TIM + Dial A Disk

[Roger Ramjet]

Hi folks,

Just been watching Bargain Hunt on BBC1 which featured the original GPO Speaking Clock equipment in the Nottingham Time Museum.

No doubt most of us can remember the Speaking Clock aka TIM but I wonder how many can remember Dial A Disk in the 60's ?

I seem to recall it could be accessed by dialing 16 ? and played the current pop chart's number 1. Our parents could not afford to "be on the telephone"' so we always listened from a phone box in the village.

Music quality was reasonable & was certainly better than 208 metres Radio Luxembourg on a bad night.

It was quite an innovation at the time... but my, how times have changed.

Rog

[Welsh Anorak]

Sorry to say I remember it as well.

Not the only facility you could dial - weather, traffic and also a bedtime story for children were available, though I can't remember the numbers - here I think it was possibly 808X?

[Sideband]

Yes....used to 'Dial-a Disk' on our Trimphone.....never told anyone when I did it though...I think the cost at the time was about a shilling (5p) which was considered a lot in the 60's considering phone calls were just a few pence (4d)? About 1.5p in decimal.

[Reelman]

It was (is?) possible to listen to a recorded explanation of the international dial tones as well. Certainly had a quick listen to dial a-disk when bored at work. Indeed I remember using two phones at once for mock stereo.

Peter

[Tim]

I remember dial a disc, so it must have been going in the 80’s.
Can’t remember the number though. I think it was 160.
There was a number we used to get people to call for a joke. It was a disembodied voice saying things like “ Three feet six inches. Rising………Three feet…..”.
I think it was a remote level for a reservoir or something.

For a few million extra points, who remembers F.I.S.T ? Fantasy Interactive Scenarios by Telephone was a sort of Dungeons and Dragons game, in which it was possible to influence decisions by pressing buttons on your phone.
Predictably it was on a premium rate number. A colleague and I played it for a few hours at work one day. Once the phone bill came in we were politely asked not to play it again!
It didn’t last very long, probably due to the cost of playing.

[Station X]

Siyney Scarborough's record shop in Hull operated its own Dial a Disc service.

https://en-gb.facebook.com/sydscarborough/

[G6Tanuki]

There was also a premium-rate dial-a-cricket-score at one time; I had to arrange the number to be blocked at several companies because their staff were running up exorbitant bills on this when they should have been making sales-calls!

[Roger Ramjet]

I liked Peter's idea of using two phones for mock stereo LOL.

On the technical side.... would anyone know how the pop recordings were replayed via the PSTN, noting that the original TIM system used recordings from a rotating glass disk.

Rog

[Tim]

Hi Roger. I imagine it was done on banks of answer sets( with those graphite cassettes). A glass disc probably wouldn’t be economically viable as the discs were changed frequently( weekly I think). Easier to send out boxes of special cassettes to the regional centres that hosted the dial-a-disc service and have them changed out by the exchange staff.

[G6Tanuki]

How was it done? See https://retroscoop.wordpress.com/201...5/dial-a-disc/

[Roger Ramjet]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

How was it done? See https://retroscoop.wordpress.com/201...5/dial-a-disc/

Thanks G6Tanuki,

That is a brilliant article ! I never knew you could speak with other listeners if the music went quiet though.

Rog

[Welsh Anorak]

Of course the record didn't start from the beginning, just playing from where it happened to be when you called, then back to the beginning again.

Nice to see a Ferrograph series seven |(lower case obligatory) and a Quad 22 in the picture - with possibly a Thorens deck?

[hamid_1]

I didn't know you could talk to other listeners, either. I certainly used dial-a-disc in the 70s and 80s, mostly from a phone box (2p per call in the 70s). You could hear a second or two of the music before the 'pips' came on. Oddly, the local dialling codes booklet supplied by the GPO said that dial-a-disc is not available from payphones, though it worked for me.

The phone number was 16 from my area / 160 from some areas (London?). It was sometimes shared with cricket commentary during the daytime, then played music in the evening and when there was no cricket.

There were other recorded information services like the speaking clock and weather forecast. In the Bristol area in the 1970s and 80s, the phone numbers were 8081 and 8091 respectively. From my then local exchange, Whitchurch in south Bristol it was necessary to dial 9 to reach Bristol numbers, so the speaking clock was 98081 but dial-a-disc and the operator did not require a 9 to be dialled. I accidentally discovered that dialling 80 from a Whitchurch line resulted in a number unobtainable tone, then when the handset was hung up, the exchange rang the phone back. 80 must have been the engineer's bell-test number.

British Telecom decided to discontinue the 16 local-rate number in 1988. Dial-a-disc services continued on a premium-rate number (0836 400 160) called Mitch Murray's Discline. There was another one provided by the Daily Mirror that you could call and speak the number of the top ten hit you wanted to hear, as published in the newspaper. That was in 1990. Voice recognition had arrived! I was quite impressed that it could recognise the number you had asked for from your voice, not a touch-tone keypad. The following year 1991 there was a TV channel called Lifestyle Satellite Jukebox that you could call and select a music video to be played on TV. It later became The Box on cable TV (still exists, but no longer plays requests.)

We think of on-demand music as a recent phenomenon, but it's been around for decades.

[Pellseinydd]

The old GPO 'Pat Symmonds' Speaking Clock of the 1960' isstill running on 'TIM' on Director exchanges onour replica of the GPO network as it was in the 1960/70's if you one of the hundreds who have a telephone connected to the network. And Dial a Disc is still running on a number of Group Switching Centres on the network with the code 16 and original recordings or 160 in Director areas.

Cricket Line and Dial A Disc shared the same code 16/160 with Dial A Disc being limited to times when Cricket Line wasn't runningduring the cricket season.

And the TIM/Pat Symmnds Speaking Clock is still running on 01352 83 8081 - note it is not an 08XX premium rare number but a geographic number so should be in your 'free calls' package. Just accurate as BT's 'Timeline' at a minute percentage of the cost. You're missing out if you are not connected to our old network where things have stood still but unlike the GPO/PO/BT - there is no line rental or call charges even for calls to other collectorsas fara away as Australia & New Zealand,

[electronicskip]

Here is the Dial a disc intro information

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSzPXS93Gzw

[Nickthedentist]

Originally Posted by Welsh Anorak

Nice to see a Ferrograph series seven |(lower case obligatory) and a Quad 22 in the picture - with possibly a Thorens deck?

Think the deck is one of these: https://www.vinylengine.com/images/m...ur_bd1_bd2.jpg

[Graham G3ZVT]

You could listen to Piccadilly Radio from Manchester director area telephones by dialling 261 (the MW wavelength).

[russell_w_b]

There was also, ahem, a 'sexually-transmitted diseases' information recording, and we, as schoolboys, used to call it up and listen out of vulgar curiosity to things which, in theory, might affect us as we moved further into adulthood. I still remember the number:

01 246 8071.

[Station X]

Often seen in TV dramas on fake estate agent's for sale boards.

[Ted Kendall]

Originally Posted by Welsh Anorak

Of course the record didn't start from the beginning, just playing from where it happened to be when you called, then back to the beginning again.

Nice to see a Ferrograph series seven |(lower case obligatory) and a Quad 22 in the picture - with possibly a Thorens deck?

The Judd Street machine is a Garrard LAB 80 - the deck below the Ferrograph looks like a Connoisseur BD2. Curious that a 22 was used instead of a 33 - power supply and matching issues would have been simpler with the latter.