Helping tune things in

In scouts we get involved in many things, community fundraising, keeping the environment tidy, providing first aid cover but one of the oddest things we did was to to with technological changes.

In radio, individual wavelengths are allocated to Countries which in turn decide what should go where based on reception issues and priorities, some of which are very localized.

Now a series of changes came about as the result of agreement in 1977 to deal with an increased number of stations that required a series of changes to the BBC's national radio on Long and Medium wave which was quite popular in the late 1970's because of big patches in VHF FM reception.

This all happened from November 23rd 1978, swopping Radio 2 and 4 over from their long and medium wave frequencies, moving Radio one from 247 metres (1215khz) to 275 and 285 metres and taking radio 3 from 464 metres to 247.

That was an era with no personal computing,no internet,  nearly all radios required manual tuning in even if they had presets and all people could have were instructions in the likes of the Radio Times or on air reminders.

Because older people in particular rely on radio and often find adapting to change difficult, Scouts were asked to help out to "tune in" radios and apply stickers to the dial to those that you just moved a knob to get to the station you wanted to help.

As can be seen in this screenshot Scouts did star in switch over public information programs too as this BBC one did with Sue Lawley from posh Stourbridge.