How expenisve was a black and white tv set in late '70's and early '80's

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by nasadowsk

I always found the UK's TV license a bit funny, and the fact that color cost more, even more bizzare. Like it was sucking extra signal out of the air, or something like that...

Anyway, my parents got a 19" RCA portable in the early 70's, it sat on the shag rug in the family room for years. Red rug, dark brown wall paneling. Once the trophy collection on there ran out of room and the ceiling had to be raised a second time (!), the rug and paneling went away. We have no pictures of the original ceiling - the raised one with my dad's record caribou on it is the oldest I know of, and that's old.

Poor TV cooked on that rug.

The color went out around '82 or so. Around '86, they replaced it with another RCA. I remember being so amazed that it came on instantly, that I just stood there turning it on/off with the remote the first day we got it. Was a Colortrak 2000. Eventually died from that weird tuner issue

My grandma on my mom's side had an old tube color RCA (25"). Had a wavy picture - HK short? The panel where the speaker was pulled open for the color, hold adjustments. Popped a few 6GH8s, a 6BK4, 3a3s, a flyback, and a few other sundry tubes. No idea what chassis it was (I want to say 38).

The one on my dad's side had a Zenith.

You can guess which one lasted longer.

Trinitrons always commanded a premium. They were never cheap sets.

A good friend of the family had a son that lived in the UK. They had a color TV that they rented. I guess, they reasoned that there was an advantage to it instead of owning it. The rental covered the maintenance as well as the TV tax.
The BBC does not depend on advertising revenue, as I understand it!