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@leymoo Capital phone-ins are mentioned (with photos) here:
http://www.samhallas.co.uk/repository/journals/Post_Office_Telecommunications_Journal/POTJ%20Vol%2025%20No%204%20Winter%201973-74.pdf

The unit with all the switches in the bottom left of the cover photo is the key-and-lamp unit

The use of KLUs changes my technical theory, but there are other options. the announcer mentioned in the article may have been switched off or faulty, or multiple keys on the KLU could have been left operated, or something else entirely!

This has been quite a fun little technical research jaunt!

@leymoo lol “sorry” 😂

a friend says:

Capital Radio had a PABX 7, but phone-ins used a completely separate group of lines which were termed on Key and Lamp units (callers who actually got on air were called back on another group of lines).

I can’t think how this would have worked on a normal KLU set-up.

I also have a memory of some sort of late-night chatline which was “official” rather than being something discovered accidentally. But it was a long time ago

@leymoo sorry for being a bit light on detail, character limits etc!

If this was a fault, that was either fixed when they noticed it, or resolved when their exchange was upgraded to an electronic exchange. Hard to say!

Early feedback from my phone friends is that a fault on the p-wire of the night service extension on the PABX at the studio could cause calls to be stacked together like this, it’s a workable theory… but so far i haven’t had a response from anyone who knows what kit capital had

@leymoo Early 80s… likely still strowger equipment

The details get a bit tricky, but a fault could lead to equipment not properly being marked as busy, so subsequent callers end up connected to the same pair

Capital would have had dedicated main exchange equipment, and its own PABX on-prem, which complicates things

I expect the “night service” function on the PABX put a fault on the busy marker wire

I know a couple of BBC switchboard ops from that time who might be able to confirm… I’ll ask!