CBSL, Radius CBSL, Radius Professional, Radius or Practice Net – the company went through quite a few name changes over the years.
I started with CBSL on March 1st 1987 following a short stint at the petrol station. I was second choice behind the guy they fired after a couple of weeks. I must have done something right as they kept me on for another 27 years…
The company was formed in 1964 by a couple of university students, Eric McFarland and Dale Rogers. Dale remained at the helm until ill health forced him to retire in 2015.
When I started, CBSL (Computerised Bureau Systems Limited) was still mainly that, a bureau. There were a bunch of girls inputting payrolls for other businesses in one big room with a huge Burroughs computer taking up a larger space in another room, but times were changing and office computers were becoming affordable and accessible to other companies and that’s where I came in.
CBSL wanted an electrician to install clean power supplies and data cables for the new fangled computers. The power supply idea didn’t last too long but I did install quite a good number. Most of the job back then was 15 core serial data cables. I must have soldered millions of wires into 25 pin plugs in my time. We did eventually move to a 8 wire cable and even now, 30 years later, I can still remember the colours for the pins on those
- Screen
- Green
- Blue
- Brown
- Red
- Orange
- Yellow
Not 8 I know, only 6 and the Screen(earth) were used.
After that was a couple of short lived cable types. Co-axial, token ring, etc.
And then UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair). This was much easier, no soldering just punch the wires into the plugs in the right order…done. Another bonus too was that it was cheaper to buy fly leads in rather than me make then.
In the 1990s I could probably point out 2 or 3 clients in most towns and cities in England and Wales that were CBSL clients, mainly accountants and solicitors but also some clients like the Christie Tyler Group.
My job went through various changes over the years, cabling and installations to server building, Unix and Windows to computer maintenance engineer to designing and installing complete systems.
One day, out of the blue an ex employee called me asking if I wanted a job in CGI, I got all excited thinking I’d been head hunted, turns out he got a couple of hundred quid for introducing someone, he’d tried everyone else he knew and that just left me!
My biggest regret while working for Radius was not taking advantage of the company pension scheme, I could probably be retired now instead of slogging it out working 12 shifts at CGI, but back then the £40 or whatever it was was better utilised buying beer.
Even though I left to start working at CGI I still do the odd job for them on a daily rate
