BAL-AMi Juke Box Stars In TV Show !

UPDATE!! ** 1 April 2000 ** UPDATE!!

The new series of The Renford Rejects has just started airing and the BAL-AMi has been replaced by a Rock-Ola Tempo! Oh well.......

UPDATE!! ** 29 November 1999 ** UPDATE!!

I've received an interesting email from Dave Kings which throws some light on the questions I posed in the article below (many thanks Dave). Also note that 'The Renford Rejects' is now occasionally shown on UK Channel 4.

Dave's update follows the original text below......

A BAL-AMi I200M juke box has a central role in a new kids TV show on the UK Nickelodeon cable channel. The show is called 'The Renford Rejects' and is about a youth football team. It's screened at 6pm on weekdays (at least it was when this page was written in March '98).

The youngsters gather in the 'Gracelands Cafe' (!) in their spare time which is run by an ageing rocker pining for times gone by. In the corner of the cafe is a BAL-AMi I200M.

However, there is something odd about this example. The cabinet and turntable surrounds are turquoise, but the top of the hood is pink. As far as I am aware, the BAL-AMi version of this model was only made in pink with a charcoal cabinet - the American AMi version also came in turquoise.

Given that the model in the TV programme also has a BAL-AMi badge on the grill, there seem to be two possibilities. It's either an AMi which has had a replacement hood from a BAL-AMi (and the grill badge has been added afterwards to be consistent with the name plate on the hood), or it's a BAL-AMi which has been repainted turquoise, without changing the hood colour. Can anybody help with this ?! Email me if you know more......

Response received from Dave Kings......

Regarding the BAL-AMi in the kids TV show.

Neither of your assumptions may be correct! I think that this machine could in fact be an original BAL-AMi as I once owned such a machine. I have seen a great many BAL-AMi I's, but they have all been pink and charcoal, so a genuine turquoise one is RARE.

The machine I owned was definitely not a rebadged AMi. It had all the correct BAL-AMi features, such as BAL-AMi badges, makers plate, treble horn mounted on the RHS of the front baffle, different speaker grille, Beam-Echo amp, 240v mains etc. Where it differed from a turquoise US machine in its colour scheme is as follows:

It had a PINK top cap (in plastic)

The light diffuser was PINK on the outside but had TURQUOISE paint on the inside (so when the machine was switched off it looked pink, but when lit up it glowed green)

All the inside plastics etc. were turquoise with the exception of the two triangular metal covers at the top corners of the screen which were pink (usually turquoise on an AMi)

The "multihorn high fidelity" strip above the dome was also TURQUOISE. This item could not be faked and so is further proof that there was an original turquoise BAL-AMi manufactured machine.

So, contrary to popular belief, BAL-AMi manufactured both pink and turquoise I200M's. However, all BAL-AMi I200's were not manual. They also sold some pink electric select 200s, (before they assembled their own I200M) but these were US imports and were US spec apart from a BAL-AMi makers plate and a factory fitted step down transformer.