A Personal History of Car Radio
Alf continued as MD for some time, much to the chagrin of Bob Chilvers,
and was mainly seen lounging in his office chair with his winkle
pickers on the desk. He was eventually replaced by a Mr Dennis Souter,
who converted his office to a schoolroom and would hold classes
for the sales team. This continued for a short time until the grumbles
this produced reached the ears of Richard Cave, causing Dennis's
demise. However, he did deserve my thanks as he proved to the main
board it would be cost effective to send yours truly to Canada to
sort out the problems at the Smiths Depot. I was at that time reporting
to Mr Malcolm Stoot, who had taken over as Service Manager from
Harry Mellor.
This proved a winning combination, as Malcolm handled the internal
running of the spares department and distribution of spares, allowing
me to make more dealer visits. As Assistant Service Manager my office
was next to Malcolm's and was jokingly called the 'Hospitality Unit'
as it carried a good supply of alcohol. Malcolm and myself would
entertain the visiting dealers and VIPs.
Radiomobile now had a new MD, Mr Jack Crone, who transformed the
company completely. New products were introduced and sales boomed.
Bill Lawrie came over from Smiths Motor Accessories as Sales Manager
Radiomobile, and Jim Tryon, Sales Manager for Motorola. All radios,
Radiomobile and Motorola, were now produced on the one production
line and the sales force were handling both products.
It came as a shock then when Motorola suddenly announced they were
invoking the ninety day clause in their contract, prohibiting the
use of the Motorola name and logo. After discussions with all concerned
it was agreed to remove all Motorola fascias and replace them with
Radiomobile. All Motorola dealers were converted to Radiomobile
and sales climbed even higher, claiming 95% of the car radio market.
New products were added, the 104S and 108SR eight track players,
followed by a short lived quadraphonic unit. These were followed
by cassette players and recorders. Malcolm and I would organize
service training weeks for our dealer network. We would book a local
hotel to accommodate between eight and ten people and ferry them
to the service department on the Monday morning. After a day's tuition
on current service techniques, they would be returned to the hotel.
This was repeated on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning. On
Thursday afternoon they would receive instruction on radio interference
problems and the remedies. Thursday evening Malcolm and I would
entertain them at a London restaurant and return them to their hotel.
On Friday, they would sit an exam, each being provided with a radio
which had been doctored all with the same faults. Sometimes the
results were quite surprising, depending on the amount consumed
the night before.
Motor Show time was always hectic, especially at Earls Court. Most
dealers wanted to visit the Radiomobile stand where they were wined,
and the more important ones taken for a meal in the evening. I remember
one occasion when I had a party of seven and Malcolm asked if he
could include his party of six in the same restaurant. Of course
I agreed and we had a riotous Friday evening.
I still have vivid memories of this very large bowl of king prawns
on ice, on the table as an appetizer, disappearing without trace,
at £1 a time and that was 1970. In the cold light of Monday
morning I was horrified to see the size of our bill and said to
Malcolm – "It will be difficult getting this passed"
– I then had the brilliant idea of the two of us lunching at
the same restaurant and asking for our Friday receipt to be rewritten,
splitting it in half, one for Malcolm and one for me. We sat down
and enjoyed a modest meal. I called for our bill and asked for them
to split our Friday receipt into two. To our consternation they
informed us that the business had changed hands over the weekend
and their bills had not yet been printed and they were unable to
give us a bill for what we had just consumed. I think the previous
owners had just retired on the Friday night profits! It took ages
to eventually recoup our outgoings.
In 1962 an Indian gentleman, named Salil Mozumder, had visited
Radiomobile asking if there were any vacancies for radio mechanics.
I told him we were fully staffed at the time but we might be able
to fit him in later on. I was very impressed with his smart appearance
and cultured voice, and as the majority of the radio mechanics were
of similar persuasion I felt he would fit in quite well. Attached
to the service department we had a metal workshop and paint spraying
facility where we would manufacture the fixing brackets required
for the various radio fitting kits and where there was one position
available. I suggested to Mr Mozumder that we could employ him in
that area until a service vacancy arose. He thanked me and said
that would be fine.
Because of his sunny nature, I introduced him to the staff as 'Sunny
Jim' and he has remained Jim to all to this day. On Monday morning
he arrived in a suit with white shirt and the charge hand gave him
the job of spraying brackets with black paint. Each morning he would
arrive with a new white shirt and leave in the evening looking distinctly
speckled. However, this did not deter him; he didn't like an overall
and continued spraying and metal working for some time. Eventually
we transferred him to the service department where he showed his
ability to repair radios and of course to communicate with the others
in their own language. It was not long, therefore, before we put
him in charge of the repair section as Service Foreman. Jim came
from a wealthy Indian family and, therefore, commanded great respect
from the other service mechanics and he would usually back me on
union problems. This of course helped immensely and contributed
to the smooth running of the department.
The great thing about Radiomobile was that we all got on well together
and would often meet up for a drink after office hours. Malcolm
and I continued our entertaining and were always on the lookout
for new venues. One day Malcolm said to me "I've found a nice
little restaurant just out of town that we can take our next visitors
to". The following week we learned that the MD of one of our
largest radio dealers was arriving with his mechanic to talk about
service problems. They arrived on the Monday morning and we had
ironed out most of their difficulties to their satisfaction by lunchtime.
Unfortunately, as it was Monday, our usual eating establishment
was closed, but wishing to impress our guests we decided to take
them to the new find.
From the outside the restaurant looked fine, but inside the décor
was not quite up to our usual standard. However, having arrived
with our guests, we were committed. The choice on the menu was very
limited, but providing the wine was good, we were sure we would
be forgiven. The menu was passed to us by an elderly lady and I
asked her for the wine list. This seemed to perplex her somewhat
and she said "Just a moment, I'll go and see". Some minutes
later she reappeared and said "We don't have a wine list sir,
but we have red wine and white wine and they are both nice".
We often laugh at the lasting impression this must have given.
All business was conducted over the dining table or in a local hostelry
and that's where any shortcomings the company may have were ironed
out. From time to time the area managers would call in and would
also join us for drinks at lunchtime or in the evening, and of course
there were the sales conferences and dealer incentives arranged
abroad … all good fun.
I had now taken over from Malcolm as Service Manager reporting
directly to the MD, Mr Jack Crone, and would visit dealers around
the country on service problems. I made regular visits to Buckingham
Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace, to deal with the state
limousines and personal cars of the Royal family. In the years following
I was pleased to receive three invitations commanded by the Queen
for my wife and I to attend garden parties at Buckingham Palace,
and two invitations to the Queen Mother's Christmas parties at Clarence
House, which we enjoyed immensely.
At that time, of course, we lived in West London and Sir Richard
Cave, the Chairman of Smiths, knew this. I would often receive a
call from his secretary, usually asking if I would call at his house
on my way home. He lived in a tall town house on the Thames Embankment,
where the road outside was prone to flooding at high tide. This
meant he had some sort of problem with either his TV, radiogram,
telephone, washing machine, or even the depth finder from his boat.
Now this was a request one could not refuse and it was always a
difficult visit. Sir Richard would say, "Come in Harriss it's
Whisky isn't it?"
He would pour me a large one and show me the problem, usually it
was the TV, which was a fairly ancient HMV 17 inch monochrome, the
same model as my own. After rectifying the fault he would then pour
me another and question me about Radiomobile products. "What
is the quality like now Harriss?" If I said "It's very
good sir" he would say "That's not what I've heard".
If I said, "It could be better" he would say "Why
what's wrong with it?" If I said, "I haven't seen the
current figures yet" he would say "Why not you are the
Service Manager". If my bad luck held out, by that time the
tide had come in and my car would be stuck for another two or more
hours.
After receiving a further three calls in as many months to the
same offending piece, I decided to tell Sir Richard that his TV
really was past repairing and that I had disposed of mine. He said
"I've got news for you Harriss I'm keeping mine" and he
did so for some years.
Sir Richard had a young family who would use the pickup on his
expensive radiogram as a door-knocker and I was called on several
occasions to repair the damage. After a while I managed to locate
an old electric turntable to which we connected an amplifier and
speaker. Our carpenter made a box to house it all in and I presented
this to Sir Richard for his children to use. This stopped any further
visits on that score. However, he was pleased and said "When
I've finished with the radiogram you can have it". Some 25
years later I still have it and it still works.
|
