Fading to Black: The Last of the Television Repairmen

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A note pasted to the front entrance of Doc’s Radio & TV in Boardman says it all – and more.

“Doc’s is closed and is no longer taking items for repair,” the sign reads. “We greatly appreciate your business through the years.”

With those words, Doc’s closed its doors in mid-November, ending 73 years in business as the owners retired. The building at 6607 Market St. is now for sale, signaling not just the closure of a longtime family-owned company, but also a longtime industry.

There are few television and radio repair shops left in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys. Once a thriving trade, the TV repair business has largely faded from the local economy. The price of televisions – and electronics in general – have dropped dramatically over the years, allowing consumers the option to purchase new units at approximately the same cost of fixing the device.

“There was a time when the TV repairman was your best friend,” said George Calugar, owner of Central TV at 913 E. Market St., Warren. His is likely today the sole independent television repair shop left between Youngstown and Warren. “We’re one of the rare breeds left,” he said.

Central TV was established in 1951 by his father, George, and three of his uncles the same year as Doc’s. The age of television was relatively new then, as sets and antennas began to pop up along rooftops across the Mahoning Valley’s skyline.

“He and my one uncle started putting TV antennas up out of the back of a station wagon,” Calugar recalled. “About a year later, they opened up shop.” Eventually, his father and uncle ended up running the shop during the late 1950s and early 1960s. At that time, the business was located one block away along Market Street.

Televisions were considered a major purchase then, Calugar said. “I came in in 1973,” he noted. “TVs were getting bigger. When I was getting into it, there were still a few with vacuum tubes, but they were on the wayside.”

A solid TV consul during the mid-1970s – one enclosed in a wooden cabinet, for example – would run between $600 and $800, a sizable cost for that period. In 2024 dollars, that equates to approximately $3,500 to $4,700. Since many of those sets were too large and cumbersome to transport, servicemen were dispatched to homes to fix any problems.

“It was an investment back then,” Calugar said. “People would have to finance TVs. I’d take them to the finance company, and they would hand me a check. And the customer would make their installments.”

Those days are long gone, as technology and advancements in electronics have pushed the industry to an entirely different level. As digital sets equipped with organic LED screens come down in price – in some cases, the price of a new 52-inch “smart” TV is less than $250 – the cost to repair these units is often close to the cost of a brand-new set. “It’s getting that way,” Calugar said.

Still, there are those who opt to repair what they now own or may need assistance in setting up a smart television, Calugar said. “We’re not doing a lot of repair work,” he said. “What we’re doing is a lot of extended warranty work.” That is, the company contracts with insurance companies such as Asurion, which pays for repairs for those who purchase an additional warranty on the product.

Recently, the company replaced a display in a new television, said Gary Day, a technician at Central TV. “The display alone cost more than the entire TV,” he noted.

Calugar said the company remains very busy, ironically installing antennas on homes that wish to pick up over-the-air local networks that their digital service does not provide. Central TV also repairs older audio equipment – a portion of the shop floor is crowded with vintage stereo equipment, tape decks and other assorted analog electronics. The company does not repair or sell computers, cellphones or similar electronics.

Still, business is brisk. “I’m busier than ever,” Calugar said, noting that he has received several referrals from Doc’s just before they shut their doors.

A Fading Industry

Nevertheless, Calugar said, few young people see a future in the business.

“I actually had the place for sale a couple of years ago,” Calugar, now 69, said. “I had a broker list it, but nobody wants it.” Since he owns the building and has two additional tenants, he could always close the business and rent the rest of the shop for another purpose.

“I’d hate to just lock the door,” he said. “But I may be forced to. Insurance isn’t getting any cheaper – you’ve got to do a lot of work to pay the bills.”

Indeed, it’s an entirely different field than the early 1970s, when Calugar first entered the business.

According to the City of Youngstown Directory for 1971, there were 35 television and radio repair service companies listed within the city and nearby suburbs. In the Warren area, the city directory lists 22 such businesses.

“Nobody is getting into consumer electronics repair as a trade anymore,” lamented Dan Resinger, owner of Dick’s TV in Sharon. The business was founded by Dick Webber in 1952 and passed through three family members before Resinger purchased the company in 1984.

“At that time, when a customer bought a new TV, they bought it from a TV store,” he said. Then, gradually, appliance shops began to carry them as inventory. And by the end of the 1980s and into the 1990s, the big-box stores started to stock their shelves with new units. “The retail side has undergone significant changes,” he said.

Moreover, the industry once was home to dependable domestic manufacturers such as RCA and other well-known names. “Now, they’re farming out the manufacturing,” most likely to factories in other parts of the world that can produce TVs faster and at a lower cost, Resinger said. “RCA used to be a top manufacturer – now it’s just a name.”

Quality has suffered as a result, Resinger noted. As it became more difficult for customers to differentiate one manufacturer from another, consumers started to shop based squarely on price. “The name becomes a commodity, not the product,” he said. 

Resinger, now 73, said he works a four-day week and “stays busy enough.” Approximately half of the work he does today is with televisions – down from 90% two decades ago – while the other half of his work is dedicated to fixing miscellaneous electronics. “We’re fixing more radios than we used to,” he said.

On average, he said should repair costs approach half of the retail price of a new set, then it’s unlikely a consumer will take it into a shop to have it fixed. “It really depends on the product and the problem,” he said. “Sometimes they are simple.”

Other jobs include repairing vintage stereos or VCRs, Resinger added. “Part of what I like about the business is that you see the strangest stuff,” he noted. “One guy came in with a remote-controlled door for his chicken coop. We fixed it for him.”

Moreover, Resinger isn’t interested in retiring. “I love what I do,” he said. And although he’s always open to offers from interested buyers, Resinger acknowledges the realities of the local industry.

“My perception is that this type of business is not very marketable,” Resinger said. “They would need to rebrand for something much broader. In that sense, it would be marketable.”

Pictured at top: George Calugar, owner of Central TV.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.