Hi and thanks in advance to anyone who cares. TV was a gift,
prior owner/(purchased new) was a geek who ran audio outputs
thru an amp or computer. Believe he disabled something internal.
Menu works fine, audio set on 'dolby digital' which is all cable
company could advise.

I could run the cable signal through an amp/speakers like the
previous owner but would like to see the original equipment
perform as intended. Suggestions welcome, thanks again.

With out a model number this is a guess, but most RCA's of that era have the abilty to turn off the main speakers and run audio out only, many times this can be variable, (the tv volume controls the output ) or Fixed ( no control with the tv ) all this should be located in either the setup or audio menu on the set

Hi Mike.

Thanks for getting back to me. A gentleman on another forum
solved the problem. This model has a switch on the back
marked INT and EXT. We switched it to INT and the speakers
now work.