Not to derail this thread, but almost everyone in my age group has some family TV stories. The old man knew nothing about radio and TV other than how to turn them on and off. One thing he did know was how to whip the back off of that TV and pull tubes. He'd put them all in a paper bag and disappear down to the drugstore for an hour so and come back with a big smile on his face, like he just beat them at their own game. Back in 1950, he held out for a 17" table model Starrett, as most of our neighbors had those small-tube consolettes. He never thought it was necessary to have a roof mount or outdoor antenna. In the Detroit area there were only 3 channels at that time; 2, 4, and 7. Channel 9 over in Windsor, ON wasn't there yet. He knew the exact placement needed for those rabbit ears for each channel. Only channel 2 (WJBK) would give you any problems. It seems that there was alway a thin vertical line, top to bottom, on the left side of the tube which was impossible to tune out. Other than that, the picture was okay. We went through many indoor antenna experiments back in those days. One of the most memorable was the floor lamp antenna attempt. Do you remember that you mother, grandmother, or maybe an aunt may have had a floor lamp somewhere in the living room? It usually consisted of a large 3-way bulb at the center with maybe 3 smaller satellite lamps in an outer ring just below. Someone, most probably at the 'Paradise Cove', told the old man that if he would remove the rabbit ears, and run a patch cord over to the floor lamps' cord, he'd negate any need for an outside antenna. It seemed to work for awhile, but my mother had the final say as she evidently didn't appreciate the lamp being moved out into the middle of the living room.
Flash forward to the early 60's which found me living in the new Capehart Housing unit at NAS Lemoore, CA. The base was fairly new and the community antenna system hadn't been completed. Just being recently married, we felt extremely fortunate to be where we were. My first major appliance purchase was a Sears 21" console with both, VHF and UHF tuners. I had never seen a UHF tuner on a TV before, and the salesman gave me a crash course in UHF reception for the San Joaquin valley. As it were, the little UHF loop proved ineffective in the base area. I don't believe we could get any VHF TV at that time. It seems that most, if not all of the UHF transmitters where way up in the hills above the valley. A few of the married guys in my squadron, who also lived in the Capehart housing area, had similar reception problems. All of Capehart unit floor plans were basically the same and came with a privacy fence around a cement slab patio, which was accessed through a door wall of the living room. Someone figured out how to attach the twin leads from the TV to the metal screen on the door wall. Problem solved. I don't remember how many channels we were able to get, but whatever the townspeople got in Lemoore, Bakersfield, Fresno, Hanford and Visalia we got. So, hang on to those tuners as you never know when a situation may arise.
