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SECTION 2 - PAGE 10 - PLAINDEALER-WKDNESDAY. JANUARY 21,197« * Television: still a good buy People who go shopping today don't have to be reminded of the impact of Inflation on the prices of everything from automo­ biles "to zithers. The rude awakening comes every time there are bills to be paid and family budgets to be balanced. While the wage earner may despair that every­ thing has gone up in price, there Is still a handful of products and services that cost less or at least no more than In the past, de­ spite accelerating Inflation. The list of good buys still available includes col­ or and black-and-white television sets, pocket cal­ culators, ballpoint pens, home power tools, long­ distance telephone calls, some appliances, ahd even the lowly banana. Holding the line on prices in the face of soar­ ing costs reflects greater productivity largely result­ ing from Improved manu­ facturing techniques, new materials, new (technolo­ gies, bigger markets and greater competition, ac­ cording to William C. Hit- tinger, RCA Executive Vice President. In the case of many electronic products, Mr. Hlttinger explained, the STRETCH- ABUCK AT VYCITALS PRO-HARDWARE ' 1221 N. GREEN ST., McHENRY, ILL & STOREWIDE 20% DISCOUNT ON ALL REGULAR PRICE MERCHANDISE - CASH SALES ONLY - advent of solid state tech­ nology has made possible smaller, more reliable, but less expensive products. He cited color television sets as an example. A 1975 color TV set actually costs the consumer somewhat less than its 1966 counter­ part and substantially less than Its 1954 predecessor. "The color TV set that launched the industry in 1954 is as different from today's sets as the Ford Trl-Motor is from the Boe­ ing 747," he said. The 1954 set, called the CT-100, originally retailed for $1,000 and featured a 15-inch round, long-neck tube. It had a chassis con­ sisting of 37 electron tubes. By 1966 the number of tubes in the chassis had been reduced to 26 and the price of\the set was under $500. Many 1975 sets, such as the 15-inch (diagonal) RCA-XL-100, retail for less than $400 and use all solid state (tubeless) chassis and rectangular tubes with short necks. They are cheaper, light­ er, smaller, simpler to operate, more reliable, brighter and technologi­ cally superior in every way to their 1966 and 1954 cousins. Since television pro­ gramming is "free" to the viewer, it has always been an Important leisure time activity. In the present economic environment, with more people staying that keeps BOUNCING BACK 1 . There was once a dollar all crisp and# new, spent in a store by someone like you. Someone thinking of their home town, Who wanted the dollars to.stay around. The store gave the dollar to farmer Brown, who had brought some of his produce to town. The farmer's car needed tires and repairs, so he went to another place for his wares. • 'Course they never kept it but spent it for parts, Do you realixe what this really starts? A chain of reaction that gladdens our hearts. The parts man put it back on its way. For his wife he bought a dress that very day. So the clothier was able to fix the store, That kept the?dollar going some more. Then the carpenter had something to do, Someone benefited -- maybe you! For gas or drugs it could have been spent, We'll never know which way it went. But here's one thing we know is true, It's terrific what your dollars will do. It builds our community everywhere. Can we count on you to do your share??? rut w McHENRY PEOPLE SERVING McHENRY SINCE 1906 McHENRY STATE BANK 3510 West Elm Street McHeniy Phone 385-1040 A FULL SERVICE BANK THE ELECTRONIC BUG -- Six-year-old Kandra Jahoda appears to have a new kind of insert crawling along her finger. The "bug" is really an electronic component, called an integrated circuit, which replaces three bulky, power consuming electron tubes in new RCA all solid state color TV sets. This tiny unit and others like it are designed to provide longer life ahd less servicing for the XL-100 receivers. home to conserve cash, television viewing has joined radio listening among the nation's most inexpensive entertainment sources. Actually, a 100 per cent solid state color television set provides entertainment for the whole family at a cost of about 3.5 cents an hour. With television pro­ gramming counted as "free," the only expense borne by the viewer are the cost of the television set Itself and the cost of the electricity used to op­ erate it. * * * * The good wife is one that makes the load a little lighter--not heavier. FASTER THAN A SPEEDING ABACUS -- Oriental merchants have perfected the art of the abacus, an ancient system of solving arithmetical problems by sliding counters along a rod. The system took hundreds of years to develop and is incomprehensible to most people. The 51R Universal Converter electronic calculator, from Rockwell Inter­ national, is so easy to operate that a neophyte can learn to use it in only a few minutes. The 51R performs all the standard four arithmetic functions (add, subtract, multiply, divide) as fast as the operator can punch the buttons. It can also solve difficult problems in milli-seconds. The Universal Converter is programmed for 224 fixed conversions, and is user-programmable for non-standard calculations. It contains two memories for storing intermediate answers and chaining sub-totals, and is capable of doing fractions as well. The 51R Universal Converter is priced under $90. The new revolution By DAVID LACHENBRUCH Editorial Director, Television Digest with Consumer Elec­ tronics and frequent contrib­ utor to TV Guide and other publications When our country was 101 years young, the opening shot was fired in the home entertainment revolution. As the nation approaches its bicenten­ nial year, the revolution continues with new mo­ mentum. It shaped and changed the lives of our great-grandparents, grandparents and parents, but most of all the lives of the current generation. Its impact on the lives of our children and their children promises to be even greater. How it began GOING .. GOING A.. GONE! k" JAN. 22, 23 & 24 DURING OUR DOLLAR DAYS We Want To Clear Our Racks During Dollar Days, And Feel The Best Way To Do So Is By Reducing Our Winter Apparel FASHIONS BY *7? 1216 N. Green St. Mc Henry begins In 1877, Thomas A. Edi­ son invented the phono­ graph, bringing repro­ duced sound into the home. For the first time, the great performing art­ ists of the day were avail- , able to everyone -- not just to those who by acci­ dent of wealth or geog­ raphy were able to visit the theater or concert hall. The revolution had begun. Forty-three years later, in 1920, home entertain­ ment itself was revolu- Daily 9-5:30 tionized by electronics (al­ though the word hadn't yet been coined). Radio became the wonder of the age, bringing enter­ tainment, news and in­ formation into the home, instantaneously, as it was happening. TV arrives After 26 more years, as World War II ended, sight was added to sound, a gen­ eration grew up on Milton Berle, Howdy Doody and "instant newsreels" in the home -- and America i, would'never be the same. In another eight years -- 1954 -- color was added to television. In seven more, stereophonic sound started bringing a new dimension, first to records, then to broadcasting. New realism Along the way, FM had brought new realism to radio, and tape recorders made it possible to pre­ serve speech and music as a camera preserves scenes and portraits. It has been my occupa­ tion to observe and chron­ icle the home entertain­ ment revolution for the last 25 years. During that time, the lifestyle of Amer­ ica has been revolutionized by home entertainment electronics. We see and hear the news from around the world virtually as it is happening. We witnessed the scientific achievement of the cen­ tury, live and in color, when man first set foot on the moon. Sporting thing • Television has revolu­ tionized sports, bringing the stadium and the golf course into millions of homes. In one televised performance today, more people can attend a theat­ rical event than have watched all of Shake­ speare's plays in the the­ ater since the bard's time. Without electronic home entertainment, it's even unlikely there would be anything called rock music. End of revolution? No. Beginning of new revolu­ tion. Based on the rapid ad­ vances in electronic tech­ nology and with some idea of what's on the drawing boards, I believe that the next ten years will bring forth more major new products and improve­ ments on existing ones than the first 99. I Coming up Phonograph, radio, ster­ eo, recorder, television -- aU products of the home entertainment revolution. Next: Video phonograph, flat-screen picture-on- the-wall color TV, home video movies, household computer terminals, an­ swer-'hack television screens, videophones and omnisound, together with a few surprises not on the agenda.