Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for January 26, 2022

It also had a UHF dial for more than 13 channels. And VHF was channels 2-13, there wasn’t a channel 1.

Okay smart guy, set the timer to record a show next week.

No Arlo… Dad didn’t want to get up to change the channel himself.

Our first TV had the UHF channels, but it would be 11 years later before we seen our first UHF channel.

My parents first TV set had a round screen…and rabbit ear antennas. Spent a lot of time fiddling with the rabbit ears trying to get a decent picture.

We got our first TV in 1955. It was a reconditioned black and white. Dad attached a sheet of aluminium foil to the bunny ears to (or so he believed) improve reception. It was another 8 years before we got a color set.

Thanks to WGN we had four channels. I remember when PBS began broadcasting the fifth, featuring mostly lame programs.

I grew up without ever having a tv. The first one I had was in 1960 when I got married,.

There’s a reason there weren’t 12 channels in a given area. Tv sets couldn’t separate adjacent channels. The exceptions were; Ch4 & 5 (They’re not actually adjacent) and between Ch6 & 7 as 7 through 13 are on a much higher band. UHF (14 thru 83) was on an even higher band.

My dad was ahead of his neighbours in England in the late fifties and early sixties!

He was the first to get a telephone in our house, which the locals poo poohed and laughed at him!

He also got a “HUGE” 15 inch black and white TV and my brothers and I would watch Bill and Ben the flowerpot men and Andy Pandy,

It’s a square World with Micheal Bentine and the Arthur Hanes comedy show

Later on we got the first Dr Who episodes and Quatermass and Bonanaza from the US!

Cutting edge at the time!

13 channels? Really? I’ve never seen a tv with 13 channel positions. Who made it?

Oh, he knew. And he knew how to use you too.

Son you’re younger than me, turn on Channel 5.

I think back then people had kids just so they had someone to change channels and jiggle antennas.

I remember the early remotes. Bong – on/off Bing – Change channels. Except the channel number could only increase until it wrapped back to “2”.

Our first tv was a Sylvania that had a lighted ring around the picture tube, it was supposed to make watching easier on your eyes.

I remember when the evening new was only 15 minutes. Not much happened in those days.

But around the 12-station dial there was the ring that you had to twist to fine-tune in the station from just being static. There were also the vertical- and horizontal-hold knobs that had to be adjusted to keep the picture stationary, and they needed to be re-adjusted as the power tubes in the set got warmer. Watching television was a skill! (We got our first set in 1959, and we lived in a viewing area that could pick up only one station.)

My day had a great saying: “It has an OFF switch!”

Not to mention the rabbit ears…

When my family was moving into a new house, the first thing I noticed was that we now had a tower antenna with a rotor-control. All thoughts of moving stuff into the house went out the window as I played with that setup to see what stations I could get.

A few years later, after an ice storm brought that antenna down and dad refused to replace it, I took a portable TV up into the attic and attempted to see what stations I could get. I managed to pull in a station that was 100 miles away, and it was the only time I ever got that one. Which brings up an interesting point not yet mentioned here. Sometimes, apparently due to signals bouncing off the atmosphere, you can get stations from way off. I once got a station for a couple of minutes from three states away!

Don’t forget periodically taking the tubes to 7-11 to check if they were burnt out.

Another example of one of the mysteries of Genetics. People below the age of 14 know, intuitively how yo operate new technology.

At least back then you knew exactly what you would be watching any given night. Another dad trick was when you were adjusting the antenna, you accidentally stood in a place that made it work better. And he would say, stay there!

Don’t forget the antenna rotor.

And when my dad wanted to change channels, I was the designated remote control.

He forgot the horizontal and vertical hold knobs.

Here in the UK our set had 4 channel buttons on the set itself, and we thought that was quite enough ! Actually, it was, and the addition of a remote control and many many more channels has done nothing for the improvement of programmes, so now we watch TV less. That’s progress for you !

That’s OK… The young people now wouldn’t know how to use it either!

And a round screen about 10 inches across.

Ooh! ooh! I almost forgot: in the early days of color TVs you could even buy a color wheel that would connect into the black and white TV and spin a tinted wheel in front of the screen to produce a low quality color picture. I never saw one in person, just ads for them.

Our adjustments were in back, the picture in front. I was the only one who knew how to work it. I was a four year old tyrant.

These days, there’s over 57 channels and nothing on.

And rabbit ears with tin foil antenna.

But the most interesting thing about the TV when I was very young was that it was used by Santa Claus! Yes, it was!

My family was Jewish so we did not have a tree, etc. for Christmas. However I got Christmas gifts (which I later – in my 30s – found out were Christmas gifts given to my dad by clients for me and also by the foreman of my grandfather’s shop). I was upset as we did not have a chimney or a fireplace for Santa to come into the house. My parents explained that if a house does not have same then Santa comes into the house through the TV set – yes, through the TV set. And Christmas morning my gifts from him were in front of the console TV in the living room – so why wouldn’t I believe this?