Hello Alan.
I certainly was cautious about the location of the sub after fitting the tv into its space.
I had the same concern as you mentioned but gave this particular location a try anyway. The distance from the sub magnet edge to the first CRT (housed within an aluminum metallic chamber within the base of the tv) is about 16 to 18 inches coincidentally. The tv is a Toshiba 50hdx82.
toshiba hdtv 50" hdx82
However, since first installing the tv, i have not noticed anything that would not be expected from the general quality of rptv compared to direct crt.
A bit of ghosting is not unusual and some colour fringing with green occurs slightly but ONLY during cable tv use, not during dvd use, which points more to the local cable signal as being the source of that problem.
Worst case scenario, i swap the M60 and the sub locations but that would shorten my soundstage again with the M60s and i've really just started to enjoy the wider soundstage with the increased distance b/w the M60s.
I can move the sub out of its spot and recheck the tv image but i do believe it is fine.