1962/3 Zenith 27KC20Q

[Tubejunke]

Originally Posted by rca2000

You said-"stuff was on top of it" and so it was used as a "shelf" That MAY be what saved it...

Round color tubes often have decent life after all of this time. Both of the CTC-5's I have ran across in recent years had very good, like new tubes.

I think some of the subjects such as original cost that we have hit upon lend to sets first not being taken for granted as we do today often letting them play around the clock or somewhere close. I remember as a youngster in the 70s that the ONE family set (a 19" Sears Medalist) was only used a few hours a day, and not every day just some days.

It went like this: The housewife watched a couple of hours of soap operas; when we came home from school we watched a few 1/2 hr shows or cartoons. Dad and sometimes mom watched 1/2 hr. local news followed by the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. Then often there were the prime time favorites of the era for a couple of hours.

Again, even then a color TV of any size was an investment as well as (often) a nice piece of furniture, so even when a set developed some problem that deemed it not worth going to the repair shop again, it was kept. Perhaps a table model would go nicely on top of the old console. That happened a lot! I remember about 1981 or so Dad brought home our first console with a HUGE 24" or 25" tube and remote control. Almost unbelievable at the time. We didn't yet know what the funny round antenna thing sticking out the back would be for. That came several years later when they finally ran cable vision out our road.

Was it really that long ago?