But now, wanting to reduce overhead, especially as the TV repair business is shrinking because electronics sometimes cost more to repair than purchase, the Moores are moving their business out of Middletown and into their homes and pole barn in Springboro.
They have moved most of their equipment — the backroom shelves are empty — and hope to be out of the building by the end of the month.
“There comes a time,” said Tom Moore, 75, the first color TV repairman in the city. “We said, ‘That’s it for here.’ ”
Still, they will continue to serve Middletown customers, and those from surrounding areas, just as they have for more than 50 years. They specialize in service on all major brands of plasma, LCD/DLP and projection TVs.
Most of their customers are located along I-75 between Dayton and Cincinnati, though their base goes into Indiana and Preble County, they said. They handle the warranty work for several of the major electronic companies and repair all the TVs in the hospital rooms at Atrium Medical Center.
There was a time, Tom Moore said, when the city supported 15 TV repair businesses, several of them located on Central Avenue. Eventually, it was Moore, Ross Dalton and Bob Fox, the owners of two competitors, whom Moore called the “Three Musketeers.” Dalton and Fox have died and now it’s just Moore, his son and grandsons.
Tom Moore said the repair business has changed drastically, especially since the Internet. He said customers can order bulbs for their TVs off the Internet cheaper than he can buy them wholesale, and with the proliferation of “how to” Web sites, “everyone thinks they’re a repairman,” he said.
Moore said twice within the last year, and the only times in more than 50 years, thieves threw bricks through the front door and stole flat-screen TVs.
Moore’s first TV repair job was at RCA Factory Service Co. in Dayton in 1958. He received special training on how to repair this new invention called the color TV. In 1961, Moore and five other technicians were laid off. He worked for Beatty’s Electronics until April 1961. Then he joined the staff at Advance TV. He became sole owner in 1972.
In 1990, he hired his son, Steve, to handle in-home projection TV repairs, and now Brandon, 19, a 2013 Dayton Christian graduate, completes the three-generation, family-owned business. Brandon specializes in home security systems.
Brandon said he’s always been interested in electronics. He remembers one time, as a young boy, that he thought he had repaired a small TV. Everything was fine until his father banged the TV and it started smoking.
“I was so mad,” he said.
But he never gave up. “I grew up with this stuff,” he said.
Steve Moore said he feels “blessed” to work with his father and son.
“It was worked out great,” he said.
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