[jambutty]

Actually Ianto.W. the name of the company was Radio Relay and their shop was on Abbey Street. Indeed when TV rentals first came out the shop name was changed to Relay Vision and I ended up installing TV aerials. When Blackpool played Bolton in the 1953 Cup Final (and won 4 – 3) they set up a large room upstairs where people could sit and watch the match on a 12” telly. They did the same for the coronation.

I don’t know when Radio Relay first started but it was only with one channel, the Home Service. Later on they wired in the Light Programme and then finally Radio Luxembourg. By the time that they had finished that, real radios powered by the mains and not accumulators (wet batteries) were cheap and reliable enough for most people to buy. There was going to be a fourth channel but it never got off the ground.

The master radio was at Abbey Street and from there the channels were sent to a large amplifier in each district and from there to each house via overhead cables, a switch usually on the window frame with a speaker on the mantelpiece or sideboard. When any of the large power amplifier valves burned out, we used to turn them into fish tanks. The PA valves were large – about 6 inches in diameter and about 15 inches tall. We would cut the glass at the base, throw away the gubbins, turn the glass upside down and bed it in a suitable sized pie dish with plaster and there you had it – a fish tank.

There was a TV rental company called Redifussion lancsdave but it was in opposition to Relay Vision.