Anyone Remember Dial-A-Disc?

[Cloverjo]

I’ve just read a review of the book by music journalist Pete Paphides in which he writes about going to the phone box to ring Dial-a-Disc to hear the latest hits.
I’m about the same age as Paphides (50) but don’t remember this service at all. Anyone else?

[albaqwerty]

gosh yes!! 123 I think was the number.
It was a bonus if the song was actually one you liked.

There also used to be a booklet with the lyrics to the top 10 songs (I think it was the top 10, might have been top 20)

I feel old now and am only a few years above you Clover :-D

[fiction-factory]

It was certainly around in the early-mid 70s but Paphides would have been under 10 then. If he was born in 1970 I think it had probably died out by the time you were teenagers

[fiction-factory]

I thought 123 was the speaking clock (remember TIM?) , but it was a long time ago.

[ubasses]

I remember it, started in the sixties, used to wait till I was home alone to ring. I think it was 160.

[Togo]

I can just about remember it, but never used it. I never used my dic ta phone either. :))

[fiction-factory]

https://retroscoop.wordpress.com/2014/02/05/dial-a-disc/

I grew out of it in the mid 70s but apparently it peaked in 1981 but closed down in 1991- so it was around in your youth

[Buenchico]

The service ran from 1966 to 1991 and was accessed by dialling 160.

Loads of info here:
https://retroscoop.wordpress.com/2014/02/05/dial-a-disc/

[andy-hughes]

I remember it, mainly because I was put forward to do the voice links to replace the incumbent Mitch Murray, who famously wrote hits like 'I Like It' for Gerry And The Pacemakers and 'I'm Telling You Now', for Freddie And The Dreamers, and 'Avenues And Alleyways' for Tony Christie.

I worked at BT, and freelanced in local radio, so they asked me to do a voiceover, but the idea was dropped - shame, I could have been famous!

[Buenchico]

Ooh! Snap!

(Boring nerds like me always read all of the information printed in the front parts of telephone directories, so I was fully aware of the service - although I never used it)

[Prudie]

I vaguely remember calling it once or twice. Now the speaking clock I used to ring all the time (under instruction from my mother), nothing digital around back then.

[fiction-factory]

We didn't have all the instant downloads and streaming- we had plenty of music from radio 1 and Luxembourg, plus TOTP and OGWT, and night time John Peel for punk and Alan Freeman on Saturday for some rock. And you could go in a record shop and listen on headphones to new stuff. It's hard to see why we'd listen to a tinny phone recording. Oh yes, we bought actual records too.
Most kids now don't listen to the radio- they think Tik Tok and GRM Daily are the only sources for music

[Cloverjo]

I used to phone the Speaking Clock. God knows why! But I never knew about Dial a Disc. Probably for the best. My dad would have gone mad about the phone bill.

[Togo]

Remember ladies " At the third stroke"........it will be to late to say stop.

[Buenchico]

According to this link, the service was only available from certain exchanges, rather than nationwide (which might explain why some people have never heard of it):
http://www.lightstraw.co.uk/ate/main/ris/16.html

As is pointed out in that link though, a pop-mad teenager calling the number might end up being told that "Australia were 352 for 6 when bad light stopped play", as the same number was used during summer months to provide cricket scores!

[Buenchico]

>>> I thought 123 was the speaking clock

It still is.

[windywillow]

I remember meeting friends at the local phone box and passing the receiver round, taking turns to listen to the music. Simple pleasures. Happy days. :O)

[Hopkirk]

We used to go into phone boxes, dial 372 then hang up.

372 corresponded to letters ERB, meaning engineers ring back. It was meant as a test, but our teenage minds found it hilarious to watch people stop and try to answer the phone.

[albaqwerty]

ooh, yes, 160.
Vague memories of hoping neither parent would hear the phone returning after dialling the blessed zero.
I'd have been about 8 or 9

[Mamyalynne]

Alba

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_45

[fiction-factory]

Used to read that Mamyalynne. They wouldn't print the lyrics of most songs nowadays