What happened to DER?

[John Caswell]

Red16v wrote
"May I ask what broadcast TV company that was John"
Not a problem
Michael Cox Electronics, fantastic company run on the same style as Bob Noyce did later at Intel, for about 8years then - Questech - Sony Broadcast - Acron - Abekas - Avitel - Courtyard (in 1991 market collapsed) - Freelance - Odetics - Nickelodeon - Viasat/TV3 to name a few, well quite a lot actually. By then I was tired so retired

John

[Aerodyne]

It's reassuring to note that at least some of us stayed in electronic work, even if differing from the TV servicing that was DER etc. I imagine quite a few of us had to change direction rather more radically; for example, I went into technical education.

There must have been a great many service technicians 'freed' when the rental market shrank almost into oblivion, though. Where they all ended up is still a mystery to me but as it is unlikely that they would be members of a forum such as this, perhaps we will never know the true extent of the misery caused by what may well have been, in some parts of the country, prolonged spells of unemployment.
This is conjectural...
Tony

[Samba1360]

I was an apprentice at Ketts. then a small independent company Cosmic Radio, then Mastercare, in the end I've just 20 years in CCTV contract managment, I've got 3-4 ex CTV engineers into this trade as it slips nicely in.

[MATTTT3222]

Which Ketts branch were you in?,I assume "Cosmic" was the big shop in Addlestone High street?.

[trickie_dickie]

I went for a job interview with Granada in Slough, passed their test with flying colours but didn't get a job because I couldn't drive. So I went to a local fruit machine company in Windsor, Kossway Automatics, where after a year in the workshop I got a field job having passed my driving test in Feb 73. Finally got my C&G part III TV servicing in 75. Self taught, may I say, was working for Racal at the time. Moved on to the Lift industry until 83 when I got a job with Visionhire. Left there a year later and went into MOD work. Got a job with Mastercare in 93, hated it. Left after 1 year, went back to MOD work. A couple of years later, we moved to Wales and I haven't looked inside a set since. Valve amps are my thing these days.

[Samba1360]

Originally Posted by MATTTT3222

Which Ketts branch were you in?,I assume "Cosmic" was the big shop in Addlestone High street?.

Yes, in Addlestone, now sadly no more, I was first at Ketts in Weybridge High St. '75 to '77 then when the new head office was build in Egham there 'till about 1980, under Malcom Mant and Bill Boswell as chief engineers.
In a full circle I started 20 years ago in the CCTV business with Rediffusion in Surbiton, I think we were the last "company" to use the name right up to 1998, when the name was finally put on the shelf.

[MATTTT3222]

One of the guys i went to college at Weybridge worked at the Surbiton Rediffusion branch.
I never knew there was a Ketts in Weybridge,it must have closed when i started at the Tolworth service centre in 1985.
I worked there until Ketts was bought out by Thorn and i was transferred to Multibroadcast in Woking,I forget what year that was though.

[red16v]

Originally Posted by John Caswell

Michael Cox Electronics, fantastic company run on the same style as Bob Noyce did later at Intel, for about 8years then - Questech - Sony Broadcast - Acron - Abekas - Avitel - Courtyard (in 1991 market collapsed) - Freelance - Odetics - Nickelodeon - Viasat/TV3

Ah, Manufacturer names with which I am very familiar - as a customer if you like!

Whatever happened to Acron? Can't remember the name of the chap that ran it (owned it?) Had a beard, liked a pint!

[John Caswell]

Ah Acron,
Was originally run by 3 guys -
Tom Keayes - Sales Dir - disappeared to the West Country don't think he is still alive.
Dave Goillon - Mng Dir - Emigrated to Australia, died a couple of years ago from the big C.
Alan Glenny - Tech Dir - I think this is the person you are talking about I believe he now runs or is associated with a micro brewery in Newbury Berks.

Me, I was just a lowly sales engineer.

John

[red16v]

That's him. Obviously found his vocation in the end, don't get me wrong very clever and a very nice bloke indeed! He used to turn up with a colleague from time to time from the support side (Tony ?) and they spent many an (un)happy hour having to tweak up the range of 502/504 SPGs. Very sophisticated and the devil's own job to fix if they went wrong. Ran too hot for comfort really.

Alan built up a relationship with a few of my ex-LWT engineering colleagues who had separately designed a video and audio amplifier which Acron took on and sold under their own brand name - perhaps you were involved in selling them. They were the absolute bees-knees in analogue design and performance, peerless really, but expensive as a result. I wonder if LWT was the only client for them, they had money then!

[Kake_LP]

Hello! I'm a local historian based in Croydon, and came across this forum while doing a web search for information on the radio/TV rentals firm Good Listening. I'm writing an article about a building where Good Listening had a branch from c.1948 to c.1979, and would love to find out more about the company.

I've seen the useful posts by Top Cap, tellyman, and Marconi_MPT4, but am wondering if anyone else has any memories of this company they'd be willing to share.

Thanks for reading!

[Fidelity Fan]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

I've heard it said that the prime requirement of the rental companies when specifying a [British-made] TV was that it should be designed so it was easy to repair; the Japanese on the other hand designed their receivers not to need repairing.

The first colour TV set my parents had when I was a kid in the mid 1970s was a Japanese rental set.
I don't know the make, but I am not exaggerating, when I say that it broke down every week. In the end my parents got fed up. They sent it back and rented a Ferguson 9600 set from the small shop up the road. A novelty of the time was the touch channel change selectors. They worked acceptably until someone came along with damp fingers! The 9600 was not a brilliantly reliable chassis, but it was a lot better than the Japanese set that was sent back. We had the 9600 for 5 years when it was changed for a new TX9 which gave exceptional service until the CRT faded after 8 years.

[Nuvistor]

hi Fidelity Fan,
I think then you were unfortunate, we sold Toshiba and Hitachi sets in the 70's, the reliability of the first sets was excellent with rarely a service visit. Has the decade came to a close the later sets were not as reliable as the early ones but still very much better than others.
I bought an Hitachi TV for myself in 1974/5 and replaced it in 85, in that time I repaired it only once.

Frank

[Fidelity Fan]

Hi Frank,

I notice that you also live in Wigan. The shop where the Japanese set was rented from was in Crompton Street, about the same place where the pound shop is now. Can you remember which rental chain had this shop in the 1970s?

I have to agree, I have always been satisfied with Toshiba products and the older Hitachi equipment that was actually made by them and not badged.

[Nuvistor]

Granada TV rental shop seems to come to mind in Crompton street, that help any? I did not know they rented Japanese sets but they certainly rented Thorn ones.
Frank

[FERNSEH]

The truth is TV rental was in decline in the 1980s. There was no doubt in the 1990s the rental companies were really in trouble, they must have been loosing customers en masse by then. Many firms didn't invest in new sets and simply relied on the older sets for income. Customers would say "why am I renting this old thing when the payments can be used to buy a new set".

DFWB.

[Fidelity Fan]

Originally Posted by Nuvistor

Granada TV rental shop seems to come to mind in Crompton street, that help any? I did not know they rented Japanese sets but they certainly rented Thorn ones.

Hello Frank,

Granada Rentals certainly rings a bell. I am beginning to think that the unreliable set was not Japanese after all and my parents remember wrong? Did Granada Rentals apply their own brand names to some of their rental sets at this time?

[Nuvistor]

Has far as I can recall, in the main Granada rented rebadged Thorn TV's, they were badged Granada but they could have rented out other makes.
I went to college with a chap who worked at the Crompton street shop but that was in the 60's, I lost touch with them in the 70's so I don't know too much about them.
Frank
I do remember they rented a small portable CTV from Europe, it used a simple PAL decoder, I don't know the name or who made it.

[FERNSEH]

Remember DER direct? I think we all knew they were in trouble when they started to rent out cheap far eastern TVs for about £6 per month.


DFWB.

[Nuvistor]

Hi David,
There was a DER in Wigan , I think it was in Market Place or the top of Standishgate but I had very little contact with them. It was only the last 3 or 4 years that I was in the trade that we rented sets, before that they were all sold. I left the trade in 1981 and as you said in a previous post renting went into a decline that decade so I missed a lot of what occurred later but did realise that a lot of the well known firms were in decline.

Frank