Back in the day - Installment 2: Television

 

How far back should I go? Well, considering that this is a finite timeline (since the concept of consumer electronics does not go back further than a century), I will start at what I can remember from my childhood – about midway on that timeline. 

Our Black and White TV (in background) c. 1966

We had a black and white TV until a lightning strike hit our antenna in the mid 1970s and then my parents bought a 19” solid state, color TV. Turning on the TV was a conscious decision. If we wanted to know what was on TV, we consulted TV Guide, which had the projected programming – though it was sometimes wrong, and frustrating. We had one local TV station that we received quite well with the rabbit ear antenna that was on top of the TV. There were two stations in Vancouver B.C. (Canada) and two (well, maybe one and sometimes another… depending upon whether, or how viewers were positioned in the room) from Seattle. The reception from those distant stations was sketchy, at best. Sometimes, the images on screen were “ghosted” and at other times, they were garbled. Most of the time, we could at least get audio though. Suffice it to say, most of what we watched was our local station – KVOS (which doesn’t even exist anymore). If you didn’t like what was on TV, there was no changing the channel option. You either watched what was on or turned it off. It was that black and white TV in the wooden cabinet that we watched the live Apollo 11 moon landing and when President Nixon resigned. 

Our TV reception improved slightly when we upgraded from rabbit ears to a deluxe rooftop antenna that could rotate with a remote box with an orientation knob. One of the annoying frustrations was a neighbor who had an electric fence that would “zap” our picture every second. It was just one of the things we had to deal with.

In the vacuum tube generation, it was expected that users would service their own TVs and radios. If you didn’t know what you were doing (which applies to most people) you still gave it a try. You simply unplugged your TV (so you didn’t get electrocuted) and trying not to touch any of the wires that said “DANGER” on them, you carefully pulled out all of the glass vacuum tubes and packed them in a bag and brought them to the hardware store or even your local supermarket – most of which had a tube tester. You just followed the directions on which knobs to turn and what readings the meters and lights were supposed to be. If you found a tube that was faulty, you’d buy that tube and replace it, hoping it would solve the problem. If it didn’t solve the problem or if none of the tubes were faulty, THEN you called a repairman or brought it into the shop. It could take weeks… or months for you to get your TV back. It’s not that it really took that long to repair, but it just took that long for them to finally get to your TV – or they just held it that long to make it seem like the problem was more complex and involved than it really was. I used to work in an electronics repair shop and I can neither confirm nor deny that there were some hokey things that happened behind the scenes. 

In the age of solid-state electronics, nothing was considered “user” repairable – though many dads tried… and many dads either made matters worse or got shocked (or both) in the process. There were warning labels on the back of the TV to ensure that manufacturers were not held liable. The insides of the television set seemed more complicated and mysterious from that day forward – especially as more features were added and with the advent of color television. I remember one television set that was advertised on a TV commercial by Magnavox: “Works in a Drawer” where all the circuit boards were accessible by opening up a drawer, supposedly making it easier for repair personnel to do their job. I don’t think this concept caught on though because for the rest of us, who cares?

The fact of the matter still remained that there were only 13 channels on the dial. Well, technically not though. It started at 2 and went through 13, but between 13 and 2 was UHF. That was mysterious because with UHF, when you fine-tuned the UHF dial and there was just static/”snow” (at least in our location). It didn’t really matter though because there were only so many television stations in our local community.

Then everything changed. Cable television. This was both a good thing and not so good. For about ten bucks a month, we could get something like 30 premium channels in addition to local TV stations. For a few dollars more, we could get HBO and/or Showtime. This was the first time many of us had our innocence rocked by sneaking R-rated movies while our parents were shopping or on date night. The other thing that changed was that cable TV supplanted other relationships and activities. Where we used to ride bicycles, play ball games and work on tree forts with neighborhood kids, they were too busy watching their favorite shows. Backyard barbecues, gossiping over the fence and sense of community gave way to isolation and sedentary lifestyles. TV ruled almost every American household. Not too much afterward, came VCRs – with the war between Betamax and VHS, with VHS coming out the winner (not due to quality, but availability of movies on the platform). Everybody had a VCR and could buy or rent whatever they wanted. Then came DVDs and Blu-Ray… and now, streaming services.

Sadly, not much has changed since early Cable TV, except that there are seemingly unlimited channels now and with the addition of Smart TV and the Internet, we can watch anything and everything – quite literally. What HAS changed is that instead of a 19” tube-type TV with grainy picture, we now have flat screen, high definition TVs that can take up an entire wall, with booming 7.1 surround-sound. Every home can be a movie theater in this day of modern technology. Does anybody take their TV to the shop anymore? It’s virtually unheard of and I don’t know if there are any local shops that repair them. Mostly, by the time your warrantee expires, it’s time to upgrade to a new TV anyway and the old one gets thrown in the dumpster.