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Old 02-25-2017, 08:13 PM
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A-C Radio and TV color TV display, mid 60s

Here's the change from round to rectangular, on view in the color TV showroom of A-C Radio and Television Co. of Red Bank, NJ, where "Color is our business."

Note the Zenith wall with rectangular screens on top and roundies on the bottom.
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Old 02-25-2017, 08:21 PM
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Can anyone identify the exact model year?
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Old 02-26-2017, 12:29 AM
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Old 02-26-2017, 04:54 AM
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I think it's safe to say this photo was taken in 1967. That was also the very last year for the Zenith roundie. I have several 1967 sets like in this picture.
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Old 02-26-2017, 09:32 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zenithfan1 View Post
I think it's safe to say this photo was taken in 1967. That was also the very last year for the Zenith roundie. I have several 1967 sets like in this picture.
I was guessing 1966, but 1967 makes sense.
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Old 03-06-2017, 10:49 PM
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how many tv's showrooms were like electronics stores today with all of the tv's on? also how regular was it to have a tv or two on in the window of a store, wouldn't the sun wash the screen out at different times of day
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Old 03-06-2017, 11:06 PM
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Quote:
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how many tv's showrooms were like electronics stores today with all of the tv's on? also how regular was it to have a tv or two on in the window of a store, wouldn't the sun wash the screen out at different times of day
The big chains did the "wall of TVs" all turned on, for a long time. Don't know about the smaller independents, would guess that it was less common to have everything running the smaller the store was. It was a tired joke that the wall of TVs would have every set showing a different color rendition.

An operating TV in the window was more of an early TV thing I think, into the 1950s, and mainly involving monochrome sets. There are press pictures of various momentous occasions drawing crowds to windows with TV sets.

By the time color came out, most people were familiar with TV (in monochrome) so a window display wouldn't be such a big draw, plus stores didn't want to degrade the color picture with stray light since a color set was a hard sell at first due to the price, and the degradation seemed much worse than in monochrome. Not only were the color sets dimmer, but I think people were less accepting of washed-out color than washed out contrast on a monochrome set. Another thing to note is that monochrome cameras were operated with the image orthicon exposed above the knee, giving only an approximate gray scale rendition of the scene, with edges enhanced but large areas often washed out compared to a photograph or movie. Color cameras had to be operated in the linear region and have contrast corrected precisely with a gamma correction circuit in order for the color not to shift wildly with scene content. This resulted in tonally correct but usually darker images than those from monochrome practice, making color programs more susceptible to washing out from ambient light on the receiver face.
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Old 03-06-2017, 11:10 PM
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It's also worth mentioning that some of the first places people saw TV (and later color TV) was in bars, as they were some of the earliest adopters in order to show sportscasts for their customers.
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Old 03-06-2017, 11:15 PM
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it seems like there would be a relatively high cost in having a "wall of tv's" that are prone to regular failures, especially when i imagine they were designs for 2-4 hours of use per day and they would be running upwards of 12 in a store environment

i guess back then people would have been much less inclined to buy the ""floor model"
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Old 03-06-2017, 11:21 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by damien191 View Post
it seems like there would be a relatively high cost in having a "wall of tv's" that are prone to regular failures, especially when i imagine they were designs for 2-4 hours of use per day and they would be running upwards of 12 in a store environment

i guess back then people would have been much less inclined to buy the ""floor model"
You have to remember that these were fresh out of the box sets that had not seen 50 years of capacitor degradation or controls getting dirty, so the major failures would be vacuum tube wear-out, not a big deal for something that would be running for less than a year before being replaced by the new model.
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Old 03-06-2017, 11:27 PM
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Quote:
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You have to remember that these were fresh out of the box sets that had not seen 50 years of capacitor degradation or controls getting dirty, so the major failures would be vacuum tube wear-out, not a big deal for something that would be running for less than a year before being replaced by the new model.
this does make sense, and it was probably like today where the best sets get put out and the more prone to fail sit in boxes lol
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Old 03-07-2017, 12:33 AM
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I didn't have the mobility until about 1961 to go around and view color sets. We did however read newspaper advertisements and also see color sets in family members homes prior to this time. From that point forward, we viewed color sets in major department stores in Milwaukee, such as Gimbels, Boston Store and Schusters. I recall vividly sets from most of the major manufactures set up displaying the same program in prime time hours in dept. stores. Probably about a dozen models. We spent hours evaluating the colors from each set.

The smaller stores and mom and pop shops would turn on the color sets upon request, but for the most part, in small independent shops, the sets were off, and maybe only one set was hooked up to an antenna. I do recall color sets displayed in window store fronts, but they were off. In the small shops, often times rabbit ear antennas were used to display color, while the dept. stores with larger budgets had all the sets rumnning with distribution amplifiers.





Independent mom and pop store.

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Last edited by etype2; 03-07-2017 at 12:58 AM.
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Old 03-07-2017, 06:42 AM
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Cool pictures Etype2, I used to work near Holton and North in Milwaukee.

Last edited by EdKozk2; 03-08-2017 at 04:11 PM. Reason: grammer
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Old 03-07-2017, 12:28 PM
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Great picture- Wayne

Just think, the Chicago-three Motorola-Admiral-Zenith in one store, in one of Northern Jersey's wealthier NYC suburbs. Emerson and Westinghouse were still making TV's in nearby factories. You already had 7 (!) VHF channels there too.

Etype - Your last photo shows two 19" mini-consoles from 1967, one a Zenith and the other an RCA CTC19 awesome!
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Old 03-07-2017, 09:10 PM
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I've heard stories about the local Admiral/Sylvania dealer who would setup a color TV in the store window, hooked to a timer. People would gather in his parking lot at night to watch Bonanza in living color!
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