Is the 11-pin round plug firmly seated in the "accessory" ( or is it "ACC"?) socket on the rear?
There is a wire jumper in the plug between pin 1 and pin 2 that feeds 12 Volts to the tube heaters. Pull that plug, the lights stay off.
We routinely soldered a wire across those two pins inside the radio on that socket just to avoid aggravating complaints later on. It's there so your 6-meter or 2-meter transverter can switch off the power tubes, and use the low-level drive that feeds into the 12BY7 for the transmit converter.
And if someone wanted to use a FT101 with a VHF transverter today, I'd be surprised. The jumper wire would seem to pose only a tiny risk.
Maybe it's that simple. Maybe the "Heater" switch on the front has oxidized contacts and won't complete the circuit.
73