Oh, the humble television repairman—a relic of a bygone era, now nearly as extinct as Blockbuster Video or landlines that don’t call about your car’s extended warranty. In Youngstown, Ohio, the quiet death of Doc’s Radio & TV wasn’t just a retirement party; it was a funeral for an entire trade. Let’s pour one out for Doc’s, which hung up its tools after 73 years of saving TVs from the brink of oblivion. Or maybe don’t. The note on their door reads less like a goodbye and more like a parent dropping their kid off at college: “Thanks for the memories. We’re done. Good luck.”
The End of an Era
For anyone out there who remembers when televisions were considered an investment—yes, those days existed—it’s no surprise this industry is fading faster than a plasma screen with burn-in. Back in the mid-20th century, a TV set wasn’t just a purchase; it was a lifestyle choice. You didn’t just pick one up at Costco on a whim. You agonized over it, maybe took out a loan, and probably talked about it at dinner parties like it was your new baby.
And then, when something inevitably went wrong with your prized possession, you didn’t throw it out like today’s disposable flat screens. No, you called your friendly neighborhood TV repairman, who’d arrive at your doorstep armed with tools, knowledge, and the ability to explain vacuum tubes like they were some kind of mystical artifact.
But, alas, the world has moved on. Technology has marched forward, and TV repair has been left behind like an old UHF antenna on a rooftop. The big-box stores of the world killed the mom-and-pop repair shops. And now, with brand-new 52-inch smart TVs costing less than a family dinner at Olive Garden, who’s even bothering to repair their sets? Spoiler alert: basically no one.
Meet the Survivors
Still, there are a few holdouts. The Calugars of Central TV in Warren, Ohio, have been in the business since 1951, which is basically the Jurassic period in tech years. George Calugar is the last man standing in what he describes as a “rare breed.” His shop isn’t a bustling hub of repair activity so much as a museum of a time when people cared about their electronics. But even he admits the work is shifting.
“It’s getting that way,” he says of the repair-vs.-replace dilemma. In other words, fixing a TV today costs almost as much as buying a new one, which is why Central TV spends more time doing extended warranty work and fixing vintage audio equipment than actual televisions. Yes, apparently some people still want antennas installed on their roofs. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.
Meanwhile, over at Dick’s TV in Sharon, Pennsylvania, owner Dan Resinger is embracing the absurdity of modern repair work. Sure, he still fixes the occasional TV, but he’s more likely to be repairing a vintage stereo or, say, a remote-controlled chicken coop door. (If you’re wondering who needs such a thing, the answer is probably someone who also owns a tinfoil hat.)
The Slow Death of Quality
Part of the problem is that TVs just aren’t what they used to be. Once upon a time, brands like RCA were synonymous with quality. Today, those same names are slapped onto products churned out by the lowest bidder in some factory halfway across the globe. As Resinger puts it, “The name becomes a commodity, not the product.”
It’s a race to the bottom in the electronics market, where the only thing that seems to matter is price. Consumers have been conditioned to see TVs as disposable, not durable. Why pay $200 to repair a screen when Walmart’s got a shiny new one for $250? The result? Fewer people are bothering to fix their sets, and fewer still are bothering to learn how.
No Future for the Young Blood
Even if you wanted to dive into the glamorous world of TV repair (because who doesn’t dream of soldering circuit boards in a dusty workshop?), good luck finding anyone to teach you. The trade is dying not just because of cheap electronics, but because no one’s interested in learning it. As Calugar puts it, “Nobody is getting into consumer electronics repair as a trade anymore.”
It’s a tough sell, honestly. Imagine telling a teenager in 2024 they should skip coding boot camp and spend their lives fixing 30-year-old amplifiers and VCRs. They’d look at you like you just suggested they start a MySpace page.
The Irony of Nostalgia
Here’s the kicker: while modern TVs are mostly a lost cause, the repairmen are finding a niche in the world of nostalgia. People are dusting off their old stereo systems, cassette decks, and—God help us—VCRs, hoping to bring them back to life. Why? Maybe it’s the same reason vinyl records are cool again. Or maybe some people just like the idea of owning something that wasn’t designed to fall apart the minute the warranty expires.
But even in this niche market, the writing’s on the wall. Calugar’s shop is still busy, sure, but he knows the day is coming when he might have to hang it up. “I’d hate to just lock the door,” he says, but without someone willing to take over, he may not have a choice.
What’s Next?
So what happens when the last TV repairman finally flips the “closed” sign for good? Will we mourn them like we mourn other dying trades, with a mix of nostalgia and indifference? Probably. Or will someone figure out how to rebrand the whole thing for the 21st century, turning vintage repair into some kind of hipster art form? Also possible.
In the meantime, let’s take a moment to appreciate the dwindling few who are still out there, soldering wires and diagnosing dead pixels. They’re not just fixing broken electronics; they’re preserving a little piece of history—a reminder that there was a time when we didn’t just toss things in the trash at the first sign of trouble.
So here’s to the TV repairmen, the rare breeds, the unsung heroes of the analog age. We’ll miss you when you’re gone, even if we only realize it when we’re stuck with a $2,000 OLED screen and no one around to fix it. RIP, Doc’s Radio & TV. You were too good for this world. Or at least, too good for this economy.
