Anyone out there who can recommend a good TV repairman to fix...? Us baby boomers know that those men are just a memory, and there are younger people asking "What? They repaired TVs?"
At one time there was a TV repairman in every neighborhood, often more, especially South Philly. And everyone had the name of their favorite written in their phone book (whether it was personal or on the inside cover of the Yellow or White Pages). Again, the young folks are asking "The what? This must be prehistoric stuff." Between smartphones and computers, phone books are becoming obsolete too. You don't even need to write the numbers down in case your phone gets lost as long as the contacts are backed up. If you're helping a parent clean out a junk drawer and come across one, you're welcome for explaining what those things are.
Back to the TV repairman. Remember being anywhere from a day to a week without TV because your TV set was in the shop because the repairs were a bit more complex or the repair guy had to wait for a new picture tube that was on order and there was only one TV in the house? The great thing back then was that the repairman was like a doctor who made house calls and he usually came right away. He came to your home along with his case loaded with testers for circuits and tubes plus his tools. Kids knew they were going to go into cartoon withdraw when he shook his head, slid the chassis from the cabinet, and was off to the shop with it because repairs were more advanced. A good day was when it was a simple vacuum tube replacement (those were the things that were used before circuit boards and tiny transistors replaced them). The smart people were the ones who ran down to G.C. Murphy or another store and took the tubes down to be tested before calling the repairman. You could buy replacements right there. You were a smart parent if you sent your teen to do it for you. As long as the kid knew enough and asked for help if needed, you were okay.
Our TV repairman was a guy named Sam who had a repair shop on 18th Street andWolf Street. Sam was a nice guy. There was a guy named Sal right around the corner, but Sam's wife bowled with my mom at St. Monica Lanes on Friday nights. She was the type who was a loyal friend but she also worried that she would offend someone if she hired a person and then found out that a friend or friend's husband did that type of work.
Sam did have one misfortune - us. My brother and I used to stay up late on summer nights and browse her phone book for someone to make prank calls to. Some called them crank calls and whatever you called them, they could bring a lot of laughs as long as you didn't threaten or even give a hint of threratening someone. Kids, you can't do that today because of caller ID. Even if you make your call private, the phone company has the technology to track the calls and they will if you make them. With Sam being a repairman, he was the perfect guyfor these calls. We would awakened him at 2 A.M. to ask if he repaired some strange things. We were strange kids, so go figure.
Solid-State circuitry was the beginning of the end of the TV guy. I remember the TV ads when Motorola started to tout that repairs on their Quasar sets were a matter of popping out modules and replacing them instead of tubes. Amazingly, I found one of their commercials at https://youtu.be/CWhn2BLyM1o ! Hey, no waiting for the TV to warm up anymore! You do remember the picture starting as a dot and growing until you had a full screen, don't you? You still needed a repairman to do that as you could no longer pop the tubes out and test them yourself, or have your guy do that for you. But he needed to be up on things for that brand and it meant a longer wait before the repair guy received the module to install. By then, more people had a 19-inch "portable" TV. What made them portable was that they had a carry handle, but they still had some weight and the portability was that yo could take it from the bedroom to sit on top of the cabinet of your downstairs television.
Things became more advanced to where you replaced the TV instead of repairing it. It became less expensive to replace one than repair it. Now, you would only get one repaired if it was still under warranty, and you can almost forget calling someone to come to fix it. Modern circuitry means doing the work on a workbench instead of in the house. And more electronics in the landfill. Fortunately, the City of Philadelphia makes you bring your electronics to a recycling center. Or unfortunately, because you'll be fined for leaving them at curbside and not everyone has the ability to drop-off their TV. So much for progress!
AND YOU MAY REMEMBER...
* TV cabinets that were more like furniture pieces? Some people shopped for TVs that were close to matching the living room as much as they did features. As in: "We can't buy that one. The cabinet is oak and the tables are walnut."
* The weight of an older TV? I became friends with Sal who had the repair shop at 17th & Oregon Ave. He told me that carrying out a chassis from a home to the shop and back could be back-breaking, especially since most guys worked solo. He learned radio and TV repair after WWII and started a business that survived for decades until his servives became obsolete.
* A survivor - Sammy TV. I saw their van on the street recently and through an Internet search found that they still do repairs. I don't know if it's the same owner or if he sold the business. His son was in mt graduating class at Neumann when repairs were still being done actively.
* B&W TV. My brother had a conversation with a guy who wouldn't believe that there was such a thing. He had to ask his father if it was true and was amazed that anyone would buy one.
NEXT WEEK: The Duck Lady
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