[TV MAN]

Ahhhh - intermittants, dont ya love 'em? I like Brenda's idea of the milk crate and towel. I'd be concerned about a hot part against that towel also. I trick I used to use was to warm it up, either by letting it play of as someone else mentioned, or a heat gun. When it acts up, start tapping things to look for bad connections, and I often used component cooler/freeze spray. Also could be an intermittant switch contact. Seems tho, those things "know" when there is a technician present, and straighten up. Who knows, maybe you are on to the original problem as to why the radio was taken out of service many years ago...