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B&W TV How a 14 year old saved up to buy a car using a length of brazing rod and a lighter.

Black & White Television

Last Post by irob2345 1 month ago

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irob2345

(@irob2345)

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In 1961 Sydney got its 4th TV channel. TEN 10 started broadcasting in mid 1961 but they struggled to get audience ratings, so vital for a commercial channel.

After a year of 5% ratings they were staring bankruptcy in the face - desperate measures were called for!

Why did this happen?

All Oz TVs had Channel 10 on the dial but its frequency got shifted by 1MHz in the 1961 move from a 10 channel to a 13 channel system. (Therein lies a story for another time!). Problem was, if you had a 10 channel set (most people did) and it had a Philips tuner, it would not tune the new frequency unless a serviceman was called to adjust the tuner slug, it was outside the range of the fine tuning. So unless the TV broke down, the majority of people simply didn't bother.

Desperate measures?

Channel 10 commenced advertising that they would air a program they were making on a nudist colony.

Now full frontal nudity on prime-time TV in the early 60s was pretty revolutionary stuff in Australia. It could risk the station losing its licence and they'd be off the air. "What does it matter?" I guess they thought. "We'd be off the air anyway".

So there was a mad rush by all and sundry to get TVs fixed to watch this once-in-a-lifetime event! Sex sells!

So:

Here am I then, on my bicycle, armed with an 18 inch length of brazing rod, with a curl on one end and the other end ground to a screwdriver tip. And the all-important cigarette lighter.

Why? Well most turret tuners in early Oz TVs were mounted some distance back in the chassis with extension shafts. The brass tuning slugs in Philips tuners (used in about 60% of TVs) were glued in place with coil dope. Any attempt to force them and you'd rip the coil away from the rest of the biscuit. An extra hour or so was generally needed to repair the damage.

But by heating up the end of the brazing rod with the lighter, holding it in place to transfer the heat to the slug, and repeating a couple of times, allowed the slug to be turned the necessary half-turn anticlockwise. With practice (and I got a lot of it) I could be in and out in 5 minutes and on my bike to the next address, 2 pounds the richer.

Channel 10 duly ran the nudist colony special, yes, complete with full frontal male and female nudity as promised. There was a huge uproar from the prudes but Channel 10's ratings soared - and they didn't lose their licence!

My family didn't have a car so when I had made enough money I bought a 1956 Thames 100E van - unregistered, running on 3 cylinders and with the front floors rusted out. Enough time to fix it before I could get my licence. (And fix it, and fix it!)

Channel 10 continued the sex sells formula a few years later when they started making the long running daily sitcom "Number 96". Big breasts and open homosexuality kept the ratings up!

Then there was that Channel 10 Xmas party broadcast live - they never did that again!

Posted : 17/12/2024 9:37 am