My grandparents had a Rediffusion radio set, with a similar selector before I was born (in the mid-1960s). Because the TV reception via aerial was poor in our area, when I was about nine we had a Rediffusion TV installed instead of the radio. The TV channels were selected with a control identical to that shown and BBC radio two, three and four (I think) were available via the TV speaker without having to switch on the TV screen. In fact, one could listen to the TV programmes without watching them, too (if that was your preference!). When the TV was serviced, I had a look and was surprised by the very small amount of circuitry inside the TV cabinet.
Nottingham housing estates are literally strung with the old Rediffusion cables and boxes, with spans going over many a main road still, even in parts of the city centre. The network was installed here in 1952 and finally switched off in late 80's. My grandmother had an original 'wireless' set with only 2 channels in the 1960's. I kept our old selector box, identical to this one when the system closed down for nostalgic reasons.
I’ve taken mine down, but I’ve still got it along with the white boxes what decoded the signal brings back lots of memories as a kid getting up to click it over 😂
We have lived in our family home since 1970. In 1982, Rediffusion installed this type of box for our main living room TV. They had the courtesy to hide it discreetly behind the front room curtains, so it was hidden from sight. In the 90s, it was ripped out (like my heart at the time), to make way for the common 'remote control!' Happy memories, though.....
Clearing out behind an old fence panel I found an old long plastic rediffusion box connected to quite thick cable with about 12 wires. Anyone got / seen this type ?
In the early 80;s we had cable TV boxes with a channel selector ..and you had to get out of the chair to change the channel and I had TV without a remote ..People that had children had it made teaching the little ones to switch the dials
It's amazing how things have changed. It really does feel like yesterday. I don't think I got roped into being the channel change monitor, or maybe I did and just didn't realize it :)
In the Middlesbrough area, that’s what Rediffusion was to me - in a place I was in, they had a Rediffusion TV - “piped TV” was its generic name - you could actually listen to the telly and not watch it - ridiculous if a Charlie Chaplin film is playing or something with little dialogue! In Middlesbrough - and, I think, most of Teesside - later becoming Cleveland - the channels were arranged as follows: A - BBC Radio 4 (the VHF service - so people got schools programmes and adult education replacing regular programming - remember - this was the 70s) B - BBC Radio Cleveland C - Tyne-Tees D - Yorkshire - although the reception was not very good - but you couldn’t get it at all on a non-Rediffusion telly up my way - handy if Tyne Tees was showing something rubbish E - BBC 1 F - a curious hybrid of mainly BBC 2 - but, in those days, BBC 2 literally closed down from around 11 am to around 4 pm - then a test card from 4 till either about half five, when the Open University started, or 7:30 - except when racing was being televised - during this downtime - and I swear it was not the medication I was on - I wasn’t on any - I was in a psychiatric hospital at the time - the BBC 2 channel suffered a major identity crisis - picture of Yorkshire Television, audio of Radio 1 when it was still on 247 - although, one day, someone relayed Radio Tees, the local commercial station, by mistake - advertising breaks on BBC 2! Later, Yorkshire was replaced by Channel 4! Rediffusion later provided the first example of cable TV in the area - using the switchbox you see in this video, it offered a fairly restricted number of channels - Sky Channel (now Sky One), Music Box (an early incarnation of MTV - some of which was Yorkshire’s early incarnation of all night TV), Screen Sport - which, during the day, was The Children’s Channel - and TEN - The Entertainment Channel - which cost extra, as its output comprised of films that had been recently at the cinema, but were yet to be released on home video and a long way off from terrestrial TV premiere!
