Dragnet Goes After TV Repairmen in 1951

Detective Friday goes after a vicious new kind of crime: Crooked TV repairmen who overcharge their customers. These monsters unnecessarily replace (or say they do!) transformers, when all that is needed is a new 5U4 tube. Oh, the humanity!

And the reporter they were working with pretended to be a salesman for a new company dealing in rosin-core solder!

No kidding. I really thought this was a joke. They were serious. Just click on the video above to listen.


Or scroll forward to the 1:32:59 point on this link. Lots of tube talk. This one’s for you Grayson! https://wamu.org/story/18/02/20/big-broadcast-feb-25-2018/

4 thoughts on “Dragnet Goes After TV Repairmen in 1951”

  1. Silly coincidence… i’m 58, live in Portugal and i am constantly saying “learn English” how? – by listening to it… Am currently w/o a job, all i get is ‘kids’ saying i’ve seen it on utub… hah… I’m a tech of some 40 years, allways on the lookout to see/learn a bit more, follow the soldersmoke podcast, trying to learn a bit more of my first love v(radio), also remember trying to learn some fr dad, a retired navy seargeant that did repairs to the customers home, i was about 9 carried the Simpson 260 & the tube caddy, customer talways talked too much, found the repair too expensive & after awhile dad had a ‘dictionary’ about complaints.. it ran something like: “it’s just round th corner’… that translated to – its a 5th floor, no elevator, the set is a monster heavy thing… Another very usual conplaint:”must be a litle fuse” – that translated to: i’ve put a nail in there and the thing still didnt work, now its smoking… & on & on… When i worked for Texas Instruments there was allways an occasion to make a bit profilatic comment/formation of the colleagues, used to to be the guy that took care of PC’s on the night shift, anything fr software, hardware a caddy- ME, huh even got to be the ‘phone guy’ whenever some english speaking call came in (mostly at 3AM-when i was at the table} “Hey, Ferreira, theres a guy speaking english in here, take it” … well, Rant off… Apreciate the blog, dont loose a podcast, i try to pass on the tips of a lifetime… so what? . By Jove… A.Ferreira (avoarferro@hotmail.com) going to see my collection of old magazines

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