Rca and Zenith from 1st to worst

[reeferman]

Having worked at an independent tv shop in the late '60s, I would generally concur with the thread's title. When it came to roundies, Zenith by far was a better set: picture wise and ease of service. A lot of our business came from the poor side of town, and I was astonished by what used to crawl, fly, slither, or jump out of tv's when the back was removed. Cockroaches in Zeniths would generally cause a short between soldered points (lugs). Use compressed air to blow them out of the set, fire it up, and it would usually work. I remember one set had a horrible (horrible) smell to it. When The back was removed, the source was traced to a dead/decomposed mouse stuffed underneath the electrolytics. The boss gave me an extra hours pay to clean it up. I got everything out, fired it up, and by golly, it worked! No damage done. The RCA sets usually sustained more damage when exposed to similar foreign objects. The exterminator was a regular to the shop. I know there were cases where we had to call him in after a set was opened. It was incredible how many cockroaches could hide inside a set!! The boss wasn't afraid to tack on the cost of the exterminator either.