Radio Licence (India) from the 60s and 70s...Pics attached.. Believe it or not!

Subcenter2009

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Dear friends,
I discovered this old licence of my late grandfather's Bush radiogram while cleaning the cupboard.
This Bush radiogram was bought from the previous owners who were Britishers.
The Bush set was fully comprised of vacuum tubes and not transistors. ICs were not available at the time (1960s and 1970s).
This set came with assembled 2 way Grundig 3 speaker towers and sounded awesome.
Plus, it had an automatic turntable that could load many records at a time.
This turntable had a rotary needle selector.
It had a world time display that showed the time anywhere in the world.
Plus, a tuned/not tuned indicator.
Plus it had Shortwave 4 or 5 or 6.. I dont remember exactly.
Sadly, the Radiogram was disposed of without knowing its real value at the time.
At least, the Licence survives.:clapping:
Yours,
Subcenter2009
 

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With me both the radio and license survives.. And the license book is of the same blue colour..

Should have posted the clicks of the fee receipt, ie, the stamps ..
 
Dear friends,
Especially Mr. Simon,
Here are the pics of the seals and the stamps that you wanted to see...
Hope they are enjoyable...:rolleyes:
I appeal to fellow forum members to upload your Licence books if you still retain them and have preserved them and would like to immortalize the fragile licence books on this forum.
Yours,
Subcenter2009
 

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Initially the TV Sets were also licensed and this was continuing till the late 1980s.
 
Not only did radios have licenses, but so did bicycles and even dogs!
Right George. It was a tough life back in the 70's!

You are merrily peddling away your bicycle and there is that municipal guy hiding around a blind corner ready to pounce on you to check the license.

You had idiots as neighbour who would tip the ward counsellor that your dog didnt have a token

You answered the door unsuspectingly and there you have the local post office guy to check your radio license.

You tried to find solace in Old Monk (with water in a steel tumbler) but your local vice dealer would like to make money on the side by finding faults in your permit.

You gave up. Oh well let us make some tea. Damn...even to buy Tiger Tea and sugar you needed a ration card.

The license permit days. Sounds so un-cool. But given a chance I wont blink once to go back way then:cool:
 
I suppose this is left over from colonial days. In my UK childhood (1950s) radios had a small disc indicating that the licence fee had been paid, but the household had to buy a licence, annually, to use its radios. Or dogs, but they didn't have a disc attached ;)

Initially the TV Sets were also licensed and this was continuing till the late 1980s.

Of course, in UK the TV licence still exits. It is what funds the BBC. It costs a substantial amount of money too, but it gets you ad-free TV (really ad-free, not like pay-to-view-but-you-still-get-ads) and supposedly impartial news and reporting.
 
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i remember in the 80s when our National Ecko radio was beyond repair it had to be condemned through due process. We had to write an application to post office(I think) and an inspector visited to check the set and recommend cancellation of the license. Since he did not demand anything additional :D for that we all felt relieved. Now we could peacefully dispose it and not bother about license fees. It was not some top of the line model but a basic set with a plasic body
 
:eek: That is amazing!

Now I really know what people mean when they tell me that the Brits invented the bureaucracy but India took it to undreamed-of heights!
 
70's License raj : Indian entertainment (DTH) market is approx. 9000 crores. With monthly Charges of approx. Rs. 300, you get to listen/watch to latest songs, music. movies in HD. What would you prefer ? A 10 Rs. licence fee to listen to Rafi, Lata or Bhimsen Joshi or This. Didn't knew one has to have a bicycle license in those days. That was Then, this is Now.

World has turned upside down. Will unbridled Capitalism make socialism look good ?
Regards.
 
nzltlh.jpg

Our Philips valve radio with various licenses. Credit for preserving this goes to my mom.

Bad news is a year back it was working but when I turned it on with two small bursts smoke came out. So will need repair. The glass plate has also developed bubbles, so am looking for that too. Will pay good money if anyone has same model. Need only glass plate.
Regards.
 
Later on Philips brought similar looking sets but with solid state circuits. My uncle had one and it was my envy as i had a simple basic valve radio with not so good sound quality which had to get warmed up before some sound came out.
 
I have one of these old radio licenses too (may be from the 70s) and I remember the last time I saw it on the back of it it was written as a piece of note that the paper used for stamps and the book was made from imported paper and costs foreign exchange to the Government and hence should be sensibly used :)
 
Oh yeah I've seen the same book that was there for our old Murphy radio. Both are lying somewhere at my mom's place.

Initially the TV Sets were also licensed and this was continuing till the late 1980s.

Surprising! We had (still have) Dyanora T481 B&W TV since 78 but don't remember seeing any licence book!
 
:eek: That is amazing!

Now I really know what people mean when they tell me that the Brits invented the bureaucracy but India took it to undreamed-of heights!
We were pretty efficient too. At least in the small town where we live.

When you bought a new radio the seller will make the licence book. Getting the book endorsed from the PO was the job of the Radio shop who would manage the chai pani and top up the first years stamp. It was part of the deal, just like today when you buy an automobile your dealer does the usual shenanigans to get the RC book.

I don't recall if the licence was valid pan India. But I am sure there were SOP's to transfer the licence to another city. If there wasn't any, and one could simply take move licence to another city without a bother, my pride on India bureaucracy lays shattered.

Speaking of that, our Post Offices literally were the centre of universe for us. They were always crowded and demonstrated the supreme authority our babudom wielded. We had to make weekly visits to the local PO to get the supplies of post cards, inlands, make or receive MO and use that super high tech facility called Telegram. Today I don't even know the location of my local PO.

Memories ;)
 
Bad news is a year back it was working but when I turned it on with two small bursts smoke came out. So will need repair. The glass plate has also developed bubbles, so am looking for that too. Will pay good money if anyone has same model. Need only glass plate.
Regards.

Dear Sir,

This the India Philips Prestige. There were two models
- 15RB505 released in 1969
- 15RB525 released in 1972. Your's seem to be the '72 model.

I think the power condenser i your radio has gone bust. The original is 47uf+47uf dual section can TESLA make. It is very easy to install a replacement.

And don't bother about the glass dial. Any replacement dial you find will have those blisters and wiggly lines. This is a problem in all the Philips radio from that era. Strange as the earlier Philips radios still have perfect imprints.

That apart this radio is virtually indestructible and the audio is very sweet. I have one of these and it is on for almost 5 hours every day. It has watered down features such as lack of band spread but the performance is still top notch. My regular listening is Vividh Bharti on 30M from Bangalore, AIR National Channel and the AIR Urdu service.
 
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