Dial a Disc anyone?

[FABphones]

Recently here on CRPF we discussed tapping hook switches to dial out instead of using the dial. As kids we would be a bit naughty and tap to dial out on a phone when a lock was placed on the dial.

Dial a Disc was very popular. A chart hit of the week would be played and the caller joined the track at whatever point it was at when playing. If we liked the song we would listen to the tune, wait for the track to start over and listen some more.

This prompted me to look up exactly what we were connecting to, and here it is. Our fondly remembered GPO high tech machine - 'Dial a Disc'.

 

[FABphones]

Close up of a Dial-A-Disc rack 'DADRACk' 1967.


(Internet photo, Post Office Telecoms)

[Owain]

Remember listening to Showaddywaddy on that, and then running upstairs excitedly to see if "the extension" worked the same.

We got the extension taken out a few weeks later to save the rental cost.

[FABphones]

Stumbled across this image on the Internet.

It appears some removed phone booths in the US were repurposed as disc listening booths in record stores.

In-house dial a disc.

[HarrySmith]

Record stores? I think they went away a while ago. Used to be everywhere, kind of like pay phones 

[FABphones]

...and here is an example of what you would have heard if you rang Dial a Disc (with GPO recorded announcement and disc title/artiste):

 

[Kellogg Kitt]

Was the this provided as a free public service or did the record companies pay the GPO for the promotion?  Was there any cost to the caller?

[MMikeJBenN27]

A tiny handful are still left, for the benefits of old farts like me who refuse to embrace CDs.

Mike

[FABphones]

Was the this provided as a free public service or did the record companies pay the GPO for the promotion?  Was there any cost to the caller?

Dial-a-Disc was a music service run by the General Post Office (GPO) from 1966 to 1991. Dialling 16 (or 160) connected the caller to a recorded track of one the latest chart records (mono, played down the phone line).

Payments to PRS (Performing Rights Society) would likely have been applicable.

The service ran during the 'cheap rate' hours from 6pm in the evening to 6am the following morning every weekday, and all day on Sundays. Initially only the top 7 records in the charts were played. A new chart record was played every day.

After dialling the telephone number a snippet of the song could be heard prior to hearing the 'pips' (the tone indicating it was time to insert coins to pay for the call). Us kids would listen carefully and if we didn't like the song, hang up.

Telephone call charges by year screenshot attached (from Internet).