Bush Rank TR156 Transistor Radio - Long Wave Radio Challenge

📻 Bush Rank TR156 | Long Wave Radio in Action | Countdown to BBC Radio 4 LW Closure (27 June 2026) This is the tenth video in my daily series showcasing Long Wave radios from my collection, each demonstrated live on-air as we approach the historic shutdown of BBC Radio 4 Long Wave on 27 June 2026. In this episode, I’m featuring the Bush Rank TR156 transistor radio. The Bush Rank TR156 is a compact early‑1970s portable transistor radio offering MW and LW reception. An interesting feature of this radio is a third band selector label BS, this stands for Band Spread, and it give an electrical band spread of the top part of the medium wave band. This allows for fine tuning in the top part of the medium wave bad. Its branding reflects a key moment in British electronics history. Bush Radio, originally founded in 1932 and later absorbed into the Rank Organisation via Gaumont‑British, became part of Bush and Rank Cintel in 1961. In 1962, Rank merged Bush with Murphy Radio, forming Rank Bush Murphy Ltd, under which sets like the TR156 were produced. The TR156 therefore represents the era when Bush’s long‑established radio engineering was combined with Rank’s industrial scale, creating a wide range of reliable, affordable transistor sets for the UK market. 🎧 What you’ll hear in this video: BBC Radio 4 Long Wave reception on 198 kHz A real-time demonstration of LW operation before the service disappears forever Listening to Radio 4 LW on the morning of Wednesday 3nd June 2026. 📅 About this series: Each day I’ll be uploading a new video featuring a different Long Wave radio—valve, transistor, vintage, and modern—capturing the final weeks of BBC Radio 4 LW. It’s a chance to document the sound, the technology, and the nostalgia of a broadcast band that has served the UK for generations. 🔔 Subscribe if you’d like to follow the full countdown and see more radios from my collection in action.