What would a radiogramme have cost in the 1950's??

[johnfm]

1950's radiogramme geeks - your thread is here!

Obscure request, I know.

However, I need to know what a radigramme may have cost in the early 50s, and how it would have been paid for by HP in those days?

I guess there would have been some sort of 30% down and tuppence a week system - or would they have been rented from Granada Rentals or Comet or similar?

Cheers

[215cu]

I think they were close to a month's wages.

HP terms were usually 33% deposit and then the balance over 12 months.

A radio license was £1.

Edited by 215cu on Thursday 2nd October 17:23

[V8S]

Is this where a busty broad would turn up at your pre-fab and sing Doris Day numbers to you whilst dressed as a wireless, pointing her valves at you in a suggestive way?

[johnfm]

Keep the info coming 1950's buffs!

[Simpo Two]

Home, Light and Third

[tempus]

1950,HMV,£103 14s 6d inc tax,just a wild guess honest.Tempus

[Puff Puff]

Google Images search for '1950s radiogram advert' produced this:

A console receiver for armchair listening: £21 13 4
A table radiogram of unusually attractive appearance: £37 9 7
A fully automatic console radiogram: £52 9 5

[MilnerR]

Puff Puff said:

Google Images search for '1950s radiogram advert' produced this:

A console receiver for armchair listening: £21 13 4
A table radiogram of unusually attractive appearance: £37 9 7
A fully automatic console radiogram: £52 9 5

What was the average wage back then, 5-10 quid a week?

[Eric Mc]

£10 a week would have been a pretty good wage. Of course, the 50s spans ten years and what was typical for 1950 would be quite different for 1959.

I alwways thought that they heyday of the radiogramme was the early 1970s.

[johnfm]

Ph - what a network!

Cheers all.

[Puff Puff]

MilnerR said:

Puff Puff said:

Google Images search for '1950s radiogram advert' produced this:

A console receiver for armchair listening: £21 13 4
A table radiogram of unusually attractive appearance: £37 9 7
A fully automatic console radiogram: £52 9 5

What was the average wage back then, 5-10 quid a week?

Yup, about £8 I would guess.

[Dr Jekyll]

£10 in the mid fifties was equivalent to nearly £200 today in terms of spending power. Wages have gone up faster so the equivalent wage today to £10 a week then would be about £500 a week now.

[MikeyT]

Bloke who used to work on my car years ago worked as a welder at some Petro-chemcicals plant in South Wales in the late 50s and took home over £50 a week (so he said) ...

My mum ad ada had a radiogramme ... with a lid, grea it was all the radio stuff at one end and the turntable at the other.

Might have been a Bush!

[DWP]

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/result...


Try this web site for money conversion from the past to present. I started work in 1962 for 49/11 a week. Or £2.9 shillings 11 pence. The dream wage then, in the West Midlands was £1000 a year, or just under £20 a week.

[E31Shrew]

Interesting question. An old lady, 92 , recently bought a 42" plasma from us [ probably for watching 'special' interest dvd's] and gave me a TV, she had bought in 1953 for the Coronation.
She told me it had cost 110 guineas which at that time would've bought her a 2 bedroom terrace house in Chester. I appreciate that the similarity contains other factors, but in my reckoning thats about £160,000!
Pricey telly!

[Puff Puff]

In 1955 the petrol price in the UK was 54d a gallon (approx 6p a litre)
and the average UK weekly wage was £6 4s 10d (approx £1.50p).

[MrV]

E31Shrew said:

Interesting question. An old lady, 92 , recently bought a 42" plasma from us [ probably for watching 'special' interest dvd's] and gave me a TV, she had bought in 1953 for the Coronation.
She told me it had cost 110 guineas which at that time would've bought her a 2 bedroom terrace house in Chester. I appreciate that the similarity contains other factors, but in my reckoning thats about £160,000!
Pricey telly!

I was going to chime in with the price of TV's back in the 50's compared to now but you beat me to it

[johnfm]

Thanks for all the replies. Found out my wife's granny bought a tv in 1951 - it cost her £47 back then - and her other half was a bus drive on £10 a week. So, a month's wages (before tax!) for a tv!!

[Freddie von Rost]

Puff Puff said:

In 1955 the petrol price in the UK was 54d a gallon (approx 6p a litre)
and the average UK weekly wage was £6 4s 10d (approx £1.50p).

Some mistake/s here methinks.

[E31Shrew]

johnfm said:

Thanks for all the replies. Found out my wife's granny bought a tv in 1951 - it cost her £47 back then - and her other half was a bus drive on £10 a week. So, a month's wages (before tax!) for a tv!!

I suppose that when you consider a plasma was £4000.00 6 years ago its not too over the top!

Both were pretty new technology in their day.