Trade Chat Thorn/Ferguson TLO's

Don't ask me why, because I never met any of them, but Colin Turner's face is very familiar - Must have been in a past life?

It wasn't until the Thomson era before we were visited by Thorn TLOs as we had our own in house training/support teams in DER. Can't remember his name, certainly wasn't Jeffrey Dodd. He first visited around the time the TX80 was introduced, this was Thomson's take of the 9000 SYCLOPS using a single transistor for PSU/LOP stage. As I remember he wasn't impressed with the design.

Posted by: @katie-bush

Don't ask me why, because I never met any of them, but Colin Turner's face is very familiar - Must have been in a past life?

Does he look just a tiny bit like Richard Osman from 'Pointless' on TV? 

Posted by: @sideband

Posted by: @katie-bush

Don't ask me why, because I never met any of them, but Colin Turner's face is very familiar - Must have been in a past life?

Does he look just a tiny bit like Richard Osman from 'Pointless' on TV? 

Or probably, because he's a dead ringer for "Robin" our used tractor guy of about twenty years ago. ? ?

As we were never official Ferguson dealers, nor sold/bought new stock we were never visited by any TLOs unfortunately, however I did once speak to Bernie Hinton C/O and via a 'mutual colleague' , this was a phone call about Thomson products, both about the ICC5 and the IKC2, information was passed both ways.

A very genial and helpful chap IIRC.

Colin Turner was the TLO for the company I worked for during the 80's-90's and a nicer guy you would struggle to meet!

My name's Brian and I worked for Wallis TV & Radio Ltd based in the Old Kent Road from 1981 until 2002, when the business was closed down for good. 😪 

I'm new to this site, so please be gentle! 😊 

We would look forward to Colin's visits and especially his updates on how the restoration of Radio Caroline was going and one of his other passions, eastern block aircraft!

We thought of him more as a friend than our TLO.

One memory that has stuck with me was the day he visited to show us how to service the Ferguson 3V29 removed link

My boss, Tony, decided to record the session with his video camera and 3V24 recorder whilst utilising some very old school photo studio spot lights... Poor Colin was sweating like the proverbial!

I think our workshop's heat signature could have been spotted from space that day 😆. 

We probably saw him at least a couple of times a year during the Thorn/Ferguson years, but things seemed to change once Thomson took over.

Towards the end of the 90's, it was deemed that we were not selling enough TV's and so we had our main dealer status taken away.

If memory serves me right, Colin was then made redundant in the mid to late 90's, at which point, we sadly lost contact with him.

I've often wondered what he's up to now... Has anyone heard from him? 

Better still, if you're out there Colin, drop me a line! It'll be great to catch up again! 👍 

Posted by: @arc-de-tripler

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I'm new to this site, so please be gentle! 😊 

Hi Brian, welcome aboard Radios-TV VRAT. You'll find many kindred spirts (ex trade) here, and we're a very friendly bunch. In addition to the vast info within the forum, you'll find an absolute raft of things here to while away the hours on the main website. Just follow the links above (depending on your device), there are tonnes of period brochures and articles. Also, you might like to take a virtual walk around my museum, and my collection, you might recall some of the sets

Hope you enjoy your time with us.👍 

p.s.

Don't be phased or take it personally by the link that was removed or the inability to post photos or access the private messaging system. This is an automated security feature of the forum software to tackle spammers. After you've made a few more posts, it'll see you as friend not foe, and it will stop.

p.p.s

Love your username, a great play on words. I had a tripler arcing last week on my GEC C2219H. I've taken the liberty of creating you an avatar, feel free to change it.

Posted by: @crustytv

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Posted by: @arc-de-tripler

↑

I'm new to this site, so please be gentle! 😊 

Hi Brian, welcome aboard Radios-TV VRAT. You'll find many kindred spirts (ex trade) here, and we're a very friendly bunch. In addition to the vast info within the forum, you'll find an absolute raft of things here to while away the hours on the main website. Just follow the links above (depending on your device), there are tonnes of period brochures and articles. Also, you might like to take a virtual walk around my museum, and my collection, you might recall some of the sets

Hope you enjoy your time with us.👍 

p.s.

Don't be phased or take it personally by the link that was removed or the inability to post photos or access the private messaging system. This is an automated security feature of the forum software to tackle spammers. After you've made a few more posts, it'll see you as friendly and it will stop.

p.p.s

Love your username, a great play on words. I had a tripler arcing last week on my GEC C2219H. I've taken the liberty of creating you an avatar, feel free to change it.

Thanks for the warm welcome... I look forward to finding my way around the site, especially with the long cold night fast approaching! 👍 

Posted by: @crustytv

↑

I've taken the liberty of creating you an avatar, feel free to change it.

Love the avatar... It's a keeper! 😉 

@arc-de-tripler

Welcome! I am not a telly man but I had many friends in the trade through my ham radio activities which date from the mid 1960s. Sadly, they were disappearing at a great rate of knots in the 1990s (and also from the hobby) and I have lost touch with most of them.

Posted by: @pye-man

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@arc-de-tripler

Welcome! I am not a telly man but I had many friends in the trade through my ham radio activities which date from the mid 1960s. Sadly, they were disappearing at a great rate of knots in the 1990s (and also from the hobby) and I have lost touch with most of them.

Thanks for the welcome Nick.

Yes, I think, for various reasons, the mid to late 90’s saw many family run and independent TV shops close their shutters for the last time.

Dwindling rentals, fewer people having equipment repaired and the likes of Aldi, like the one opposite our shop, selling TV’s at rock bottom prices, spelt the death knell.

We lasted until 2002, when our boss Tony decided to sell up and retire… he’d been there since 1958 and had seen many changes over the years, not all for the better! 🙁