I see ads all the time for a cheap antenna. It lets people in on a secret government program which allows you to get programs without paying a cent.
I remember when we got our first TV around 1952. We lived in Panama City and the station did not come on until around dusk. One day a kid told me they were going to start being on all day.
My immediate thought was “how will you be able to see it in the daylight?”
I remember Daddy had a box full of tubes and when one would go out he would take the back off the TV and figure out which tube was bad and replace it.
Where I live now, that cheap antenna they are advertising would only get one station. I still have the old outside antenna and it picks up around 15 channels.
Some of the local drug stores and variety stores had tube testers you could use for free.
And they sold the most common replacement tubes - most for less than a dollar.
I have a booster on my rabbit ears, but I’m thinking about mounting a big one in the attic.
My dad was a Marine radioman in WW II, so he really knew his way around TV innards in the 50s and 60s. Like your Dad, he had a pile of tubes. He even changed out the big momma of them all, the PICTURE TUBE! I remember around age 5 or 6 he showed me how to discharge the capacitors so you don’t kill yourself. I was scared to death one of us was going to get it - poof! Up in a wisp of smoke.
How many today have even heard of the “picture tube”?
We have a boat in Ventura Harbor with 2 tvs and 2 antennas. They get a heckuva lot of channels. Problem is most of them are Mexican, Indian, and Asian. Lol. We get a few of the network channels and some good ones with old shows on them. Our fave channel is ION.