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Old 5th Sep 2022, 3:07 pm   #1
G6Tanuki
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Default The last rented radios?

Just out of interest, does anyone know the date that renting a radio became obsolete?

I would have thought some time in the late-50s/early-60s.

And it would probably have been from some small corner-shop type outfit rather than the big boys like DER or Radio Rentals.
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Old 5th Sep 2022, 3:46 pm   #2
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

I'm actually surprised that Hughes, who have a large branch here, seem not currently to be offering any radios to rent - they do have a range of smart speakers available, starting at £1.62 a week.

As regards the smallest outfits, the chap who sold me a Bush SAC25 and Ekco A22 off the back of a van in 1969 told me he had only lately stopped renting them out. They've both followed me around ever since.

Paul
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Old 5th Sep 2022, 3:56 pm   #3
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

I would think late 60s. By then most people would be preoccupied with TV I would have thought. But the true answer is probably going to be much later!
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Old 5th Sep 2022, 4:42 pm   #4
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

Just along the road from Paul was a cycle shop in Litcham, 'Rowe and Son' . the proprietor Fred Rowe also rented out radios, not TVs, just radios. When he passed away his son had no inclination towards either cycles or radios and the shop became a confectioners and tobacconists. The last remaining rental customers were given their sets during the early 80's I'm informed

Most of his stock were 'Bush' and I have two of them in my custody! One a DAC90 the other a VHF61.

Greg.
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Old 5th Sep 2022, 5:38 pm   #5
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

There was a big batch of DAC90As which turned up in a warehouse 10 or so years ago, which were apparently ex-rentals.
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Old 5th Sep 2022, 6:15 pm   #6
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

Mass renting declined sharply when commercial production restarted after WW2. Many people bought their first radio after about 1950, often using the 'never never' (hire purchase). People started viewing renting as throwing money away, just as happened with mono TV around 1970 and colour TV around 1980. That's why the world is still awash with 50s radios 70 years later, while only a few high end 30s sets survived - the prewar sets were scrapped by the rental companies as customers returned them.
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Old 5th Sep 2022, 6:32 pm   #7
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

Believe it or not, when I worked for Granada Tv Rental (the first time ) about 1976, they had a few, and I mean a few, two of three perhaps, Transistor Radios out on Rental dating from the Robinson Rental days, cant remember the make, but they looked very early 60`s retro, and I believe as part of their rental contract, subscribers were supplied with replacement PP9`s .
I always remember one little old granny regularly calling in the Kilburn Branch to have her PP9 fitted.

Ken G6HZG.
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Old 5th Sep 2022, 7:06 pm   #8
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

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Originally Posted by paulsherwin View Post
That's why the world is still awash with 50s radios 70 years later, while only a few high end 30s sets survived - the prewar sets were scrapped by the rental companies as customers returned them.
I can't say my impression agrees here - considering they're all over 80 years old I'm if anything surprised that so many 1930s sets across the full variety of classes survive to this day. I've glanced through my four 1930s Broadcaster Trade Annuals looking in vain for any data on the number of rental agreements then active - renting certainly went on, and one volume at least offers model hire purchase and rental agreements for dealers to use. Consider, though, period advertising from the general press - I've seen quite a lot from the 1930s, and it very often features the retail prices of sets, rarely a rental price. A fair number of models produced specifically for rental in the '30s and '40s are still around, generally clearly marked as the property of the organisation that rented them out - they were a small proportion of the sets made.

I don't recall hearing at all of radios being rented in the 1920s, when radio was still a minority activity. A few familiar names in rental began in the '30s - Radio Rentals itself in 1930. It grew from modest beginnings, and some local dealerships clearly offered set rental on their own initiative, but still my guess would be at something around 10-15% of sets rented in the mid to late '30s.

Paul
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Old 5th Sep 2022, 7:41 pm   #9
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

There was a big market for rented battery sets in the 30s, with customers taking the LT accumulators back to the rental shop (often a bike shop) to be charged. This happened even in cities with a decent mains supply, as mains electricity was still a new thing in working class areas and people didn't understand or trust it. After the war these sets were mostly scrapped.

My mother remembered taking the accumulators to be charged as a young girl in the war years. By the early 50s the radio had been replaced by a Philips bakelite mains set, which I remember my grandad using to listen to Sports Report as a boy. I think this was typical of many working class families.
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Old 5th Sep 2022, 8:18 pm   #10
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

I think that renting a radio would have died off in the 50’s as smaller, lower cost sets became available, with simpler 3 valves and a rectifier circuits established as an industry standard by this time, the requirements for regular repairs soon started drying up. With most of the radio sets I have had from this era and later, I find that most of the valves and components are the originals. With the odd replacement component here and there.

Christopher Capener
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Old 5th Sep 2022, 10:15 pm   #11
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

I remember reading that Michael Caine bought his parents a radio when he started to make enough money from acting, so they wouldn't have to rent a set.
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Old 5th Sep 2022, 10:31 pm   #12
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

In the summer of 1962 when I was a schoolboy, I spent a week's holiday at Caister holiday camp in Norfolk with my cousin, and we hired a transistor radio from the camp for the week. That was the only example of radio hire I encountered.

Last edited by emeritus; 5th Sep 2022 at 10:32 pm. Reason: typos
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Old 5th Sep 2022, 10:48 pm   #13
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

A year or two back here in NZ I saw ads on TV for renting whiteware (Washing machines, dryers, fridges etc) and still TV's/radios. I'm not sure if they are still out there though as they've got so cheap here that few would want to - but places like hotels, motels might I suppose.

My favourite rental story was from the early days of colour TV here (1980's). Virtually all sets were rented and those in motels had special alarms to prevent theft. Anyway a company suddenly stopped getting rental from a woman and in the end sent a collection agent to pick up the colour TV. The woman was at home when they arrived and she happily explained the set had stopped working - so she'd converted it to a tropical fish tank. Their reaction was sadly NOT mentioned.
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Old 6th Sep 2022, 8:24 am   #14
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

In 1966 at Rediffusion we still had a few rental radios they were valve models and I recall they had a printed circuit board, plastic dark red case.
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Old 6th Sep 2022, 9:22 am   #15
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

Renting worked while in the customer's mind reliability was poor and they would have to pay for service if it went wrong.
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Old 6th Sep 2022, 9:25 am   #16
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

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Originally Posted by Jon_G4MDC View Post
Renting worked while in the customer's mind reliability was poor and they would have to pay for service if it went wrong.
Not to mention the off-putting effect of purchase price.
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Old 6th Sep 2022, 9:25 am   #17
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

Were the RNIB radios essentially rented?
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Old 6th Sep 2022, 8:16 pm   #18
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

Quote:
Originally Posted by its ur aerial View Post
Believe it or not, when I worked for Granada Tv Rental (the first time ) about 1976, they had a few...
Ken, I started at GTVR in 1971, and I remember a TV with a record player underneath. Could have been Robinson's or Red Arrow, the TV was probebly a Thorn 850, but what I do remember for sure was the record player base was called a SUN unit after the letters in the stock category.

I remember that 6BW6's were availible from Central Stores, but I can't recall any TV we dealt with that used them, so maybe they were a legacy from radio hire. A few of them found their way into my Topband transmitters.
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Old 6th Sep 2022, 10:52 pm   #19
G.Castle
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Default Re: The last rented radios?

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Originally Posted by Nickthedentist View Post
Were the RNIB radios essentially rented?
I Believe so, there was at least an agreement with the end user as a means of retaining ownership even if the beneficiary themselves didn't pay any rental.

The sets would also be prominently labeled that they were supplied on behalf of the institute.

Quote:
Originally Posted by stevehertz
Not to mention the off-putting effect of purchase price.
So true!
The price of buying a set would have indeed put off many from ownership: a battery portable in 1940 costing £8-10-0 was to the average wage earner equivalent to 160 hours of work. People would have to had to save a long while for that, and the battery would be probably a days wage when it needed to be replaced.
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Old 7th Sep 2022, 6:34 am   #20
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Believe it or not, when I worked for Granada Tv Rental (the first time ) about 1976, they had a few...
Graham,

I also came across one of those, I am also pretty certain they were Thorn 850`s.
I didn't know about the 6BW6`s, you done very well to get any thing out of Granada Central Stores other than bottles of that useless white polish.
Ken G6HZG.
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