That sounds familiar. Those guys were probably miserable, trying to make a living by chasing the "present market" for repairs. Quite a moving target these days, I'd rather be like Emmett on Andy Griffith and fix any damned thing that came in the door. Just a variac, meter and light bulbs for equipment testing.
If they were younger, they might have really thought you were joking, wanting to put any effort into a CRT set. I remember asking the owner of a Zenith Shop for a job in College about 1984. He was miserable too and said no. It wasn't the 70s anymore
