DEFIANT A55 1961-ca.1965

This is a two-band portable radio with a wooden case (a regular thing in those days), cloth finish, and a nice old-fashioned look to it. It still works and performs very well. My service literature gives the release date as June, 1961, when the set cost GBP 12.13s.7d. (GBP 13.68, or around GBP 250 in modern money).

And the name? There used to be a thing in the UK called 'resale price maintenance'. That meant that retailers couldn't offer discounts. The 'co-op' (Royal Arsenal Co-Operative Society, or RACS) had a system of offering dividend stamps which qualified as a 'discount'. The radio manufacturers didn't like this, and refused to sell their radios, etc. through the Co-Op's chain of shops. So the Co-Op decided it would sell its own sets (hence 'Defiant'). Resale Price Maintenance was abolished for most things in 1964 and so 'Defiant' lost its raison d'etre.