THE SATURDAY SHOP
Ruth Spencer looks at TV sets of yesteryear
What says summer better than a fuzzy black and white television playing the cricket under a fringed parasol? This classic floral canvas umbrella, its plastic point resting harmlessly against a cubist carpet will have Retrophiles gnashing their teeth in envy. A retail display at Champion Radio and TV in Mt Roskill, it speaks enticingly of long, hot days spent trying to wrangle the telescopic antenna into vaguely functional positions without blinding the cat.
Behind Champion’ s Fred Flint stone-emblazoned front window were electronics of all kinds: electric blankets, clocks, lamps, heaters, reel-to-reel tape recorders and crawling baby dolls. The service area was redolent with soldering irons and electric flex; essential tools then, warranty-voiders today. Pride of place in store went, of course, to the televisions, their checkerboard black and white test patterns glowing with promise.
A portable transistor micro-TV like this Sony one was fairly cutting edge for New Zealand in 1965. Our first live television broadcast had been aired only five years earlier, featuring a performance from the Howard Morrison Quartet. It was available to Auckland viewers only and, of course, only to those with the foresight to buy a television before there was anything on it to watch. Some would say there’s still nothing on.
Only a few years later a TV was added to the Consumer Price Index basket, reflecting the fact that whether or not there was anything good on it, televisions had become a standard household purchase. Today New Zealanders buy 300,000 televisions a year. A 23-inch black and white TV cost £131 in 1966, about $4500 in today’s money. That’s enough for a 75-inch Smart TV but you’d be unlikely to pop it out on the patio for a summer cricket binge, even under the jauntiest of parasols.