Details
Ref: Radios, Transistor Radios,
aka: tranny, portable radio
Summary
Things have changed in football and post-millennials have been spoiled by the incredible benefits of a smartphone and the Web for just about everything.
Back in the old days till around the turn of the century, if you were at a match you were wholly cut off from the outside world. It wasn’t unknown for announcements via the tannoy and big screens for score updates.
That is unless you had a ‘tranny’ with you. It might mean something completely different now (and some might see it as colloquial) but back in the old days it was the Glaswegian term for a portable radio. A valuable tool back then for the hardy supporters on the terraces. Radio Clyde Super Scoreboard used to even advertise saying go to the match and take your ‘tranny’ with you.
The ‘tranny’ was the sole contact to the outside world during a match, and as matches up till around the mid nineties were practically all played concurrently at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, the man with the ‘tranny’ was the one to provide updates to everyone else on all ongoing matches.
The guy with the ‘tranny’ was actually the most popular guy on the terracing with everyone haranguing him for updates on scorelines, football news, traffic news, weather updates, and even just what happened on the pitch in front of them. That was as long as the batteries didn’t run out and the reception was good.
One of the curious ones was when a match was on at the same time as for example the ‘Grand National’. At that time, you would get a whole crowd of guys in a scrum around a cranky radio blaring out the race whilst the Celtic match is going on the field behind them, and those ‘racing’ fans are totally oblivious to what’s going on the football field!
Things are different now and as long as you are able to get phone reception, then everyone can get live updates throughout a match regardless of where they are. In retrospect, the radio guy helped get people acquainted so adding to the bon homie across the support on the terracing.
Football on the radio is still a major media outlet for football, but it’s not got the same pull as before. Anyhow, for the older supporters from the terracing the ‘tranny’ is something that still pulls the heartstrings.