[Jeffhs]

For many years, Zenith was my hands-down favorite brand of TV, stereo and audio. When I lived in suburban Cleveland, in fact, for many years my basement was full of 1950s-'60s Zenith televisions, all of which were trash finds, including a Zenith K-2739 23" b&w set. I was able to get most of those sets operating fairly well, although I had to replace all the tubes in the K-2739 because someone had filched all but two of its tubes (the 1K3 HV rectifier and the 23ANP4 CRT; thank goodness there was a TV parts place near me at the time).

However, it was worth it, as when I powered up the TV after installing the last new tube, I had a beautiful picture on all three (at that time, late '60s-early seventies) Cleveland network affiliate TV stations. I even patched an old KnightKit FM tuner into the audio, by taking the audio output from the tuner and feeding it into the TV's audio stages by connecting a shielded audio cable across the TV's volume control. The tuner sounded great, owing to the TV's 6BN6-6BQ5 audio stages and a 6x9 oval speaker in the base of the TV cabinet.

I enjoyed the heck out of this TV for about two years, then, in the summer of 1972, I found I had to move yet again (long story). I hated like anything to have to give up that set, but the place I was moving to had nowhere near enough room for all the TVs in my collection, let alone the Zenith K-2739 (again, very long story and OT).

I moved back to my former home three years later (1975; once again, long story and OT), and began collecting old TVs again, mostly trash-picked Zeniths, of course. One of my favorites was a 1959 Zenith 19-inch b&w portable which, to my amazement, worked as soon as I plugged it in after getting it home. Even the CRT was good, which surprised me since this TV was over 20 years old when I found it.

I kept collecting old TVs, getting most of the sets working as well as I could, until 1998 when I found out, again, that I would have to move (another long story). Since I would be moving to an apartment (the one I live in today, 21 years later), I again got rid of every one of my old TVs, even though I didn't want to.

Oh, well. At least I still have my memories of the large TV collection I had in the early 1970s until '98; these are memories I will keep the rest of my life. I now have an Insignia 32" flat-panel TV with an LG DVD player and a Panasonic VCR, mounted in a cabinet to the right of my desk in my apartment, but I do think from time to time of those old sets I had in suburban Cleveland; believe me, I'll never forget those days. TV was better then, both from a programming standpoint (I still have VHS tapes of old network TV programs from the '50s through about the eighties, and DVDs mostly with programs from that era as well) and also because TVs were made a lot better in those days than they are today; for one thing, the old sets can be repaired if they develop problems, whereas today's flat screens are usually thrown out and replaced when they go bad, because they are so inexpensive these days it isn't worth trying to have them repaired (the cost of repairs would, in many if not most cases, equal or even exceed the price of a new TV).

Now we are hearing stuff about "next-gen" TV, which will require replacement of a perfectly good flat-screen TV with one capable of receiving the new signals, although I understand there will be converters available when the time comes (perhaps in five years), so we may not, probably even likely will not have to worry about junking a perfectly good flat screen just because the TV transmission standards will eventually change. However, your next TV after your present flat screen goes bad may well be a next-generation one; only time will tell.

From what I have read about the next-gen TV standards and how they will affect today's television system, though, it may very well be a change whose time has come, after all, although I do wonder in the back of my mind why the change is being made in the first place. Color and stereo sound, not to mention high definition TV, were very important and worthwhile changes, IMHO, to North American television, but I'm not so sure about next-gen TV. However, things are constantly changing in our world, so I guess we had better get used to the idea because it's coming, and nothing is going to stop it. For all I know, the new system may be even better than today's HDTV.