CB Radio in The United Kingdom - Fall From Popularity

Fall From Popularity

Right from the beginning of legalised CB radio, there had been much abuse of the system, with frequent complaints that CB radio was not policed properly in spite of the huge licence revenues, which at one time were second only to broadcast receiving licences. Most of the early adopters expected some official support after legalisation.

Some CB users would play music. Others disrupted conversations merely by pressing the mike button, known as "dead keying". Yet others enjoyed swearing at anyone who would listen. Most complaints were directed at younger users who did not have the self-discipline or motivation to behave well on-air. Many of these were not in at the beginning of illegal CB, where there was a kind of 'honour among thieves' mentality. Original UK breakers had to know other breakers to obtain equipment and this acted to some degree as a filter to exclude trouble-causers. Legality opened the floodgates to anyone and everyone. Glasgow is particularly a bad area with several home base stations (High rise flats) operating with 100 watt plus burners broadcasting bad language and wiping out the entire spectrum to sensible users.

All this served to put off a good many enthusiasts and particularly where families could hear what was happening on-air. The most consistent and well-behaved breakers were the mobile users, such as the truck drivers, farmers and trades people who found CB Radio to be of great practical use. The decline was steady but continuous.

CB channels still remained busy until the early 2000s, when technology was changing and mobile phones became affordable and common. Many of the advantages of mobile CB were taken over by easy and reliable phone communication and, more recently, by the availability of 'satnav'.

The easy availability of cheap and licence-free PMR (Personal Mobile Radio) radio has also stolen the place of CB radio. In some cases, it is used with beam antennas to reach further and is often used to find conversations with strangers and friends, like CB radio always has been. Amateur radio had enjoyed a boom time from disaffected breakers deserting 27 MHz in the 1990s, but fell into decline early in the decade. Its fortunes later changed with the revamping of their central body the RSGB (Radio Society of Great Britain) and the advent of easier and more frequent formal examinations. New classes of membership were introduced and crucially the minimum age limit of fourteen was abandoned. Amateurs of very young age are now fully accepted, often cutting their teeth first on the CB band.