I haven’t owned a tv since 2002. A friend’s kid thew a remote at their’s and cracked the screen. I asked if they could get it repaired and everyone looked at me like I had two heads. “You just get a new one…!”
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I've always found it interesting how brands that are either not household names or have been mostly forgotten shaped technology that we use every day. You can find LED bulbs or cheap electronics with the Curtis-Mathes brand nowadays but back in the 60'e and 70's, they set the standard for repairable TV's, at least in the US. They basically modularized everything to where there were like 10 replacable parts and the repairman carried all of those with him. They could swap out a bad component in minutes.
Another one that was never a household name is Allen Organ Company. They make electronic pipe organs, which replicate the sounds of an actual pipe organ, sans pipes. In the early 70's they created the first fully digital organ. It had a small computer that generated the tones. Even though it had a several large PCB's and a pretty big footprint for its limited capabilities compared to computers today, at the time it was a pretty impressive feat.
if dad couldn't fix it with the tube from the grocery store kiosk.
I'm both bemused and curious what in the world that might mean.
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A now abandoned building at the end of the block use to be a repair store. Tv, vacuum, any other machines. I'm sad I never got to see it.
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Yes, but the TV cost inflation adjusted lowered dramatically since then.
If a TV were to cost 1000$ in the 1960 today it would cost 8$.
Source: https://www.in2013dollars.com/Televisions/price-inflation/1960-to-2025?amount=1000
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A good friend of mine who recently passed away told me about purchasing his first car, brand new, using money he made from repairing TVs around his neighborhood. He started by running tubes to the local store, testing them, and replacing them. Then, he bought a tube tester and a small stock, which he'd carry in a wagon.
There was a doctor in his neighborhood with the first model of a color TV, and the tubes would constantly overheat and pop. This was the cash cow that bought him his first car. He eventually realized that he could solve this issue by adding some active cooling to the TV by running a small fan off of one of the TV's circuits. And that's how he accidentally killed his first job.
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