What RCA Did I Have?

[Electronic M]

What a fascinating design! I wonder if any still exist?

[Phil Nelson]

I wonder if any were ever sold? Seems like one of those gimmicky features driven by engineering: "Hey, we know how to design a TV to do this -- do you think anyone would pay extra for it?"

If that satisfied a real customer need, RCA would have sold bunches of them and other manufacturers would have wasted no time in copying the feature. I guess Joe Average didn't find it too burdensome to walk over and turn the channel knob when he wanted to watch The Honeymooners.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

I wonder if any were ever sold? Seems like one of those gimmicky features driven by engineering: "Hey, we know how to design a TV to do this -- do you think anyone would pay extra for it?"

If that satisfied a real customer need, RCA would have sold bunches of them and other manufacturers would have wasted no time in copying the feature. I guess Joe Average didn't find it too burdensome to walk over and turn the channel knob when he wanted to watch The Honeymooners.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

RCA advertised it in the Sept 14th 1959 issue of LIFE magazine - probably a rich-folk set, no price mentioned. Google Books has a scan - looks like an insert to the magazine:

https://books.google.com/books?id=BU...021%22&f=false