It was back in the days of televisions with vertical and horizontal hold, and my grandma's bedroom was about two doors down. When the vertical hold went out of whack, she'd call me to fix it... she was already in bed.
Butg the curious thing was, I could HEAR when the vertical hold went out. The super-high-pitched whine of the TV would change. No one could hear it but me. They started to think I was psychic.
I used that fear to rule the household like some horrible Twilight Zone episode.
Creepy, I had the same experience as you Laz. Tinfoil and rabbit ears made me a controlling master of my entire family..........
That all came to and end when they got cable.