Muppets in the main event and a bonus feature at the end. You spoil us! :)

In 1963, when I was 15 years old, I left school and worked in the building industry. I helped to build a number of Laundromat self-service laundries in London which used blue Westinghouse washing machines. One of the shops was in Roman Road in Bow, an area of the East end of London. This shop used one of these Rediffusion machines for background music and I remember being amazed by how the tape actually moved. The machine in your great video was EXACTLY as I remember it, especially the colour. Thanks for bringing back some great memories.

BBC should hire you to do some documentaries on this sort of stuff. It could be a geeky and boring topic, but you make it really interesting.

A few things: *Sharing the audio* Someone somewhere owns the rights to these recordings. I don’t know who that is - but I can guarantee that it isn’t me. *The date on the tag on the machine* i) We don’t know if it’s from manufacture or a subsequent inspection ii) We can’t read the last scribbled digit - it _might_ be a 1 a 5 or a 6 iii) It is no help in determining whether the TP1 first came out in 1957 - which was the date we were looking to corroborate. _The tag is irrelevant_ *Connectors* Thanks to Paolo the connectors on the back have been identified as "Geloso" 3-pin connectors. *Oh just one more thing - whenever I pin a comment they'll always be a load of people who post unrelated comments under it in an attempt to get these comments to the top - don't do this, it's a weak move and it creates a stupidly long comment thread that everyone finds annoying to expand. If you have a comment - post it as a comment, not a reply. Everyone will appreciate it.*

It always amazes me how he has an adapter for seemingly every device imaginable

Honestly, thank you for putting puppets in the middle. I am being serious.

I swear, every time I think Mat's found the last of the dozens of obscure audio formats, he finds another one. Not that I'm complaining - I'd love to see dozens more!

"It's Wednesday night; it's amateur Hammond organ recital night." Rimmer would love those Hammon Organ cartridges. :)

When I was about 11 years of age my uncle, who worked as an engineer for Redifusion in Birkenhead, used to invited me to his workshop on Saturday mornings while he was there on overtime. I was always interested in electronics and, as it happens, my uncle introduced me to the electronic organ which I started to learn to play. It's great to remenis on those times ( around 1967 ) when I used to have the use of one of these machines and I had quite a few of the "Hammond Organ" tapes which we used to spool onto normal tape spools and play them on a standard tape recorder. Mine was a Grundig TK5. I liked the Hammond organ tapes but I must acknowledge that they were a product of their time. Thanks for the interesting video Matt.

I absolutely love that 60's British catalog session music. Many great composers like Laurie Johnson wrote and conducted those sessions for quick cash, and many gems can be found. I certainly hope you can preserve and catalog these at some point.

"Mat, why aren't you leaving the lift?" "I'm just enjoying the background music"

In Russia we still have line-radio (one radio station by wire). In fct it already end of service few years ago, but it still work for free. It placed in kitchen, so in anytime you do your meals or eat and listen radio station. It didn't need a power, or something else, just every kitchen in old residents have special socket. Just put it to socket and listen - very usefull. But only one station/channel, so can't choose what to listen. But I very like that kind of radio, because all my childhood went with that silent talking radio. It like nostalgia :) Thank you for this video. I am very like to watch your wondeful youtube channel!

I had a good chuckle seeing that internal fan, it would do a much better job churning butter than cooling that motor.

My first job in 1973, maintaining & installing music/PA systems for Rediffusion/Reditune out of Southampton. After a year of that they moved me over to mending TVs (yes, you could do that in the old days children) but that wasn't half so much fun. These cart machines & their successors were still whirring away in factories and the like, driving their listeners mad with repetition. Thanks for the reminder Matt!

In Soviet Russia there also was radio 📻 by wire in every apartment, it was even mandatory because of Cold war and civil defense, this radio sockets was working till the 2005, maybe even work still in some old houses.

A decade ago I was walking through a Safeway grocery store in the USA and a delightful version of John Lennon's 'Imagine' came across their Muzak system and I could swear everyone in the massive store stopped for a few minutes and just listened to that song. It was incredible to watch. I wish I could find that version again it was so soft and lovely. Everyone in that store stopped their frantic shopping and just listened. It put the entire store to peace.

The Hammond Organ tapes are for Rimmer's 20th Century Telegraph Pole slideshow nights those are on Tuesdays. Wednesday is Morris Dancing night, get those feet up in the air and hear the clonk of wood on wood.

I remember when I was really young, we had a TV with sliding doors across the front to cover the screen when not in use. This was a Rediffusion rental TV, and the channel changer was a small box on the window sill with a rotating knob with Letters to denote the channels. I think it went from A to M or something, but back then, there were only four tv channels to choose from, BBC 1&2, Tyne Tees, and Yorkshire. And the channels used to close down around midnight with a picture of the queen set to the National Anthem. But the TV used to also play Radio, when there was nothing on worth watching, you could play the radio through it, which I used to think was really clever at the time. I always associated sound with a tv picture. So it was a bit of a novelty hearing sound from the tv, but with no picture. Getting back to the channel selector, that is probably where the term "turn it over" came from. As you had to turn the knob to change channels. Ours was on the window sill, and I remember my older brother annoying the life out of me by changing the channel when I was watching my favourite cartoons. But yes, Rediffusion made for a happy childhood. I think the rental was just over £1 a week, if my memory serves me correctly. But I also remember these sets used to malfunction quite often, and the repair man would have to be called. And sometimes, we would get a new tv set altogether, if the repair man couldn't fix it in the home. As a side note, you could tell which of your neighbours were posh and who owned their own tv, as they had antennas on the roof. Rediffusion was a cable service, so no antenna needed. And it was extremely popular, as a lot of people couldn't afford to buy a tv back then. A COLOUR tv used to cost the equivalent of 1 or 2 months salary for most people in those days. So Rediffusion was the only option for a lot of people. Ah, happy days......

I love how you find so many obscure pieces of media technology. You could probably open up a museum in the future with all your acquisitions.

That good old DIN speaker connector, long time no see. :)

In my teens, we had a rediffusion tv which had no tuner, but instead tv stations (and a few radio stations too) were selected on a separate box on the wall. The system was installed in council houses in Basildon ( and probably elsewhere also). Happy days!

Mobious strip like binding to record on both side of the tape!!! This is genius, whoever first used the idea...

10:04 It's always a joy to see heavy duty mechanisms - before everything got miniaturized and made out of plastic.

Thumb up for the puppets mid-way through and an obscure media that nobody else is interested in yet somehow you make interesting despite speaking in the way you do. An excellent winning formula that you must never, I repeat never, try to analyse or improve upon. Just be thankful that somehow you have hit upon a winning formula. It appears to be quite natural and yet it is also obviously part of something which requires a huge effort and not inconsiderable expense. I suppose that's quite a common theme for people who have fluke overnight success... Anyway, this is one of the best ones yet, I suppose, although I haven't watched it to the end yet. However you are doing it, I appreciate that you keep doing it. Just more of the same please, just a modest evolution of style that avoids self-parody and keep being guided by what YOU are interested in. That is what will make for a video worth watching.

It has to be really exciting to finally hear what's on those cartridges.

Rue de Birmingham... Makes my hometown sound fancy.

I feel like these complete tapes would make superb "radio stations" in the Fallout series of games.

I like the fact that he has used the background music trough the whole video. Nice video as always and I learned something. :)

I remember that music playing in People's Department Store in Kentville, Nova Scotia when I was a kid. I also remember there being a pet department with a monkey in a cage. This would have been in the early 1970's. I still find that music annoying today! Ha ha!

Jay Leno: Cars Linus Sebastian: Computers Techmoan: Background Music Systems

Arnold Rimmer would love the Hammond organ one.

I've learnt a lot since I've started watching you I just want to thank you you're the one that taught me 8 track tape didn't mean it only had 8 songs

Imagine being an early adopter, loading this up for the first time and hearing "CLUNK!" and thinking "THAT'S the sound of cutting edge tech."

06:37 - That *chulunk* sound though...

Always a good day when I'm early to a new Techmoan "retro and rare" upload! Well researched and highly informative as always mate. Thanks for doing what you do, helping to preserve the knowledge of these forgotten formats. Pretty amazing that this unit even had the paper test tag still attached! A rare beast indeed. I actually lived in Orpington as a young lad, I attended the local preschool and kindergarten before we migrated to Australia in 1984.

Clever video title. When I saw it, it made me think there was going to be some connection to Rediffusion TV in the UK, who was the London ITV license holder up to 1968. They joined with Associated British (later EMI) to form Thames Television, who then held the London ITV licence from 1968 to the end of 1992.

In the beginning of the video: "Reddifusion? That television company?" At the end "Whoa, just the tip of the iceberg"

It's so chunky and undefined, not meaning that it a bad way, just the way things were made back then. A wonderful time capsule of technology

I love it when you do these old machines. It's just cool to hear music that would otherwise be completely forgotten to history.

Thanks Mat. I learned a lot today. I love to see how things work and you explain it very well. The lift sketch was absolutely brilliant. The history of the company was very informative. A relative remembers having Rediffusion cable TV.

My house still has widened window sills that were installed to hold Radio Relay boxes which was another radio redistribution system.

11:40 Growing up in America in the 1960s & 1970s Hammond organ players were common at baseball games, malls, and department stores. For hotel bands from the 60s & 70s, I think of an electric jazz guitarist or an acoustic piano player.

I had one of these in the 80's with only one cart with broken tape. I never knew the tape was twisted to make it longer. So now I know why my tape was only 43 mins after I repaired it! LOL

Back in the 1960's and early 70's we had Rediffusion cable in our house, all BBC radio services plus all TV channels including London ITV (we lived in the Southern TV region but because it was cable you could get extra), we didn't have to pay for this service because we had the local Rediffusion telegraph pole in our garden! You had to have a switch box on the wall to change channels (search "rediffusion cable tv switch box"), being the youngest it was normally my job to change channels lol.

I love the Hammond organ, reminds me of a nice holiday as a kid :-)

"Have you heard the latest salon album mate?"

Love this video especially the bit when you say "Weird smelling seaside hotels" I live in Scarborough and I know a few of those hotels...One hotel I worked at had one of these, not like the one you have here, however, none of us knew what it was, it was painted blue and sat upon a shelf with the words...'Do not touch, only to be used by Hugh M' he was the hotel owners son and he died in 1980 which tells you just how long it had been up there. We all thought it was an old air conditioning unit.

Only this guy would by media for a machine he doesn't own. Always fun to watch this channel.

I was a Supermarket manager back in the 90s and we used this system ..the music is pretty bland and played at a certain rate to help customers move along..

Oh my gods you just plugged it in without recapping it this will result in the formation a black hole and the end of humanity ! Great video i Knew what rediffusion was but not how it started, great use of puppets also.

Years ago I was listening to one british internet radio and someone called into the program and the host went: "hello, you're on the wireless". Ever since then I have wondered the history of that word and why some call radio wireless. Finally I have learned the backround to it. Excellent :)

6:44 when that surf music started playing was I immediately smashed the thumbs-up button. Love the nostalgic aura of these things. It's like vaporwave, 60s UK style.

And here I thought I'd be able to sleep at a reasonable hour. Thanks for the video!

I guessed mid 50's, the case and switch gave it away for me, I bet the head and capstan would benefit from a degauss!

1990 The Red Lion hotel in Sacramento, we had one of these background music cart systems. It was integrated with and mixing board and amplifier PA system. Presumably not this system, but Fidelipack

I remember working at the Olive Garden many years ago, like 30 yrs ago. I would be in office and see the manager there grab what seemed like a gigantic 8 track and stick in in this big box with a door. Then you could here the Italian music playing in the front. Luckily the back kitchen had a separate setup so we listen to radio. I often wondered how the servers could tolerate listening to the same thing over and over and over. Even if the record length was all day you would get sick of it.

@Techmoan Mat, Love your channel mate! Been watching you for years. Your video's are always interesting, always quality! Never change! Loved the puppets bit, always do!

Well. I've never get bored with your videos. Always exciting to watch! BTW could you revisit an camera that use 75mm film? If you could then great to hear that!

I would honestly be very interested to see a full episode dedicated to this company's history

The mobius tape pulling from the center of the spool is so fantastically ingenious. It just goes to show people of the past were not stupid at all, they had to be increasingly creative to overcome greater limitations with simple solutions.

Amazing how many of these tape systems there are and how proprietary some are. Guessing it is all about control.

I'm a huge Hammond Organ and also background music fan - any chance of you uploading the music from those tapes to somewhere online like you did with one of the Cantata tapes?

So happy to hear Clacton being mentioned. Very informative. Thanks!

Built like a tank ... about 60 years later, you pop in a tape, and it plays music. Interesting video .. I had no knowledge of what these background mind-numbing music systems were.

Where do you have room to store all this stuff you review? Anyway, my first job was at a Taco Bell. They had a modern version of one of these tape players to play background music in the dining room. We only had one tape. I didn't know how long it was, but it was hours and hours of what sounded like classical opera. Not exactly what a then 18 year old, or your average Taco Bell customer wanted to hear, but Taco Bell decided this was the music customers wanted to hear, so me and the rest of the employees were also stuck listening to it. One day the tape broke. The manager either didn't bother, or didn't know how, to order a replacement tape, so that was the day the music died at Taco Bell. I didn't miss it.

I guessed 1957 during the intro, but my runtime guess was out by an order of magnitude.

Ohhhhh! It almost 4AM on the west coast of the US but I can’t let down techmoan.

Thanks again for a fun video, your enthusiasm shines through and makes for good viewing. Good choice for alternative closing music, and appreciate the "history lesson" tacked on the end.

Wow, 2 minutes after upload cool.

would you mind record the Hammond organ bands and upload somewhere?

Outstanding video as always! 👍🏽thanks for including the extra bit at the end, i imagine there is often footage & info that doesn’t make it into the final cut of the episode, but i certainly appreciate the extra effort to include that bit of history as a bonus! 😊

Come ye weary souls, into the Church of Flippin' 'eck. Techmoan blesses us bountifully. Service starts when you hear that Hammond organ music piped in from the 1960s

4:44, wait, there is a Rue di Birmingham.. in Belgium. How did this naming come about?

I always wondered how that infinite loop of magnetic tape could ever work without destroying the tape by friction. In fact, while the center tape is pulled away, to keep the size of the wheel constant, every layer of the rolled tape should decrease its radius. The same portion of tape will be in the center of the wheel before playing, in a circle with a small radius, and in the edge of the wheel after playing, with a larger radius. Differently from a normal cassette, every layer of the tape should constantly slide a little bit and create a friction between different layers.Why doesn't this happen? How could these tapes remain intact after just a few hours of playing, is there a trick? :-)

Thanks for including the extra history at the end; very interesting!

I worked for Muzak since 1980. I have collected a large number of different media machines and media. We kept buying the competition and inheriting their formats. Including Yesco Seaburg and AEI. I also had one the giant reel to reel players with several different music tapes. These were used for the SCA broadcast from radio stations.

A short video discussing how and where you store all this technology would be rather interesting I think. I can't imagine you sell it all, but where do you put all your one-off tech?

"This part of the video was cut to make it flow better" *Ad plays*

Thanks, great video as always. You manage to find the most obscure tech I had no idea about. Also the music for the outro was freaking excellent.

That puppet bit was flipping glorious. I've never heard of the readavision reditune untill today, thanks for this video.

This man somehow has gotten better looking with age. I don't get it.

1957? Damn, I was 1 year out. I guessed 1956

One of the best channels in youtube. I have watched all the videos like 5 times. I really enjoy the way everything is filmed and narrated. I would love to see more hi-fi equipment. Cheers!

thank you for taking the time to show the insides, always a treat.

I love that hammond organ music, it reminds me of a cinema i used to go, they would play that background music until the movie started, and then in the middle when they stopped for "intermission" when people went downstairs to buy more popcorn. Place doesn't exist anymore...

I always enjoy these background music systems. And I have a real big soft spot for the music to

I really enjoy the vintage media reviews, thanks for sharing

The island of Barbados had the oldest Rediffusion installation (1934) after the UK. It was a much loved service providing both BBC and local programs, at a time when there were no other local radio stations and most people could not afford SW radios. The service ended in 1997.

Huge grin on my face when the tape started playing :)

I always look forward to these tech videos. Excellent work as always. A true window into the pioneering efforts of yesteryear.

I had guessed it would be at least one hour. Time enough for a customer to finish a meal without hearing a repeat of the music. I have run into the more modern form of these as a streaming satellite service, such as XM radio, when installing network equipment in chain restaurants in the 90's and 2000's. Nice video and present very well. Thumbs up!

In a parallel universe, people go wild over Techmoan having a full dedicated scene during the main section of The Moans.

Thanks for the extra bit at the end, very informative!! Love your videos.

Class act brother, love ALL of your videos, and appreciate you keeping all of this stuff alive and well. Thank you.

Fabulous job as always. And puppets to boot. Marvelous to see this antique come to life - with some rather crude looking parts in it I might add.

That “clunk” when you inserted the cartridge. So satisfying!

These are some of my favorite videos with the BGM systems. They're so unusual compared to consumer hardware.

The outro music is fantastic and fits perfectly. And your research in finding these strange formats is astounding. Great work Mat.

The format of this video is very good! Loved the puppets in the middle.

Standing ovation for you and your work!!!i love old music/audio devices and you always get to something i never heard about before.too geeky?some may think.but also shows the long history of audio devices and technology through history and investigation...yeah....maybe geek...but never boring!!two big thumbs up,mate!!!👍👍