Thread Number: 80462
/ Tag: Other Home Products or Autos
Happy Birthday to my General Electric console TV |
[Down to Last] |
Post# 1044226   9/8/2019 at 19:06 (1,662 days old) by reactor (Oak Ridge, Tennessee-- )   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
5    
This month is my GE tv's 34th birthday. I purchased it new, in late '85, through a phone-in buying service, before the days of the internet. The service had a database of retailers, you just called them with your item, brand and model number and they gave you the best price and ordered it. Mine was shipped from a retailer in New York.
I had seen this model in a GE electronics brochure that GE had sent me and I fell in love with it. It was their top of the line model. First year that General Electric offered extensive models of stereo TV's throughout their console lineup. No repairs, as of yet. However, I quit using it as a daily driver almost four years ago, when I finally bought a LED big screen. It's in the bedroom now and I still watch it oftentimes at night while I am in bed (using a DTV converter for broadcast viewing.) GE's electronics were superb. I also have a 1982 non-stereo General Electric console, which I purchased about ten years ago, for the guest room. It works flawlessly as well. (Another testimony to GE's electronics are the 30+ year old GSD 2800 dishwashers I have had. Never had a single component nor circuit board failure in any one of them.) The TV was fairly advanced with two antenna inputs and two AV (video/stereo) inputs, all selectable from the remote control. It had AV video/stereo output for taping with the VCR and on screen wording display of functions. Selectable tuner input for cable or air broadcasts. Two woofers and two tweeters with crossover. the sound quality and bass output blows my big screen sound away. It also had the VIR II, the improved version of the system GE won an Emmy Award for, for excellence in technical achievement. It retrieves color and picture informative from the studio (hedden in the signal as reference for TV stations to adjust their equipment.) The tv adjusts its own controls for picture quality based on the network signal. Sadly, in 1986/87 after GE's Welch (Neutron Jack) purchased RCA, he stopped production of tv's by General Electric and used RCA chassis sets with the GE logo. Of course, even more sadly in 1987 Welch destroyed RCA and sold it divisions off. Thomson Consumer electronics purchased GE's Audio and Electronics Division as well as parts of RCA in July, 1987. Thomson produced all GE and RCA sets from that point on and paid a licensing fee to GE to continue the use of the GE and RCA logos. The picture looks better in person, for some reason my digital camera puts lines in the image. Hope it keeps working for another 30 years! Although I most likely won't be living to see it, ha. |
|
Post# 1044228 , Reply# 1   9/8/2019 at 20:17 (1,662 days old) by Frigilux (The Minnesota Prairie)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
3    
|
Post# 1044230 , Reply# 2   9/8/2019 at 20:38 (1,662 days old) by reactor (Oak Ridge, Tennessee-- )   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
1    
|
Post# 1044232 , Reply# 3   9/8/2019 at 20:55 (1,662 days old) by IowaBear (Cedar Rapids, IA)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
2    
I love 80s electronics, thanks for sharing the story.
That television would have appealed to me too with its square corner tube and high-quality stereo audio. The whole thing just exudes modern (for 1985) quality.
I checked newspaper ads and some mom-and-pop Iowa stores were advertising that model in 1986 for just over $1,000 (with trade!) or about $2400 in today's dollars. High-end and priced accordingly!
Surprised you took a chance on mail order for a large item like that in 1985. I do remember the ads for the NYC audio dealers in magazines like Stereo Review. They did always have the best prices but I was never trusting enough being a skeptical Iowa boy... |
Post# 1044243 , Reply# 4   9/8/2019 at 22:20 (1,662 days old) by reactor (Oak Ridge, Tennessee-- )   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
2    
Thanks IowaBear. I remember the price was in the mid to high $900's. I don't recall if there was shipping and/or tax on top of that.
I do remember after about three weeks I got tired of waiting on it, so I called the New York vendor to check on it. I believe it was called "Electronics World." When I called the vendor, in typical New York directness, the guy told me to "have a little patience," as they had to order it from General Electric. Seems like it took about a month and a half to get it, but it definitely was a factory fresh unit. A rather strange and round about way of doing things back then. If General Electric still made those, one could probably order it from Amazon and have it at their front doorstep in a matter of days! |
Post# 1044258 , Reply# 5   9/9/2019 at 04:41 (1,662 days old) by arbilab (Ft Worth TX (Ridglea))   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
3    
As if anyone here had forgotten, those WERE the days. My Toyota turns 34 this coming spring. Starts fast as you can turn loose the key. The radio turned fritzy a couple years ago but the air still works after a can of freon a couple summers ago.
Last year my GE (Penny badge) microwave turned 36, exactly half my age. THOSE were the days too. |
Post# 1044273 , Reply# 6   9/9/2019 at 08:30 (1,662 days old) by norgeway (mocksville n c )   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
1    
Is a 59 Westinghouse in the kitchen and a 73 Frigidaire that my neighbor bought new in 73 in the laundry room, I remember when She got it I was 8! Both work great and the clocks still keep time! |
Post# 1044449 , Reply# 7   9/10/2019 at 15:34 (1,660 days old) by vacerator (Macomb, Michigan)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
1    
RCA, no? |
Post# 1044476 , Reply# 9   9/10/2019 at 20:06 (1,660 days old) by reactor (Oak Ridge, Tennessee-- )   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
3    
Vacerator.
I may not have explained it clearly in my initial narrative. This set was General Electric designed and built. It was manufactured in GE's Portsmouth, Virginia plant. . Sadly, it was the last year for General Electric built televisions. The next year GE used their RCA plants (which GE had just purchased) and just put GE logos on the RCA sets. After Jack Welch disbanded the divisions of RCA he sold RCA consumer products along, with the entire GE audio/visual division to Thomson Consumer Electronics of France. After July 1987 all televisions with a GE or RCA logo were built by Thomson (who paid GE the right to use the two logos.) That is the reason splurged more than I should have and bought this set after seeing it in a GE brochure. My cousin worked for General Electric, at the time, and she told me they were planning on getting out of consumer electronics. So I bought a REAL General Electric set--while I still could. (BTW Attached is a link to one my several articles published in Quora about General Electric and Jack Welch. I talk about his divestiture of GE's core units and the ensuing destruction of GE as a company.) www.quora.com/Why-is-GE-f... |
Post# 1045660 , Reply# 10   9/22/2019 at 17:43 (1,648 days old) by JustJunque (Western MA)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
|
Post# 1045710 , Reply# 12   9/23/2019 at 04:55 (1,648 days old) by arbilab (Ft Worth TX (Ridglea))   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
2    
|
Post# 1045746 , Reply# 13   9/23/2019 at 11:19 (1,648 days old) by JustJunque (Western MA)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
1    
Actually, it was a two-tone.
A dark metallic blue on the top, and sort of a light grey (not silver) on the lower. Dark blue velour interior. I went with him to pick it up from the dealer, and it was one of the most beautiful, luxurious things I had ever seen. I thought we were rich! (ish) I can almost smell the "new car smell" of it to this day. Barry |