Another new member
 

Hi Everyone, I am also new to this forum. I grew up with early color my Dad brought a Zenith color set around late 1963. I still remember watching that set as a young child and shows like Flipper, Disney, Bonanza and Batman in color. We lived in the Los Angeles broadcast market and just about all broadcasting was in color around 1966. I think it was that set that got me interested in electronics and broadcasting.

In the late seventies I worked for a Zenith dealer, back then people would have their sets repaired and it was common even to change CRTs. I would fix up roundies that were trade-ins and sell them to friends. In 1974 my parents bought a new solid-state zenith with the 25EC58 chassis. Just by fate and a lot of luck I still have the round Zenith I grew up with. The chassis is 25MC33 with space command in near mint condition. I’m going to recap it someday soon it’s starting to have problems with color sync and showing it’s age and I need to change the CRT but the other jugs I have don’t match the color of the bezel. This set still has its original CRT. It has only had needed parts replaced to keep it running. When the shop closed in the eighties my old boss let me save parts to be able to keep this guy running for many years. I have a few 21”sets at work as well.

I also like tube HI FI, radios and nothing is better to work on old televisions then tube test equipment but I do use a modern color bar generator. I could not stand using the tube RCA unit I had.

I learned a lot from the old timers at that shop and I still remember a lot of the tricks they taught me. Hope to be able to help others from time to time. I’m glad there are other people interested in our electronic history. Most people my age have no idea how tubes work. They do get a bang out of my sets.
I will try and post a picture of one of them where I work.

Steve

N.B.C. began full color broadcasting in 1966.

Welcome from another newbie. :) That's a great looking zenith!

Hi Steve:

Welcome and it is good to have another Steve in the group! Your story is very similar to mine, dad bought a Zenith in the 60s, worked for a Zenith dealer in the 70s (now out of business), learned many tricks from my boss, etc. Are you still in the LA area? There are at least 3 or 4 of us Steves out here who collect old TVs.

Steve

Nice old Zenith, there, pal ! Welcome to the monkeyhouse...<grin>-Sandy G.

<<< Are you still in the LA area? There are at least 3 or 4 of us Steves out here who collect old TVs.>>>

He MUST be, I recognize that KTLA morning news on his roundie!...Frenchy (a fellow So. Calif. tv collecter in Moreno Valley)

Welcome from here, too! I have a 25MC30 & a 25MC33. Never bothered to see just what the difference is (they share a Sams) though I notice the 33 is "hi-fi" (great sound). You mentioned matching the bezel color-my 33 has a 70s replacement Zenith crt and it is really noticable, very light gray compared to that sort of olive green. That just means you have to leave the set on all the time so you don't have to look at the difference!

i am a steve also. i grew up with a admiral 21" roundie. it got used a lot only one repair in 9 years. it was still working when we traded it in for a rca xl 100 console. steve (rcaman)

Welcome aboard Steve. Very nice Zenith. I hope
you spend many happy hours here on the forum.

Another So. Cal Steve.




-Steve D.

reply
 

Hey Steve D., on your site there is an ad that shows the entire CTC-5 line with the three glamorous women around it...THATS the tv ad that I have seen bits and pieces of that is cool, them dancing around singing something like "wonderful picture, spectac-ular sound, RCA Vic-torrrr, new Color T-V!". Still wish I could see that whole commercial. Was a very long and involved ad, maybe they showed it at movie theaters or something....Frenchy

Frenchy,

Thanks,

That is a cool magazine ad. Very 50's. Like you, I have seen only portions of the film ad. I would guess it was an industrial film for RCA Victor dealers and perhaps it was also shown on tv. I know the teasing portions were included in one of those history of tv shows sometime back.



-Steve D.

welcome
 

welcome from any old tv tech back from "old school" when men were men and color was real!!

Wow a lot of Steve's here too. Have the same problem at work. I still live in the LA area and work in cable tv. That Zenith was at one of my transmission sites for many years. It has a late 70's tube in it and the picture is not bad up against our broadcast monitors. It has held up better then I thought would be possible it has been run 1000's of hours without any major trouble. Last year we shut down that site so it's in storage for now. I have 3 Zenith's and 1 RCA studio video monitor roundies.
Steve