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Old 19th May 2019, 1:41 pm   #14
paulsherwin
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Default Re: Do you ever gain the impression...

Quote:
Originally Posted by joebog1 View Post
I DID buy a very expensive German radio when I was about 18.
Yep, had FM too, but Australia didnt!!!. From memory was some silly frequency too. Like 70 megs to 95 megs or something.
That sounds like a USSR or Eastern European radio rather than a normal West German export set, as they used a different band for FM in the Soviet bloc (OIRT). You do get all sorts of odd radios turning up in Australia because of migration.

Aus adopted FM very late - 1976 I think. As far as I know, no Australian valve FM radios were ever made. It's one of the reasons that Australian consumer electronics of the 50s and 60s is a bit idiosyncratic. I believe rural Australians opposed the rolling out of FM as they couldn't see any benefit given the distances involved.

The big German manufacturers made a deliberate strategic decision to concentrate on the luxury export market as they were rebuilding the economy in the 50s, partly because the tariffs in place at the time had less impact on that sector.
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