![]() The voice has those soothing "Family Favourite" tones that you expect to hear asking Bill Crozier what the weather is like in Cologne. In March 1981, CB jargon (and illegal CB!) was going great guns with enthusiasts in this country, not least truckers, and Sheila Tracy was their heroine. Being able to chat to people in your front room who weren't actually there with you was novel and exciting to many. One of the things many people forget - or simply don't know - about the '80s CB radio craze is that it wasn't until the 1980s that even 50% of the UK population had a land-line phone (no mobiles until 1985 - the first 'bricks'). Legalisation was now in the air, although this did not actually happen until 2 November 1981. In 1980 the number of breakers rose sharply. Nevethertheless, small numbers of people had been flirting with it here since the 1960s, and a couple of films (remember Convoy?!) and hit records (remember Convoy the song?!) created a more general interest in CB jargon (and truckers!) in the late 1970s.Īround 1979 a very small number of people were using illegally imported CB radios in this country. In 1980, she began a slot for truckers' messages and requests and was soon riding the crest of the early '80s CB radio wave.Īs mentioned elsewhere in this post, CB was up-and-running in the USA in the 1950s, but in England it was illegal. Remember good old Sheila Tracy on BBC Radio Two's You and The Night and The Music? Sheila provided music and chat for "all you night owls out there", and was a lovely presence on night time radio. Their operators risk a £400 fine or six months in jail.Ĭritics object to CB because it operates on a frequency which could lead to interference with emergency services and aircraft.įood for thought for William Whitelaw from MP Clement Freud in July 1980. They have peculiar call signs like Snowman, woodpecker - and Rubber Duck, made famous by the hit record and film "Convoy".ĬB radio fans who have been campaigning in Britain for five years claim that between 30,000 and 70,000 sets are already on the air here. Using their own slang, drivers can warn that Smokey Bear (the police) has got black ice (a radar trap) ahead. Lorries and many private cars are fitted with special transceivers so that their drivers can chat over the air. He also wants to sound out public opinion before taking a final decision.ĬB radio is already widely used in the United States and on the Continent. Mr Whitelaw made it plain to MPs that although the Government backs CB radio in principle, technical problems will have to be overcome. If plans go ahead, motorists and lorry drivers using call signs like Rubber Duck could be chatting on an approved system called Open Channel some time next year. Home Secretary William Whitelaw announced that the Government is in favour of introducing a legal two-way radio system. Good news for Rubber Duck and his two-way chatsīritain's outlawed Citizens' Band radio fans got a welcome message last night. The Daily Mirror article brought hopeful news: Illegal CB usage had been known in a very small way here since the mid-1960s according to information in one of my early 1980s CB magazines, but 1980 saw the number of breakers swell enormously. In 1980, CB radio, invented by American Al Gross in the 1940s and in use in the USA since the 1950s, was illegal in England. Cockney model and actress Lorraine Chase is also on the front page as she had just begun work on "The Other 'Arf", a new sitcom. Legal Citizens Band radio? The "Daily Mirror".
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