CB Radio In The Eighties

In 1981 Britain was in the grasp of an illegal craze. It didn't involve sex drugs or violence. Rather bedrooms and vehicles all over the UK resounded to the coded pleasures of CB radio. With eccentric sounding call signs for users. CB turned into a space for a community of people unquestionably mainly young and male.

The trend just like quite a few before and since was American in its origin. Films like 'Convoy' in which Kris Kristofferson plays ‘Rubber Duck’, a truck driver with a grudge and 'Smokey & The Bandit' with Burt Reynolds mesmerised a segment of the British population.

In the beginning it was cars. Youngsters were even using them on pushbikes, almost anything you could secure one to, motorcycles even. British truck drivers were the pioneers of CB use, finding it useful to communicate among themselves regarding such things as the location of speed traps and other road hazards and to keep at bay the solitude of the open road.

The slang they used remained resolutely American. Only British place names found their way into the code. ‘Noddy Town’ for London, ‘Smoky Dragon’ for Cardiff. Each local community of CB’ers might then create even more nicknames at a more detailed level.

Jeff Briggs who operated an electronics Business grasped that there was a gap in the market and filled it with an audio tape, “Teach Yourself CB - an Englishman's guide”. “They used to take it very seriously” He recalls.


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