mm wrote:

My mother paid a tv guy to connect our tvs to the rooftop antenna,
back in 1957. When I was in the attic several years later, a little
before she was going to move, I saw that he had just twisted the wires
together, even though there was a flatlead antennal splitter hanging
right there, not being used.

Back in those days there were a lot of fly-by-night TV repair shops.
Most breakdowns didn't require a great deal of skill to fix, and the
industry was much less regulated than it is today. Someone could read a
few books, buy some tools and tubes, and set up a business.