The other night, I was hooking up our TV and video equipment in our living room after we had new floors installed and it struck me: “I wonder what ever happened to TV repairmen?” As I got to thinking about it, I never repaired a TV during all the years we’ve been married. When I was a kid in Youngstown, it was a different story.

We used to have a Magnavox black and white TV in an impressive wood cabinet during my early growing up years. We could get channels 21, 27, and 33, and when conditions were right, stations in Cleveland ands Pittsburgh. I watched Saturday morning cartoons and Barney Bean and Bonanza, Ed Sullivan, and the Wonderful World of Disney on that TV. When it worked, that is. There would be times when the picture would go all wonky, losing vertical or horizontal control. I remember mom fiddling with various knobs we weren’t allowed to touch. Sometimes it was the tuner, which she would flick back and forth to get a channel, or turn the outside ring to fine tune it. And sometimes all we got was snow.

That’s where the TV repairman came in. We usually had the repairman come to the home. He came with an impressive box of tools including a tube tester. It was often the case that our problems could be traced to a burned out tube. He’d replace it, clean the tuning dial, make sure everything was working, and hand mom the bill. It seems that this was a fairly common occurrence. In fact, some do it yourself-ers would unplug the TV, look for a darkened tube, take it to the local hardware and use the free tube tester to find out if that was the problem, and then buy a replacement tube, plug it in, and hope it worked.

This changed when transisters and integrated circuits replaced tubes. Unless lightning fried your circuit board (and usually blew out the picture tube) those TVs would work a long time. We had an RCA that was still working after 20+ years when our married son decided we needed to replace it with our flat screen Sharp. With the lower costs of electronics generally, if they do fail, they often are cheaper to replace than repair.

So what happened to all the TV repairmen and repair shops? I suspect many shops went out of business. Technicians who understood electronics adapted to the changing market. They started repairing computers and other electronic equipment. There has been a resurgence in interest in vintage electronics–those old Pioneer and Marantz receivers and vintage turntables to play vinyl old and new (remember CDs?).

This is evident in the one business from the ads above that has survived in the Youngstown area. Doc’s Radio & TV began in the early years of the TV era in 1951. Formerly located at 3726 Market Street, they have moved south to 6607 Market Street. They still service all brands of TVs including LED, LCD, Plasma, Projection and direct view models. They also service a variety of computers, video equipment, professional and home audio, and even automobile key fobs. They emphasize that their specialty is vintage home audio repair. They offer both in home and carry in service–carrying on a tradition from the early days of the business.

When we were growing up, we repaired rather than recycled as long as possible. Often, there weren’t good recycling options. It’s actually an interesting thought that we might consider repairing rather than replacing our electronics. I have a turntable that is over forty years old. I’ve learned to lubricate it, to change belts and found a vendor selling styli for my vintage cartridge. I love it and it still sounds great! Maybe its time to imitate our parents and call the repair man or woman and at least see if it is worth repairing our electronics.

To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!