself reaching for the Kleenex King-Size!" - Richard Darling
When it comes to the music of Television some of the synth based creations of the first half of the 80's were really good. This was a time when Roland's Jupiter 80, Juno 106, the PPG Wave and Korg Poly 61, and Phophet 5 synths ruled the waves. Great polyphonic analogue synth sounds. Like this, I liked the theme tune more than the show.
I always remember record shops on the mid to late 80's were festooned with tellies, usually in blocks of three, hanging from the ceiling all showing the same thing, just to show how hip and extravagant the shop was.
Whilst looking for an image of a HMV with loads of tellies I found this. A FlickR account that has loads of pictures of old HMVs in it from the Mid 80s. You might find some old computer displays, I've not dug deep so far, but I expect I will (being a little OCD and all that).
That was when they had a music shop above the main record shop, run by a couple of guys called Sid and Paul (I think). The whole thing turned into a River Island by the late 80s, and we never had an HMV in Bedford again, but the guys from HMV started their own independent music shop.
Quite eerie to think that I probably played on these keyboards at some point (particularly as I'm listening to a load of stuff from 1985 at the moment)
I love them old station clocks before they all went digital. You know digital idents and clocks in the UK all started with BBC two. Even the sound was electronically generated. Apparently this was all done with a box about the size of a full sized PC tower.
BBC's Computer Originated World (Cow) was housed in a similar unit. There exists a great document on how it worked here: http://625.uk.com/tv_logos/bbc1_85.htm
Also another wooden telly memory, Play Your Cards Right, the original 80's version (whole episode below). I love that theme tune, it cuts though walls so you can't fail to notice it's started if you had the telly on.. Looking at it I still think now Bruce is/was damn good. When Bruce does eventually cark it, it will be a shame I'm over here as I bed there will be a few days of good telly memories.
Comments
I have a 10 band Sw radio with FM, MW, and LW. In the USA SW seems empty for all but a handfull of stations, either religious, Hispanic or anti American propaganda news from Cuba. Actually that last one is quite interesting. With the advent of the internet, satellite radio, Pandora and high speed mobile phone data I see the air waves getting quieter still.
I've even started using YouTube in the car on my phone to listen to European music they do not play here.
We had a good old wooden telly with just 4 channel buttons on it, similar to this:
After years of yanking aerial cables out and in whenever I wanted Atari VCS (or later, Speccy) time, I remember the bliss of our first Y-shaped aerial-combiner which allowed two cables to be plugged in at once and I could just have the 4th button tuned to the "gaming" channel! :)
That backfired when Channel 4 launched though.... :(
I also remember our first VCR - betamax of course! :))
The spot on the tuning dial for that was the same frequency as the Speccy's RF input, which caused grief if they were both on at the same time - until I worked out how to change this frequency via a hidden switch on the VCR :D
Oh, the number of records I scratched when larking about and the flappy door slammed shut...
:(
http://thumbs.worthpoint.com/2lro0SEAoHLaYfyWPbqp8ZWz12M=/400x0/images/images1/360/0411/29/360_aa5c7a020f3e28069389f8dfc8053533.jpg
It was a late 60's one I think, valveless and sounded quite nice. Was very comparable to my cheap all in one radio, tape and record player (looked like a stacking unit) from the very early 00s. A nice warm sound, sounded great with records of it's day. Also, because it was covered the volume controls etc did not get full of dust to it's longevity was increased.
It is rare for modern houses to have such a room.
My uncle converted a large house into flats including the basement. The basement had a room nearly like that, but that is the only town house that I can think of like it.
Old farm houses however may have such rooms, as the buildings were often expanded piecemeal. I have been in such a building and it had at least one small room in the middle, but this was on the first floor. I did not get to see most of the ground floor (different bits were rented out to different people).
Now, really old buildings did not have passageways or corridors. So to move through the building you had to walk through each room. I suppose some of these may have such rooms. But, as this was before electric lighting was widespread, I can't see a builder having windowless rooms...
Mark
Repair Guides. Spanish Hardware site.
WoS - can't download? Info here...
former Meulie Spectrum Archive but no longer available :-(
Spectranet: the TNFS directory thread
! Standby alert !
“There are four lights!”
Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb!
Looking forward to summer in Somerset later in the year :)
@luny@mstdn.games
https://www.luny.co.uk
Most of the stuff they suggest in those videos is preposterous though.. How's a family going to stay entrenched in the cupboard under the stairs for 2 weeks solid? It barely accommodated Harry Potter! :P
re: that wooden telly that Gwyn posted with the sticking-out switches.. I remember those.. You had to pull the switch out and tune the channel and then you popped it back in to lock the tuning in place.. We never had one, I just remember messing around with one as a kid.. My Nan's or Gran's perhaps?
On this show:
BTW why do all these enthusiasts think its cool to leave a time code in the video. Is this a vain attempt to look like a television insider? Or is there something I'm missing. Please turn them off, let's see the whole picture!!
I once picked 4 on the main TV in the living room and my mum and dad went mental when my dad had to retune it in to watch Brookside (these were the days where you did a manual scan of channels).
He wasn't happy and wasn't allowed to use it in the living room again, because i also somehow knocked off the VCR channels! :))
Isn't it funny how parents over-reacted like that. My dad did the same thing. It's not like its hard to tune one of them wooden tellys. It;s almost as if they were willfully blind to the simplicity of it, or just over-complicated the process in their own mind. It only got fidly when they removed the manual turner and you had to do it though the remote.
This completely flummoxed me one Christmas when I settled down to watch The Wizard of Oz and was perturbed to find the picture was B&W (I think it was only my 2nd time seeing it and distinctly remember it not being B&W - Follow the "yellow" brick road etc.). I furiously spent the first part of the film fiddling with the knob to try to get the colour to work, only to get the shock of my life when Dorothy lands in Oz and it all suddenly turned to "Glorious Technocolor (TM)" :-O
I'd forgotten the first part is supposed to be B&W #-o
What an atmosphere!
I love the comment left by the guy who posted it on YouTube..
"Guaranteed to clear any party, this is "funnyman" Russ Abbot's attempt at music.
It's enough to make you hunt him down."
I also remember this.. How did anyone ever find them amusing?
Granted a crap tune. The video is kind of a nice record of how the Big London night clubs used to look in the first half of the 80's. Notice the lights, quantity not quality and the best they can do is have them spinning round. The clothes too, vests were still seen as cool.
As for your second video. It makes me wonder how Les Dennis managed to stay in the spot lite for so long, his act consisted of inferior impressions (inferior to his contemporaries) of other acts. In any case the whole impressionist genre was naff, as all acts typically had at least three of the following of Frank Spenser, Jimmy Cricket, Tommy Cooper, Thatcher, the current US President and someone from Corination Street.
@luny@mstdn.games
https://www.luny.co.uk
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5207/5327694188_70a4c70197_z.jpg
I always remember record shops on the mid to late 80's were festooned with tellies, usually in blocks of three, hanging from the ceiling all showing the same thing, just to show how hip and extravagant the shop was.
Whilst looking for an image of a HMV with loads of tellies I found this. A FlickR account that has loads of pictures of old HMVs in it from the Mid 80s. You might find some old computer displays, I've not dug deep so far, but I expect I will (being a little OCD and all that).
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hmvgetcloser/albums/page1
<edit>
Yep!! Found one, The BitMap Brothers from 1994 showing off the Chaos Engine.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hmvgetcloser/albums/72157625484297101
I also did find some but I think these one's were allready posted previously.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hmvgetcloser/5057364746/in/album-72157624498516242/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hmvgetcloser/5057364918/in/album-72157624498516242/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hmvgetcloser/albums/72157625798982289
That was when they had a music shop above the main record shop, run by a couple of guys called Sid and Paul (I think). The whole thing turned into a River Island by the late 80s, and we never had an HMV in Bedford again, but the guys from HMV started their own independent music shop.
Quite eerie to think that I probably played on these keyboards at some point (particularly as I'm listening to a load of stuff from 1985 at the moment)
https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5051/5395808946_a77598e7f7_b.jpg
I should do some work now, this rabbit hole is deep...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hmvgetcloser/sets/72157625246529836
BBC's Computer Originated World (Cow) was housed in a similar unit. There exists a great document on how it worked here: http://625.uk.com/tv_logos/bbc1_85.htm
Also another wooden telly memory, Play Your Cards Right, the original 80's version (whole episode below). I love that theme tune, it cuts though walls so you can't fail to notice it's started if you had the telly on.. Looking at it I still think now Bruce is/was damn good. When Bruce does eventually cark it, it will be a shame I'm over here as I bed there will be a few days of good telly memories.
An now here's on from 1984, the titles feature early 3d animation, and some desperate attempts at woooo threee deee!!!