Quote:
Originally Posted by bgadow
I have oftened wondered what percentage of radio repairmen went out of business rather than go into TV repair, and what percentage of TV repairmen were never able or willing to go into color repair. There were certainly a lot of color books in the fifties but I wonder how many readers "got it"?
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Some "old radio guys" in this area sub-contracted their color repairs to guys with the training. My Dad fixed color and solid states sets for two other shops, both owned by guys that went into radio repair after WWII, but never got beyond tube-swapping in B/W sets. When color (and later solid state sets) came along, they got others to fix them - and for Dad it was good money - the set always got picked up and paid for, much better than some of his own customers that cried the mantra "I'll be in on Friday to pick it up." Most times, that Friday never came!
Some guys got by with minimal training and equipment - mostly by tube substitution. Some others here (mostly younger guys in start-ups) bought into the "gotta have every gizmo" to fix sets and quickly went under when they couldn't pay for their equipment.
Still others (and most of the successful ones) worked for shops gaining experience before striking out on their own. They then networked with the other shops for advice, parts, and loaner equipment. This worked well in this area - Dad and five other shops all worked together to help each other out.
It sure was a fun ride - now it's all factory-authorized shops that are thriving, thanks to RPTVs, LCDs, Plasmas, the need for specialty eqipment (Thomson Chipper-Checker, anyone??) and the high cost of service information (Sams only goes so far these days).
Cheers,