TV & Radio Rental Companies

[G8vsjDave]

Visionhire - That name brings back memories. Way back in the seventies, I used to service the Oscilloscopes used by Visionhire field engineers. Hameg 207 IIRC. The fault was usually duff FETs at the input to the 'Y' amplifier. Probably due to getting the 'scope' probe too close to the line output transformer.

Dave

[Heatercathodeshort]

Ha! Ha! David. I well remember the 'Gay Cavalier' better known to us as the Invicta 7069. There were several presentations of this model but all the showrooms had a huge cardboard cutout of the G.C. with a feathered hat and sword leaning forward with the 7069 [Pye 11U] in front.

It was run by individuals that had no experience of managing a TV rental business. Theft was rife and they contributed to the failure of Pye months after the company collapsed.

Financiers saw TV rental business as a very profitable business and were attracted to it but of course it needed huge investment to make it successful.

Staff, receivers, service depts, vans, service guys, showrooms, insurance are just a few costly necessities. Gibbards were one of very many that dangled their feet in the water and got drowned. John.

[crackle]

Has anyone mentioned Stanwood Radio yet. https://www.stanwoodradio.co.uk/
I worked there for a couple of summer jobs.

Stones was another that I remember.

Mike

[Colourstar]

Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort

Ha! Ha! David. I well remember the 'Gay Cavalier' better known to us as the Invicta 7069. There were several presentations of this model but all the showrooms had a huge cardboard cutout of the G.C. with a feathered hat and sword leaning forward with the 7069 [Pye 11U] in front. John.

Many moons ago I owned an unusual Pye 11U set with no branding on it at all, not even on the back cover. It had a distinctive presentation with a very dark hi-gloss cabinet and a shiny 'houndstooth' pattern laminate tube surround. It was pulled from the remains of the derelict Hunslet Radio shop in Leeds.

Was I unwittingly visited by the 'Gay Cavalier' a.k.a. The Masked Invicta?

Steve

[Welsh Anorak]

Where would we have been, as sellers of reconditioned TVs, without the rental companies? I'm sure many of us became experts in sifting through 'untested' or 'off the pile' sets, learning which ones had been subjected to the tube bopper and what an F251 meant! If you stuck to an older model or an obscure make then there were bargains to be had as the big boys often took over the smaller companies and immediately disposed of all the unusual (to them) TVs.
I was taught very early on that a light covering of dust inside was a good thing as it probably had just been a genuine changeover.
Amazing to think now just how many TVs were rented in those days.

[Heatercathodeshort]

Originally Posted by Colourstar

Many moons ago I owned an unusual Pye 11U set with no branding on it at all, not even on the back cover. It had a distinctive presentation with a very dark hi-gloss cabinet and a shiny 'houndstooth' pattern laminate tube surround. It was pulled from the remains of the derelict Hunslet Radio shop in Leeds.Was I unwittingly visited by the 'Gay Cavalier' a.k.a. The Masked Invicta? Steve

Yes I think you were. Those two were definitely ex Gibbard rentals. they did a version with odd gold circles on the tube surround not even popular in the swinging sixties! John.

[vinrads]

Ha! Bennett's , I worked for a small company in Clay Cross called Baskills radio/tv started work in 1964, in later years Mr B , that is what we used to call him ,sold us to a southern firm called Bennett's , it all went down hill from then on . Mick.

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by Welsh Anorak

Where would we have been, as sellers of reconditioned TVs, without the rental companies? I'm sure many of us became experts in sifting through 'untested' or 'off the pile' sets, learning which ones had been subjected to the tube bopper and what an F251 meant! If you stuck to an older model or an obscure make then there were bargains to be had as the big boys often took over the smaller companies and immediately disposed of all the unusual (to them) TVs.
I was taught very early on that a light covering of dust inside was a good thing as it probably had just been a genuine changeover.
Amazing to think now just how many TVs were rented in those days.

There have been a few threads on how people got into the trade by reconditioning old sets, sometimes starting as a hobby and going from there.

When sets started so have modular boards it was a trick of rental companies to put a set of dud ones in a set with a flat tube & polish up the case so it looked better than it was.

Some companies seemed to like reconditioning the more reliable older sets when supplies of new ones ran out. Radio Rentals did this with their Thorn 1500s when they withdrew their early 1600s.

Often these would be rented out at a lower rate, but there seems to have been a few companies who were a bit cheeky & put an older chassis into a newer looking cabinet and charged the same fee as a new set! It seemed to be popular with dual standards when they were converted to 625 line only. I guess this was easier if the same model was available as a single standard.

We have covered the later Tristar a few times, at least they were honest about them being reconditioned Ferguson TXs. I've heard that Radio Rentals repainted the cabinets of their TXs in brighter colours when reconditioning to make them look newer.

[Mike Phelan]

British Relay and Focus - brings back memories!

I worked for BR for quite a few years, starting as a field engineer, later as a supervisor.
Each field engineer covered a particular area with Manchester and its surrounds, going as far out as Alderley Edge, Wigan and Greenfield!
You had to service every call in the day on your area - those who weren't very good could end up with 30 calls in a day!

Later I moved to Focus, which later was bought by Barclays Bank and eventually Thorn who merged with Radio Rentals and Multibroadcast.
I later switched (!) to video recorders - VHS and all the other ones as well. I ended up teaching staff about these and repairing the ones that nobody else could.

By a strange quirk I ended up developing software - before DOS - and was in the office in Manchester opposite Granada Studios.

All gone now.

[Welsh Anorak]

I imagine most small TV shops had a few rentals out as well. In the Eighties we bought around 20 Doric (Rediffusion Mk4) TVs and rented them out to customers we could trust. We made quite a profit for little outlay, especially as they were a reliable TV.
When i started out I innocently rented out a few TVs to a rough area of town. Needless to say, I only saw a couple of months' rental before the excuses came. Luckily the TVs were old, G8s and Pyes that had only cost a few pounds. Eventually I gave up trying and abandoned them.

[G6Tanuki]

Yes I reckon that there were loads of TVs rented out by the smaller TV-shops, particularly those in rural areas where a trip to Radio Rentals or Granada meant a 40-mile round-trip: much easier for Mrs. Jones to pop into the local independent shop to pay her ten-and-sixpence rental.

I wonder - did many of the 'big' rental companies do the 'slot-meter' TVs where you put a florin in the slot and got an evening's viewing? I remember these were popular in places like holiday cottages/caravans/B&Bs - invariably associated with a slotmeter for the electricity - so you had to keep money to-hand in order to avoid missing the last few minutes of Match of the Day when the meter ran out.

[Welsh Anorak]

Yes - they were popular, and did help with those who had difficulty paying. There were a lot, judging by the amount of ex-rentals we bought with the tell-tale 'bullet holes' in the side and the ceramic mains connector inside the TV. I became quite good at disguising the holes so the customer didn't see the "little used part exchange TV fom a local vicar" they'd bought was anything but!
Of course they became stigmatised, so the rental companies used to upgrade them with a smart digital clock that sat on the top which had a concealed coin mechanism.

[ms660]

I think most of hard core Manchester had slots back in the day....Often filled with washers and backing box knockouts....Happy days.

Lawrence.

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

Yes I reckon that there were loads of TVs rented out by the smaller TV-shops, particularly those in rural areas where a trip to Radio Rentals or Granada meant a 40-mile round-trip: much easier for Mrs. Jones to pop into the local independent shop to pay her ten-and-sixpence rental.

I wonder - did many of the 'big' rental companies do the 'slot-meter' TVs where you put a florin in the slot and got an evening's viewing? I remember these were popular in places like holiday cottages/caravans/B&Bs - invariably associated with a slotmeter for the electricity - so you had to keep money to-hand in order to avoid missing the last few minutes of Match of the Day when the meter ran out.

At least one member here had a shop in a rural area renting out reconditioned sets & had a lot of business as no-one else was doing it in the same area.

It helped that at the time the urban chains were switching to colour and single standard monochrome sets so there were a lot of decent dual standards on the market.

[TonyDuell]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

I wonder - did many of the 'big' rental companies do the 'slot-meter' TVs where you put a florin in the slot and got an evening's viewing? I remember these were popular in places like holiday cottages/caravans/B&Bs - invariably associated with a slotmeter for the electricity - so you had to keep money to-hand in order to avoid missing the last few minutes of Match of the Day when the meter ran out.

I have one of those slot meters somewhere, bought from Proops (I think) over 40 years ago). An electromechanical thing that is very simple electrically (just a microswitch to cut the power to the TV and the timer motor when the time has run out and a little synchonous motor) and quite complicated mechanically (I remember a couple of differential gears in there). I must dig it out.

It has a 3 core cable, live mains in, live mains to set , neutral, and was of course connected inside the TV after the on/off switch (so it only registered time when the set was on).

But one thing puzzled me (at the time I got it and still...) My grandmother rented a TV (although not with a slot meter) and there was nothing to prevent the customer from removing the back Not even paint or stickers over the screws. So what was to stop somebody who rented a TV with a slot meter from bypassing it (either by linking the 2 live wires or by disconnecting the neutral wire to the timer, preventing the motor from running)?

[Bobdger]

But one thing puzzled me (at the time I got it and still...) My grandmother rented a TV (although not with a slot meter) and there was nothing to prevent the customer from removing the back Not even paint or stickers over the screws. So what was to stop somebody who rented a TV with a slot meter from bypassing it (either by linking the 2 live wires or by disconnecting the neutral wire to the timer, preventing the motor from running)?

The customer was still being charged rental. If their rental was £25 every 4 weeks, when I came round to collect my rental I would empty the slot meter in front of the customer, take what was due including any arrears from the month before. If there was £60 in the meter the customer then got all the surplus cash back. Some of my customers had there meters set as low 2 hours for a £1. Happy days.
Bob

[Welsh Anorak]

Remember the slot meter was really just a sort of piggy bank with the added incentive of TV! I'm sure many owners of furnished accomodation for rent happily set the meter to minimum and pocketed the difference...

[TonyDuell]

Ah, that makes sense. I'd assumed it was more like a pre-payment gas or electricity meter. Clearly not.

[G6ONEDave]

There was Barker & Wigfalls and probably Miller Brothers that did rentals in the Doncaster area, along with the usual names previously mentioned. I used to purchase ex rentals for resale and I found the most reliable were the Toshiba blackstripe and Hitachi models. Also used to get a lot of the Bush 823 chassis. Once I got a phone call out of the blue from Vallances, asking if I would like a load of ex rentals for free. The only condition was that I collect them right away. There were about 26 of them, I asked why they chose me for the offer and was told that they simply opened the Yellow Pages and used a pin!, also I was the first who could move the sets straight away it took me 3 trips to collect them with my estate car.

[Pilot Mariner]

Doesn't anyone know the model of the Radio Rentals ? TV mentioned in this post, been searching for years.

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=61587