Tune In Your Wireless!

I was a kid of the 80s, I grew up with my own tv in my room. It was black and white, you needed a pair of vise grips to change the channels, and I only had four available, if ABC came in at all. My parents had a big hand me down color tv, but that was rarely used. There was another black and white tv in the kitchen, just like my grandfathers house, and everyone crowded around that one.

Never had cable or satellite, except on vacation ;). Now I've got Bluray and watch Youtube all the time.
 
A variation on the Radio Knife theme.

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bonzodog said:
Good man
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:thumbup: :D

Parke1 said:
A very neat bit of history here. Thanks for sharing, Jack!
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Thanks Dan :)

Primble said:
I remember the old electric knife sharpeners that were kitchen counter items, when I was a young man. They also contributed to many a lost blade. My mother had one that she used to grind away on her kitchen knives. For most people - power sharpeners have spelled disaster for many a fine old knife. :o
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Yes terrible Primble. in a large industrial city like Sheffield, lots of folks gave their knives to their dad, uncle, neighbour, etc to take into work and sharpen, and you see some really ruined knives as a result :(

5K Qs said:
Good story and interesting knife, Jack.
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Thank you sir :)

oldmanrunning said:
Sounds as if we are a similar vintage Jack, my dear old dad who was born in 1904 made me a crystal set to listen in on, our main wireless was a big thing powered by two accumulator batteries that i had to take round to a man in the next road to have re charged, then he got an electric radiogram with a wind up record player in it, this was followed by various makes including Bush, Philips, Loewe Opta i still have that one, i had moved on to a Dansette record player, we had black and white television until i offered to pay for a colour set to watch the Munich Olympics on, i was working for BOAC at the time and we had a colour set in our crew room it was the first colour picture set i had seen. I often wonder what my dad would make of the devices we now take for granted.
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When I relate stories like that to my kids, they really don't believe me! :eek: :) I once told a bunch of teenagers that when, about 1965, I played hookey from school to go and see the refrigerator we had had delivered, they were rolling around on the floor laughing and wouldn't believe me! When I told them I could barely get into the house for all the neighbours gawping at this new-fangled contraception, they went into hysterics!! :D

Raymond1000 said:
What evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!
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LOL! Now that is when I went into hysterics! :D :D :D

JB in SC said:
The Shadow could cloud men's minds, a handy skill to possess :)
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:D :thumbup[:

I don't know how I even know this stuff! :D :thumbup:

silenthunterstudios said:
I was a kid of the 80s, I grew up with my own tv in my room. It was black and white, you needed a pair of vise grips to change the channels, and I only had four available, if ABC came in at all. My parents had a big hand me down color tv, but that was rarely used. There was another black and white tv in the kitchen, just like my grandfathers house, and everyone crowded around that one.

Never had cable or satellite, except on vacation ;). Now I've got Bluray and watch Youtube all the time.
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Crikey Dan, it sounds like Yorkshire my friend! ;) :D :thumbup:

Gevonovich said:
I am enjoying this thread and everyone's recollections! Great thread, Jack!
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Thanks Gev, I know it's tangental, but it's great to hear everyone's recollections. For me, as a youngster, the highlight of the week was Batman (Adam West) Saturday tea-time! :D :thumbup:

smiling-knife said:
A variation on the Radio Knife theme.

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Fantastic S-K, I was hoping you'd contribute to this thread :thumbup:
 
Sorry but I can't produce a single knife of similar ilk. So by way compensation here is a pic of our first telly ... a 9-inch Bush that my old dad bought new in the early 50s. It was in full-time use intil the mid 60s and only had one channel. The wirless is a Derwent who, I think, were a rental company rather than a maker.
I hope you can make a user out of the Ibberson, Jack. Opening the main blade with the sharpened edge is a bit dodgy !
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5K Qs said:
Good story and interesting knife, Jack.


scrteened porch, I see your location is s.w. Michigan. Were your TV channels "back in the day" Channel 3 (WKZO-TV) and Channel 8 (Wood-TV) and sometimes Channel 13 (I don't remember the call letters)? Takes me back!

-GT
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Yup. Channel 13 had to come down from Grand Rapids, so we didn't see much ABC until the UHF station in Battle Creek opened. I don't remember the call letters of either one.
But I often used my traditional scout's knife to repair the antenna cables!
 
ADEE, nice old Derwent. You are correct as they were a rental company, rebranded Plessey in the earlier days, Phillips in the latter days.
 
When I was growing up we had a free standing cabinet radio. Built along Art Deco lines; not that I knew Art Deco from Impressionism at the time. The control knobs must have been Bakelite. In my first memories it was taller than I was.

The radio part—all tubes and wires—was in the top section. The bottom section—intended to be empty space—contained a coil of barbed wire. That served as the aerial. It really did. Unplug the wire and reception vanished.

That can’t have been the original plan. That radio—pardon me, I mean wireless—must have received some rough and ready repair before I was born.
 
It's great to read all your recollections :) :thumbup:

Great pics ADEE, we had something similar rented from Wigfalls. When the BBC started televising football, there would always be crowds of people watching it on the show TVs in their shop window! :D

I've cut myself twice already opening that knife!

I remember watching Batman on ABC on Saturday evening, it was the about the only TV I got to see! :D
 
Raymond1000 said:
The radio part—all tubes and wires—was in the top section. The bottom section—intended to be empty space—contained a coil of barbed wire. That served as the aerial. It really did. Unplug the wire and reception vanished.
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LOL! :D :thumbup:
 
scrteened porch said:
Yup. Channel 13 had to come down from Grand Rapids, so we didn't see much ABC until the UHF station in Battle Creek opened. I don't remember the call letters of either one.
But I often used my traditional scout's knife to repair the antenna cables!
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Oh, yeah, I'd forgotten about the UHF station that carried ABC. I don't know if this is correct, but my (possibly false) memory is that station was Channel 41 WUHQ. I think we had some kind of indoor UHF antenna on top of the console TV to pull in that station. And I had a Colonial Forest-Master back in those days (still have it) that I used for a lot of stuff, but I don't think I ever did any antenna repair with that baby!

-GT
 
Fox has always been 45 in Baltimore, but abc, cbs and nbc have changed stations in Balmer. My buddy lived on "TV hill" in Baltimore, where WJZ, WBAL and WBFF are located. The other station WMAR is located in the county. The guys who provided the news when I was a little kid were old buddies to my friend. He lived down the street from WJZ and I saw a few news personalities in the neighborhood that always stopped to see him. He was the "mayor" of Woodberry, the small Balmer neighborhood. The towers are huge, watching guys make repairs made me physically ill. Him and his neighbors thought it was hilarious that I thought those towers could come down. Wind got those things rockin, I didn't like it at all.
 
Old & In The Way said:
Well I just stumbled upon this fun, interesting and enlightening thread. Thanks for posting it Jack.
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Thanks Stephen, I'm enjoying reading everyone's reminiscences myself, though I fear without some knife content, the thread will not have a future.
 
Jack Black said:
Thanks Stephen, I'm enjoying reading everyone's reminiscences myself, though I fear without some knife content, the thread will not have a future.
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Did I say radio cabinet?

It was this giant radio knife, with barbed wire wrapped around it…
 
JB in SC said:
ADEE, nice old Derwent. You are correct as they were a rental company, rebranded Plessey in the earlier days, Phillips in the latter days.
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Thanks for the info JB in SC. The Derwent was given to me by a friend. It had been her grandmother's. I have only had it about 30 years !
 
Great thread as I was around in the era we are talking about. I found that a lot of the old radio programs/series are on the web now. The Shadow still lurks.
 
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