I worked for Radio Rentals between 1971 and 1983. Colour TV had been introduced in the UK with BBC2 in colour on UHF from 1967. In 1969, colour transmissions were introduced onto the BBC1 and ITV networks. The Branch of Radio Rentals where I worked was in quite an affluent area of Solihull in the West Midlands. Consequently we had a large number of colour TV subscribers right from the start. The ‘Baird’ TVs shown in the above brochure were typical of the receivers marketed by Radio Rentals and the full length consoles were extremely popular in the area served by the branch where I worked. The only other manufacturer of similar receivers was Dynatron and possibly ITT KB which appealed to a similar market. After 1969, the company gained an increasing number of new customers as more and more people wanted colour TV.
At first reliability of colour receivers was not terribly good with an average of about three calls per year. So understandably, customers chose to rent in the early days rather than buy. When I left the trade in 1982, the average call rate had dropped to 0.6 calls per year and more customers were opting to buy receivers at that time
I worked for Radio Rentals between 1971 and 1983. Colour TV had been introduced in the UK with BBC2 in colour on UHF from 1967. In 1969, colour transmissions were introduced onto the BBC1 and ITV networks. The Branch of Radio Rentals where I worked was in quite an affluent area of Solihull in the West Midlands. Consequently we had a large number of colour TV subscribers right from the start. The ‘Baird’ TVs shown in the above brochure were typical of the receivers marketed by Radio Rentals and the full length consoles were extremely popular in the area served by the branch where I worked. The only other manufacturer of similar receivers was Dynatron and possibly ITT KB which appealed to a similar market. After 1969, the company gained an increasing number of new customers as more and more people wanted colour TV.
At first reliability of colour receivers was not terribly good with an average of about three calls per year. So understandably, customers chose to rent in the early days rather than buy. When I left the trade in 1982, the average call rate had dropped to 0.6 calls per year and more customers were opting to buy receivers at that time
Hello Chris,
I have the 702w it was going into a skip if I didn’t buy it. The previous owner was moving home. I picked it up in 2009 or 2010.