Numbered Diamond Stickers On Radio

[Trickyvee]

Re: Numbered Diamond Stickers On Radio

Wow that’s given me a blast from the past! One mention of diamond stickers and the front of our old radio zoomed into view with its array of diamond number stickers arranged haphazardly across the dial. I’ve not though of that for about 35 years!

[Arran]

Re: Numbered Diamond Stickers On Radio

Old Radio 4 frequencies 1960s to 22/11/1978

908 kHz MW London (Brookmans Park)
1088 kHz MW Midland (Droitwich)
692 kHz MW North (Moorside Edge)
1151 kHz MW North (Stagshaw)
1052 kHz MW West (Start Point)
1457 kHz MW West (Clevedon)
809 kHz MW Scottish (Burghead)
809 kHz MW Scottish (Westerglen)
881 kHz MW Welsh (Washford)
1340 kHz MW Northern Ireland (Lisnagarvey)

New Radio 4 frequencies after 23/11/1978

200 kHz LW National service (Droitwich, Burghead, and Westerglen) 23/11/1978 to 31/01/1988
227 kHz LW Allocated to Westerglen but never used
198 kHz LW National service (Droitwich, Burghead, and Westerglen) 01/02/1988 to today
603 kHz MW Newcastle upon Tyne
720 kHz MW London, Belfast, Derry
756 kHz MW Redruth
774 kHz MW Plymouth, Enniskillen
1449 kHz MW Aberdeen
1485 kHz MW Carlisle

Radio 4 replaced the Home Service on 30/09/1967 which was broadcast on MW as it provided regional news and programmes for each group of transmitters. In the 1970s it had become a national radio station so in 1978 swapped with Radio 2 for the LW frequency supplemented with low power MW transmissions in areas where reception of the LW transmission was difficult.

Some cheap imported radios could not receive LW so users lost the facility to receive Radio 4 unless they lived in an area where Radio 4 was available on MW.

LW is not officially used in Northern Ireland as it is difficult to receive from transmitters on the mainland. Radio 4 is broadcast in Northern Ireland on MW.

[Arran]

Re: Numbered Diamond Stickers On Radio

Something to take into account is that a much higher proportion of people listened to AM radio back in the 1970s than in more recent times and that radios with FM were semi-luxurious items. Most factory fitted car radios were AM only until the late 1980s.

[Richard1978]

Re: Numbered Diamond Stickers On Radio

Thanks for that, I remember one of my Aunts had a radio with some station names on the dial.

I'll have to see if my Dad still has his old radio around.

[Arran]

Re: Numbered Diamond Stickers On Radio

The change in the frequencies for LW and MW radio stations was the result of the Geneva Frequency Plan of 1975 which was enacted on 23 November 1978.

The Geneva Frequency Plan was required in order to reduce mutual interference between different LW and MW radio stations which had resulted from an increase in the number of radio stations broadcasting across Europe after the Copenhagen Frequency Plan of 1948 was enacted in 1950. A secondary advantage of the Geneva Frequency Plan is that all LW and MW radio stations in Europe are broadcast on frequencies that are an exact multiple of 9 kHz which simplifies the design of 'digital' phase lock loop tuners.

If you encounter a radio with the names of the stations on the tuning dial that was manufactured between 1950 and 1978 then the frequencies of the stations will be those from the Copenhagen Frequency Plan. Radios manufactured before 1967 do not have Radio 1, 2, 3, and 4 on the tuning dial. Most Japanese radios just had the frequency on the tuning dial and not the names of any radio stations.

The Geneva Frequency Plan did not alter the frequencies of local BBC radio stations or apply to FM radio broadcasts at VHF.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Frequency_Plan_of_1975

[Twocky61]

Re: Numbered Diamond Stickers On Radio

It would have been Thursdays. It was a tie-in with Radio 1 starting broadcasting in FM, & ran for a few years.

I remember me & my brother putting the stereo on & turning the TV's volume down when watching TOTP.

The good old days pre NICAM stereo TV's

[Richard1978]

Re: Numbered Diamond Stickers On Radio

Talking of Radio who remembers the simul-casts where radio & television were run together, so you could watch & hear Top of the Pops simultaneously on a Saturday evening? (if IRC)

It would have been Thursdays. It was a tie-in with Radio 1 starting broadcasting in FM, & ran for a few years.

I remember me & my brother putting the stereo on & turning the TV's volume down when watching TOTP.

[Twocky61]

Re: Numbered Diamond Stickers On Radio

Talking of Radio who remembers the simul-casts where radio & television were run together, so you could watch & hear Top of the Pops simultaneously on a Saturday evening? (if IRC)

[zabadak]

Re: Numbered Diamond Stickers On Radio

I think they were posted to every household or am I crazy?

[Richard1978]

Re: Numbered Diamond Stickers On Radio

Good to hear I am not the only one

I never used the stick-on numbers that came with VHS tapes for their intended purpose, Like you Richard, I used them to identify radio stations; mainly Luxembourg & the pirates including Caroline & Veronica & later Atlantic 252 which was the only music station on Long Wave

They were very useful to find some stations, Radio 1 in FM was a little weak were I lived so it took some fine tuning to get it clear in stereo.

[Twocky61]

Re: Numbered Diamond Stickers On Radio

Even before knowing this I used some spare stick on numbers from a blank tape to mark them on my radio.

Good to hear I am not the only one

I never used the stick-on numbers that came with VHS tapes for their intended purpose, Like you Richard, I used them to identify radio stations; mainly Luxembourg & the pirates including Caroline & Veronica & later Atlantic 252 which was the only music station on Long Wave

[Richard1978]

Re: Numbered Diamond Stickers On Radio

The sticker sets also came with a big sticker will all the frequencies on, I remember one of my friends had aa old stereo with one of them stuck onto it.

[DemonEyeX]

Re: Numbered Diamond Stickers On Radio

Wow, I was always slightly obsessed with those little stickers when I was young.
I haven't thought about those for years, i'm going to try & track some down.

[sixtyten]

Re: Numbered Diamond Stickers On Radio

[sixtyten]

Re: Numbered Diamond Stickers On Radio

Yes, I remember having to put them on my portable when Radio 1 moved frequency.
i could be wrong but did they come with the Radio Times perhaps?