# Episode 217 - Bingo Row York Show 2015 pt. 2

**Source:** For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2015-10-14  
**Duration:** 17m 54s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://foramusementonly.libsyn.com/episode-217-bingo-row-york-show-2015-pt-2

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## Analysis

Nick Baldridge recounts his Friday experience at the 2015 York Show, focusing on troubleshooting and repairing electromechanical bingo pinball machines. He successfully diagnosed and fixed a Golden Gate machine with a broken solder joint, repaired a Bikini bingo game, and ran a book giveaway promotion where players could win signed copies of Jeffrey Lawton's books by achieving four-in-a-line. He also met with bingo experts Hugh Cowan and Jeff Lawton for dinner, learning valuable knowledge about the machines.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] A Golden Gate machine Nick had for sale was stuck in tilt due to a broken solder joint on a 25-volt wire connection to the transformer. — _Nick Baldridge describing his Friday troubleshooting work at York Show 2015_
- [HIGH] The Bikini bingo machine wouldn't start and had various button switching issues, but Nick was able to repair it after recently working on a similar machine the week before. — _Nick Baldridge detailing repairs performed Friday morning_
- [HIGH] Eleven people won signed Jeffrey Lawton books by achieving four-in-a-line on bingo machines during Friday's competition. — _Nick Baldridge summarizing Friday's bingo ambassador activities_
- [HIGH] The listener Nick met at the beginning of Friday ended up purchasing the Golden Gate machine he had repaired. — _Nick Baldridge commenting on positive customer interaction_
- [HIGH] Nick did not record podcast audio at the show due to hearing difficulties with background noise and lack of proper recording equipment. — _Nick Baldridge explaining why no on-site podcast recordings were made_

### Notable Quotes

> "How hard can it be? Well, I spent a good long time trying to figure out what was wrong."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, ~2:30
> _Introduces the Golden Gate troubleshooting challenge and establishes his problem-solving approach_

> "Have you checked the fuse?"
> — **Listener (unnamed)**, ~4:00
> _The listener's suggestion that helps redirect Nick's troubleshooting methodology_

> "The transformer let out a big heaving spark."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, ~5:30
> _Marks the moment of discovery of the broken solder joint causing the machine's failure_

> "You're kidding."
> — **Young bingo player (unnamed)**, ~13:00
> _Captures the genuine amazement and joy when learning he had won a book as a first-time bingo player_

> "He is a super nice guy. And on top of being super nice he knows an awful lot of stuff about the bingos, about everything."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, ~15:30
> _Reflects on meeting Hugh Cowan in person and his value as a knowledge source_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Nick Baldridge | person | Host of For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast; troubleshooter and restorer of electromechanical bingo machines |
| Hugh Cowan | person | Bingo expert and enthusiast; met Nick Baldridge in person for the first time at York Show 2015; shared knowledge about bingo machines |
| Jeffrey Lawton | person | Bingo machine expert and author; provided signed books for Nick's York Show giveaway promotion |
| Steve Smith | person | Bingo enthusiast present at York Show 2015; coached a young player on Golden Gate machine |
| York Show | event | Annual pinball/gaming show in York (2015); featured bingo machine display and competition |
| Golden Gate | game | Electromechanical bingo machine that Nick had for sale; exhibited at York Show 2015; suffered from broken solder joint |
| Bikini | game | Electromechanical bingo machine with startup and button switching issues; repaired by Nick at York Show |
| Gay Time | game | Electromechanical bingo machine in good condition; used by Nick as starter machine for first-time players due to ease of explanation and four-in-a-line accessibility |
| Ticker Tape | game | Electromechanical bingo machine; requires more skill (nudging) to achieve four-in-a-line compared to other bingos |
| For Amusement Only | organization | EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast hosted by Nick Baldridge; focuses on electromechanical pinball and bingo machine culture |
| FSPA Pinball | organization | Twitter account (@FSPA Pinball) representing pinball community member who attended York Show and won a book |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Electromechanical pinball machine repair and troubleshooting, Bingo pinball machines and their gameplay mechanics, York Show 2015 experience and community interactions, Educational promotion and community engagement at shows
- **Secondary:** Cold solder joints and electrical troubleshooting, Podcast production challenges and on-site recording logistics

### Sentiment

**Neutral** (0)

### Signals

- **[operational_signal]** Nick Baldridge troubleshot and repaired multiple machines at York Show 2015, demonstrating venue maintenance and technical support operations (confidence: high) — Detailed accounts of diagnosing Golden Gate machine's broken solder joint, repairing Bikini bingo startup issues, and leveling machines on-site
- **[community_signal]** Nick used bingo machines as educational tool at York Show, giving away signed books to players who achieved four-in-a-line, building community appreciation for vintage games (confidence: high) — 11 winners on Friday; young first-time players expressed amazement at winning; players returned multiple times to play; focus on creating positive experience for newcomers
- **[product_concern]** Golden Gate machine exhibited cold solder joint failure on 25-volt transformer connection, suggesting potential manufacturing quality issue from original production (confidence: high) — Nick spent extended time troubleshooting; wire broke at solder joint despite machine being through multiple moves without issues previously; required re-soldering to resolve
- **[restoration_signal]** Nick performed cosmetic and mechanical restoration on bingo machines at show, including leveling, cleaning, switch manipulation, and color registration adjustment (confidence: high) — Adjusted back legs on Golden Gate for listing issue; cleaned Bikini switches; fixed color registration problem on Bikini (green/red mapping); machine shop needed on Bikini due to heavy play
- **[content_signal]** Nick Baldridge faced technical and logistical challenges recording podcast audio at York Show due to hearing difficulties, background noise from jukeboxes, and lack of proper equipment (confidence: high) — Explicitly decided against on-site audio recording; cited jukeboxes running at significant volume; mentioned hearing challenges with voice separation in crowds; dinner venue also too loud
- **[personnel_signal]** Nick met Hugh Cowan and Jeffrey Lawton in person at York Show 2015, establishing relationships with established bingo machine experts and learning from their knowledge (confidence: high) — Met Hugh Cowan for first time Thursday; characterized him as knowing 'an awful lot of stuff about the bingos'; spent Friday dinner with Cowan, Lawton, Steve Smith and family members
- **[venue_signal]** York Show 2015 featured jukeboxes running throughout the event, creating ambient noise environment that affected audio recording and show experience (confidence: medium) — Nick mentioned jukeboxes were 'on and running for a good half of the show'; noted they were 'very loud' and impacted his ability to record podcast audio
- **[collector_signal]** A listener purchased the Golden Gate machine from Nick at York Show after he repaired it, indicating active secondary market for vintage bingo machines (confidence: high) — Listener Nick met Friday morning ended up buying the GG machine; Nick had been selling it at 'a pretty darn reasonable price'; customer interaction described as positive outcome

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## Transcript

 What's that sound? It's For Amusement Only, the EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast. Welcome back to For Amusement Only. This is Nicholas Baldridge. So, last night I talked about what happened on Thursday with the bingo row at the York Show. So tonight I wanted to talk about Friday. So Friday, first thing, I get to the hall and I meet a listener. And the listener was a friend of a guy who brought the big time bingo. That was very cool. To have a listener interaction first thing, that was very nice. And he was a super nice guy, and I was really glad to have met him later on. So I did some initial fixing of a couple things. You know, we tested all the games and figured out what was going on with them. and then I heard from somebody else that the GG that I brought was stuck in tilt. And so I said, okay, I'll go see what's going on there. How hard can it be? Well, I spent a good long time trying to figure out what was wrong and I had this machine for sale. and I was asking what I thought was a pretty darn reasonable price for a working EM. Of course, at that point it was not working, so I wanted to make sure I got it going. I took a look and it was nothing super obvious and so I whipped out the schematic, which I brought with me, and started tracing out the circuit. Now, the startup circuit on a Gottlieb is pretty simple. You know, almost anything makes a score motor turn, and that was not turning at all. And so I was checking the various relays and manipulating them by hand, and the score motor just would not turn. And nothing I did was making it turn. When I turned it in certain positions, it would do certain things that I expected it to do but it wouldn't do very much so tracing stuff out trying to figure it out this listener comes up and he says well hey, have you checked the fuse? and I had looked at the fuse and it looked okay but I didn't have my meter on that part of the hall and so I hadn't checked the fuse yet. So I said, okay, let me go grab that. I'll be right back. So I went and checked the fuse. Fuse was good. And then he suggested checking the voltage. And the voltage that I was getting was nothing. Like the meter was reading 0.7 millivolts or some ridiculous number. and it should have been 25 volts. And so I said, hmm, that's kind of weird. And so in order to rule out meter problems, I tested the primary and it said 120 volts. And I said, okay, that makes sense. And I tested the GI circuit and that was 6 volts. And I said, all right, that makes sense. So I tested 25 again and it says point whatever millivolts. And I said, that's funky. And so I tested it straight on the transformer. And the transformer let out a big heaving spark. And I said, huh, that's interesting. But it didn't register 25 volts. And so I unplugged the machine and started looking real closely at the wires and one of them was broken off And, of course, it was the one that fed the 25 volts. So I was pretty thrilled to have found it, but it took forever to find it. And I have no idea what happened there, because it must have been a cold solder situation. because it was just fine here, and it had been through multiple moves before that without work, from what I'm told. So, interesting. But re-soldered that, and the machine was working fine, so that was good. I fired off the test game, made sure everything was working, and then I had to let that go after re-leveling it. the back legs were put on one side, so it was listing pretty heavily to the left. So I adjusted that and then ran back to the bingo rope because there was a lot to do. So the next thing I did was take a look at the bikini. The bikini had a lot of issues. It wouldn't start at all. It would switch between the different buttons, but it wasn't working appropriately beyond that. So I went in and started to troubleshoot and luckily I had just worked on a bikini the week before the show and so it was pretty fresh in my memory. I was able to go in and manipulate what needed to be manipulated and clean what needed to be cleaned in order to get the machine up and running. and so the machine fired up and I said alright and played a test game, it worked, I got a 3 in line and pushed the R button and it registered the replays and so I was pretty satisfied there and then I went and started a new game and got the screen feature and had it register a win in a different colored section and I think I did both of those with the glass on so I was pretty pleased about that too so that worked appropriately too there was a minor issue with one of the colors and I got that fixed I think it was green so the green is signed to the OK game or the red letter and it played the red letter games appropriately, although it was really reluctant to award the OK feature. And the machine needed to be shopped. It had been played a lot and had not been adjusted for a very long time. And so it needed some work done. Needed to be cleaned and, you know, treated nicely. So, got that one going, that was good And then I went into bingo ambassador mode And so the idea was that I would give away These autographed copies of Jeffrey Lawton's books To anyone that could make a foreign line on any of the bingos and so I typically would start people off with Gay Time because it was in really good shape. I know the game very well and it's relatively easy to explain. Plus you get some of the wow factor of the moving numbers and cool things that happen there. That's also something that allows you to get a four in line a bit easier than, say, ticker tape where it's pure skill. You have to really nudge the machine into the appropriate position. So I started talking to people and got them going. We had 11 winners on Friday including the listener who I talked to at the beginning of the day which was cool He also ended up buying the GG so that was extra cool and I hope I get to talk to him again soon. I hope that all works out for him. That GG had a lot of new parts, but it was, uh, cosmetically pretty rough in the cabinet. It had a good back glass and had an okay play field. So, um, anyway, I hope it, uh, that all worked out, but, uh, all the, uh, winners were very excited and most of them were only there for Friday. So that was, uh, pretty neat. Um, you know, they got to experience the bingos and, uh, Then leave with a little bit of history. It was cool. One of my favorite interactions was with a young guy who had never seen a bingo before. And he walks up and Steve Smith actually coached him on his Golden Gate. and he managed to get the time tree up to after 5th and he had a 4 in the yellow and white striped super section winner. That's what won him a book. But because he had after 5th and he had OK lit, But he was able to reposition the screen in such a way that he had winners in each of the colors and an okay game. And he was super excited. The look on his face was amazing. We were telling him all this stuff. And then I said, and you won a book. He said, you're kidding. So it was cool. And what was really neat was to see people come back to the bingos after a period of time. So, you know, they would go and they would experience a show and then they would come back. I really enjoyed that. I got to meet the guy from FSPA Pinball on Twitter, at FSPA Pinball. And he won a book as well. A couple of Richmond guys who came up for the tournament, competitive guys, won books. And we had other young guys and ladies who got four in lines and won books. It was just so cool. It worked exactly as I hoped it would, and people really enjoyed playing the games. And just the look of surprise or amazement on their faces when they had made this really outstanding feat for a new bingo player. and realize that they earned this beautiful book about the history of these machines. It was just very satisfying and worked exactly as I hoped it would. So hopefully those people left with a great appreciation for the machines or at least a growing appreciation. And we'll spend the next year reading up on them before we bring some more games to York next year. So, at the end of the day on Friday, Hugh Cowan, Jeff Lawton, myself, and Steve Smith, along with Jeff's son and Hugh's wife, went out to eat dinner. so we had a little mini bingo dinner that night and uh that was a great time i got to spend some good quality time with hugh who I had never met in person until Thursday And he is a super nice guy And on top of being super nice he knows an awful lot of stuff about the bingos, about everything. So it was cool to have his attention. and he was willing to talk to me and tell me some stories. And Jeffrey as well. It was incredible to have all that knowledge right there. Now, I had hoped to be able to use opportunities like that to record some podcast audio. But here's the thing. At the shows, I've heard other shows attempt to do podcast audio, and I'm a little hard of hearing. and it's very hard for me to pick out voices over a crowd. I do what I can. It's a little easier in person because I can see the person's lips, not that I can read lips, but it certainly helps. But whenever I hear podcasts do that, I have a really hard time hearing what's going on. so I decided against doing that after I realized we were right in front of a row of jukeboxes, which were on and, and running for, um, you know, I'd say a good half of the show. Um, at some points it was, it was kind of cool to have, um, the jukebox audio behind us. They, They didn't pick records which were particularly irritating to listen to or anything. But it was very loud. Jukeboxes are loud in general. And so I knew that with just my phone, which is all that I had, I wouldn't be able to record anything substantial. And at the diner, it just didn't seem opportune. and it was also loud there. It was packed. So I apologize for not having audio there, but I did learn an awful lot, which I intend to pass on to you all over time. But that was the amazing Friday that I had. Nothing really exploded. There was a burn coil that happened early in the morning, and I smelled it. I said, what's that smell? You know, instead of, what's that sound? Sniffed around all the bingos and couldn't find it, and it turned out it was something further down from us, luckily, for us anyway. You know, I always feel bad at the shows when a coil burns because it's not great to have that happen at the show. If you don't have a good stock of parts, which of course I didn't, then it becomes a little difficult. So, anyway, that was my Friday experience. thank you very much for listening. My name again is Nick Baldrige. You can reach me at 4amusementonlypodcast at gmail.com or you can call me on the bingos line. That's 724-BINGOS1. 724-246-4671. You can listen to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Pocket Cast, VRSS, on Facebook, on Twitter, at bingopodcast. You can follow me on Instagram at nbaldrige or you can listen to us on our website, which is formusementonly.libsyn.com. Thank you very much for listening, and I'll talk to you next time.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 68944e1e-2dd8-4657-99d0-206b7ba4cade*