I was reading an article about the trouble buying a "large screen" black & white set in 1982, and came across this quote:

No b-w sets are made in the United States anymore. And since Zenith discontinued its 22-inch design last year, there are no console models anywhere, says Robert DeLoach, Florida field sales manager for the Zenith distributor.

I found this very interesting, as we recently had a discussion here about end of the road B&W consoles and the last ones seen were Admirals and Truetones built in 80/81. Now, here's evidence Zenith produced one that late.

I know many of you have extensive literature on Zeniths. I would love to know more about the last B&W console; model or chassis numbers, a promotional pic or ad illustration.

Oct. 24, 1982 article (http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mPUgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=I3UFAAAAIBAJ&dq=zenith%20black%20%26%20white&pg=1694%2C4280067)

I'm not surprised that Zenith still made a large screen B&W as late as '81 as Zenith still held out longer on other designs that were dropped by most others - such as the 23V color CRT that was around until around '83, consoles on legs that were still made during the '80's, and knob tuned sets that they still made up until the late '80's. I'm sure the reason Zenith kept these trends going is because they had quite a following among the older crowd and they wanted to keep their business.

I think that Admiral built Truetone B&W console that I saw was from '79. It had a great picture; but, was in a very cheap made cabinet, as I'm sure all these "late" B&W consoles were. I think I also remember reading on here where someone spotted a Sylvania B&W console from around '80-'81.

Speaking of the last US made B&W's, I remember reading in a trade magazine from around '81-'82 where GE had shifted it's production of it's B&W sets to Asian countries.

As far as "late" large screen B&W's, I wish I still had that 22" steel cabinet Zenith table model from around '77-'78. Someone gave me such a set back around '91 and it had a good picture after I popped the dead CRT with my B&K 465. That was before I was interested in saving TV's and I promptly sold it for $40. Remember, that was the early '90's and just about any kind of TV with a picture could still be sold for a decent price, unlike today.

My baby-boomer aunt had a black and white GE console well into the late 80's. I do remember it was solid state, and the cabinet didn't look horribly outdated. It was more sensitive in her rural location and she could pick up all 3 major networks with it. Lightning (more likely power surges) kept killing color sets for her, but this B/W console was absolutely indestructible.

Cheapo Motels here used 21" (22V CRTs) GE Solid State BW Consolettes - most were very late 80's specialty chassis. The cabinets had solid hardboard backs and plastic grilles in the side of the cabinet for cooling. I had a buddy that dabbled in TV repair in the early-90's for the motels, and he had me fix a few - he was lousy at troubleshooting beyond fuses and the occasional tuner problem. I must've replaced a dozen sound IF chips in those GE's - ECG712 chips, I recall. GE must've got a big batch of bad ones.

Odd to see BW sets in motels that late, but with a GE plant right down the road, the price was most certainly cheap.

Cheers,

Cheapo Motels here used 21" (22V CRTs) GE Solid State BW Consolettes - most were very late 80's specialty chassis. The cabinets had solid hardboard backs and plastic grilles in the side of the cabinet for cooling. I had a buddy that dabbled in TV repair in the early-90's for the motels, and he had me fix a few - he was lousy at troubleshooting beyond fuses and the occasional tuner problem. I must've replaced a dozen sound IF chips in those GE's - ECG712 chips, I recall. GE must've got a big batch of bad ones.

Odd to see BW sets in motels that late, but with a GE plant right down the road, the price was most certainly cheap.

Cheers,

I'd like to see one of those. Did the chassis look similar to the "XA" chassis that was used in their 19" B&W's?

And, those NTE712's - I remember replacing those quite often in various B&W sets back in the early '90's.

A friend of mine, who started repairing TV's in the early '70's, said that some of the "rent by the hour" motels around here had Muntz (AKA, the gutless wonder) B&W TV's.

I'd like to see one of those. Did the chassis look similar to the "XA" chassis that was used in their 19" B&W's?

And, those NTE712's - I remember replacing those quite often in various B&W sets back in the early '90's.

A friend of mine, who started repairing TV's in the early '70's, said that some of the "rent by the hour" motels around here had Muntz (AKA, the gutless wonder) B&W TV's.

I don't have a picture, but yes, these were XA variants. The sets had a "kit" feel to them - simple plastic escutcheon attached to a pressboard cabinet - I remember the smears of pinkish glue inside the cabinets. No CRT bell, and the back had openings for only the "F" fitting and the power cord. The audio circuitry had the chip feeding an output transistor with 110VDC on the collector - and the speaker was right under the UHF tuner. I got to the point where if I had no sound and a herringbone pattern on the screen, I'd pull the back, disconnect the speaker and ground wires, slide the chassis out, replace the chip, re-connect things, and put the back on, all without checking things. 90% of the time I was done - the chip failures were that common. I worked on 10 or 12 of the sets, but they had about 60-70. Once I reduced my buddy's backlog, he took to fixing the rest with bad sound.

Cheers,