Dial-A-Disc

[buffaloskinner]

In 1966 the Post Office introduced ‘Dial-A-Disc’ which became immensely popular with teenagers. Dialling ‘16’ allowed you listen to a different pop song each day. After being on trial in Leeds it was rolled out across the country.

In the 60s just 25% of the UK population had a telephone, which meant most people used public call boxes. In 1967 a local call cost 2d for 6 minutes and 6d for 12 minutes.

Personally I do not remember the Dail-A-Disc but remember the booths in Valances on the Headrow for listening to the latest record releases.

[TABBYCAT]

I do remember this but dialling 160 not 16. I also recall that if you shouted "can you here me " loud and long enough it was possible for other users of the service to hear you and respond accordingly, although how the mechanics of this worked is beyond me.

[jgl1954]

I remember dialling 16 to listen to some 60's pop group from a telephone box. The sound quality was not fantastic but it seemed so modern at the time.It also seemed a bit rebellious since my father wouldn't let us listen to pop music at home!

[tilly]

Welcome to Secret Leeds jgl1954 look forward to your input on the site.

[Croggy1]

I remember dialling and listening to the not very good quality songs on my parents' green telephone. I wouldn't have been able to recall the number though.

[sparky415]

I'd never heard of this before...very interesting!

[volvojack]

I don't think many people use Public Telephones in the Red Box, assuming you can find one. not only because of the advent of mobile phones but the fact that from the 70s onwards most people had a phone installed at home, plus if the phone box was not vandalised it smelled strongly of all sorts of things. During my working life I used to travel from Leeds on a Tuesday evening and stay at the Albion pub beside Tewkesbury Market (Gloucester) this was perfect for me as I worked the market next door on a Wednesday.
The Landlord was a Yorkshire lad Chris Hawkins and he and his family used to live in the Gatehouse at Castle Howard. he was a really nice lad, mad about Yorkshire cricket. I digress.. one night a likely lad came in flogging what I would describe as about the size of a mobile phone but with a round flat mouthpiece on the other side were numbers like a calculator. he said that you pressed the flat round bit to the mouthpiece of a public phone, dialled your number and it connected you. They were £5 each so took one, went across the road to a phone box, dialled the Wife in Leeds and got straight through, Brilliant went back in and meanwhile Chris had also tried one on his public phone at the end of the bar with the same result, he had one too. I used mine a few times and after a while found it no longer got me through. After the Year had ended I was staying at the Pub and Chris said he had called his daughter at midnight New Years Eve, twin girls who were English teachers in Tokyo. he said he a had stayed on for nearly two hours getting all the news etc. Sometime later on my usual Tuesday night drop in I noticed he seemed out of sorts. Having a drink after time I enquired concerning his mood. He said " I have just got my ~~#######ing Bill from B.T. and its nearly £200 (quite a tidy sum in the 80s) I t seemed that though it was a public phone on the bar, the Bill was charged to the Pub.
I was glad I was not the one who had sold him it to him'
.

[liits]

New in Hampstead this week.....
Maybe this is the way forward for phone boxes.

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BT's call box network was diluted when other operators [starting with Mercury] gained the Telecommunications Operators Code and this is when they diversified into renting their boxes out by adding advertising. In turn, this market was muscled into by the like of InSite Media, an advertising company who "gained the code" and plotted their boxes all over London. Clever stuff as their boxes are vandal proof and require almost no work other than four large bolts to fix them to the floor, it being a solar powered mobile phone masquerading as a call box.

[Leodian]

liits post about the use of telephone boxes reminded me of the proposal some while back to use phone boxes in City Square for snack foods. I've found this link to a report (dated October 30 2014) in the Yorkshire Evening Post website:- http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/n ... -1-6923003. I wonder what happened? I assume the idea was never carried out, unless I never saw them in use!

[liits]

proposal some while back to use phone boxes in City Square for snack foods. ....... I wonder what happened? I assume the idea was never carried out, unless I never saw them in use!

Probably because a phone box isn't big enough to house the giant paella style of pan lately favoured by food stalls.

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