Vaudeville vs Berle

ABC has the distinction of being the only company for several years to have a TV network, but no flagship station in New York.

NBC, CBS and DuMont had a bit of a head start. They had television stations in 1941. But at the time ABC was still part of NBC, which didn’t sell what had been the Blue Network until 1943. That included New York radio station WJZ. After a squabble with a company in the Midwest, Blue changed its name to the American Broadcasting Company.

Now it looked to television. In a Billboard story dated Sept. 23, 1944, it was revealed the Blue Network has filed for TV permits in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. They were placed in the “pending” file. But a little thing like not having a station wasn’t going to stop ABC from getting into the television programming business, which was emerging from the doldrums caused by the war. The company announced it would put shows on stations owned by others. It put the first of its TV shows on WRGB in Schenectady on Feb. 25, 1945. It was Johnny Olson’s audience participate show, Ladies Be Seated.

Meanwhile, the FCC announced on Feb. 1, 1946 that a hearing would take place for the four available New York-New Jersey channels from the American Broadcasting Co. and the following: Bamberger Broadcasting (WOR), Bremer Broadcasting (WAAT Newark), Debs Memorial Radio Fund (WEVD), Palmer K. and Lois C. Leberman, Marcus Loew Booking Agency (WHN), Metropolitan Television, News Syndicate Co., Philco Radio & Television, Raytheon Mfg. Co., Sherron Metallic Corp., Twentieth Century-Fox, Westchester Broadcasting (WFAS, White Plains) and WLIB, Inc.

Testimony opened on June 3. The list had been cut down to ABC and five others. Broadcasting magazine of the 10th had an excellent summary of the hearing.

As first witness for ABC, Mark Woods, president, emphasized the network's need for a New York television station to feed programs to ABC affiliates, to draw on the abundance of New York talent and to telecast to the large audience.
Nationwide service, he said, would be provided through coaxial cable, relays and film. ABC has authorized $1,750,000 for purchase of equipment and erection of a tower on the GE building for the television station, he said. . . .
Only other witness for ABC was Paul B. Mowrey, the network's national director of television, who emphasized the experience gained by ABC in producing television programs regularly on three stations: WRGB Schenectady, WABD New York, and WPTZ Philadelphia.
ABC television staff members, he said, "are the only broadcast interests in television who have worked with three different types of television equipment and likewise three different groups of television personnel."

The Commission granted a license on May 14, 1947 to ABC and assigned the company Channel 7 (Bids by Bamberger, Bremer and the Daily News were also approved).

WJZ-TV now had a problem. It found a temporary solution, reported by Variety on Dec. 10:

ABC, after prowling almost a year for a suitable television transmitter site in N. Y., now plans to get together with CBS for joint use of the Chrysler building tower for its WJZ-TV and CBS' N. Y. outlet, WCBS-TV. Move would mark the first time in television's history that two competing stations have used the same transmitter site and will give ABC its long-awaited go-ahead for the web's full-five-station operation. . . .
Once the transmitter arrangements have been completed, ABC plans to up the full speed ahead sign for construction of WJZ-TV and to begin broadcasting by the middle of next summer on channel No. 7. Order has already been placed for transmitter and studio equipment and ABC plans to spend $356,000 before hitting the air.

ABC also asked the Commission to extend the specified completion date for WJZ-TV from Jan. 8 to Sept. 1, 1948.

At this point, the company wasn’t even in the programming business. A March 31, 1948 Variety story announced:

ABC television will resume production of video shows in more than a year. With WJZ-TV, its N. Y. outlet, still under construction and not expected to take the air before early summer, the web will do its programming in WFIL-TV, recently signed affiliate in Philadelphia, and WMAL-TV, Washington. Reason for the early production is to get a line on potential sponsors for the budding network, as well as to give the N. Y. production crew a chance to keep its hand in. . . .
ABC has reserved the 6-6:30 p.m. slot Sunday nights [on the coaxial cable connecting Washington and Philadelphia] on WFIL-TV and WMAL-TV for its programming. It will also pick up the 8-8:30 p.m. slot Thursdays and the 9:30-10:30 segment Saturday nights on the same two stations. Shows will be programmed weekly, but definite plans for the tee-off program haven't yet been set. Move marks the return of ABC to its programming operation last year, when it bought time on four different east coast stations.

The Associated Press gave an August 1st start date for WJZ-TV in a column on April 14, but Billboard of the same date pointed out the station didn’t even have studios and was looking at taking over a riding academy on West 66th Street to give it a 200 by 150 foot studio. A purchase was worked out on July 19. In the meantime, ABC worked out a deal to air programming on WATV in Newark, which was set to go on the air in mid-May. It was still putting some shows on WABD.

The station finally found a transmitter site. A deal was closed May 11, according to the next day’s Variety, to put it atop the Hotel Pierre at 5th Avenue and 61st Street. Construction started, said the Hollywood Reporter on June 17.

And WJZ-TV started signing other deals. On May 17, it inked a contract to air the New York Knicks home games. The New York Giants football club did the same. And within days, Illnois Meats became its first sponsor, agreeing to advertise its Broadcast brand corned beef hash three times a night for 52 weeks. Other contracts followed that month for Peter Paul, Old Dutch Coffee, Beam Products (silver cleaner), and Schaeffer Brewing. ABC continued to sign affiliates, though there was no cable to reach them. By July 28, the company had a half million dollars in ad contracts. Newspapers started carrying listings for the station. The New York Times reported:

The ABC network’s New York television station, WJZ-TV, went on the air yesterday with the first of its regular transmissions of test patterns. It will operate from 10 A. M. to 10 P. M. weekdays and from 10 A. M., to 6 P. M. Sundays. WJZ-TV has been assigned Channel 7.



Talent for opening night was being lined up—at no less a venue than The Palace, the erstwhile showcase of vaudeville. The Hollywood Reporter quoted “Brother Everett” as saying Bing Crosby had been offered $10,000 to appear. He turned it down. It wasn’t worth his while interrupting his holiday. Variety said in its Aug. 3 issue both George Jessel and Jimmy Durante turned down appearances.

Nevertheless, the New York newspapers and the trade papers made great to-dos about WJZ-TV’s premier programming on August 10. We’ll skip past them and bring you a couple of reviews from the next day.

Here’s what Broadcasting wrote on August 9:

WJZ-TV STARTS Elaborate Inaugural Program
WJZ-TV New York, ABC's first owned and operated television station and the sixth video outlet to begin operations in New York, opened for business last week amidst festivities reminiscent of the gayest Hollywood movie premiere.
Its inaugural program ran from 7 until 11:40 p.m. Aug. 10 and included everything from Beatrice Lillie, one of the world's great comediennes, to fragments left over from a recent Fifth Ave. parade.
Civic, religious and business leaders participated in the opening ceremonies. More than 100 executives of ABC affiliated stations were invited and came to New York to see the show, and the network sales department staged a debut party for scores of advertisers and agencies.
Early in the inaugural show ABC presented a "creed" which it, plans to follow in its television broadcasting. The creed:
The American Broadcasting Co. is deeply aware of a high responsibility to the people in its approach to television. We are also deeply aware of a grave responsibility to ourselves. We shall, therefore, do our utmost to bring into your home the kind of programs we would want in our homes. We believe television will become one of the great forces in the world, and for that reason we regard our role not only as a privilege but also as a challenge. Thus, television imposes on us the profound obligation to use it with dignity, with skill, with honesty and care. We shall discharge that high obligation to the very best of our ability.
Edward J. Noble, chairman of the ABC board, and Mark Woods, the network's president, were televised in greetings to the WJZ-TV audience. Grover A. Whalen, chairman of the mayor's committee for the reception of distinguished guests, appeared as special representative of New York's Mayor William O'Dwyer who was absent on official business.
At the conclusion of these opening talks, the cameras went to the streets of Rockefeller Plaza, outside the RCA Bldg. where ABC is housed, to pick up various elements of a parade which was a feature of New York's summer-long golden anniversary celebration.
Kiernan Describes Parade
The televised parade included policemen dressed in uniforms of 50 years ago, carriages drawn by horses, some marching societies, bands, drum corps and fire fighting equipment. Walter Kiernan described the parade.
The program then returned to ABC studios. Following this Wayne Coy, FCC chairman, spoke from Washington, predicting that "in two years from now I expect to see 400 stations either in operation or under construction." He added: "We are and will continue to be years and years ahead of any other nation in the employment of this magical electronic instrument."
This was followed by a half-hour television presentation of Candid Microphone, an ABC sound broadcasting feature, and a preview of several video features which will be on the station regularly. At 9 p.m., the show moved to the Palace Theatre, now a movie house but formerly one of the biggest vaudeville theatres in the city. The program was almost pure vaudeville, with performers doing their specialties in turn. Ray Bolger, famed dancer, was m.c.
Among the outstanding performers at the Palace were Mr. Bolger, who in addition to his duties as an introducer of the other acts, did a few turns of his own; Beatrice Lillie, star of the current Broadway hit, "Inside U. S. A." James Barton, actor and one-time vaudevillan; Ella Logan, singer, Mary Raye and Naldi, ballroom dancers, Pat Rooney Sr., a vaudeville dancer and Paul Whiteman, ABC vice president and musical director, who led an orchestra in "Rhapsody in Blue."
Folk Dancing, Too
During an intermission at the Palace, the program returned to the ABC studios for half an hour of folk dancing by various national groups. This event had been originally scheduled for either Times Square or Duffy Square, but the police and fire departments did not approve.
Before the start of the Palace show at 9 p.m. the more than 100 station executives attended a buffet supper in the Hotel Astor. They then went to the Palace for the show. The several score advertiser and agency representatives were feted at a buffet in the Waldorf-Astoria. A large crowd of press was fed in the Rainbow Room lounge atop the RCA Bldg. and they watched the entire evening's program on special receivers installed there.
Following its mammoth debut program, WJZ-TV, which operates on Channel 7, took up routine programming Aug. 11, the next day. The schedule for Aug. 11 was: 5:30-6 p.m., Cartoon Teletales; 7-7:15, News and Views; 7:15-7:30, Three About Town; 7:30-8, film; 8-8:30, Gay Nineties Review, and 8:30-9, film.

Variety’s review was published Aug. 18.

WJZ-TV INAUGURAL
With Beatrice Lillie, James Barton. Ella Logan. Paul Whiteman. Henry Morgan. Pat Rooney. Sr.: Ray Bolger, Gus Van: Willie, West & McGinty; Buck & Bubbles; Walter Dare Wahl & Joe: Carlton Emmy's Mad Wags. Mary Raye & Naldi, Jules Lenzburg & orch, all from stage of Palace theatre; Edward J. Noble, Mark Woods, Grover Whalen, Wayne Coy, other officials; "Hayloft Hoedown," Allen Funt's "Candid Microphone." "Hollywood Screen Test," "Cartoon Telenews," other sample programs; New York City Golden Jubilee parade; dancers and singers of foreign nationality groups; virtually all of ABC's commentators and many program stars; George Hicks, Milton Cross, Walter Kiernan. Pauline Frederick, Romo Vincent as emcees
Producer: Paul Mowrey, assisted by Burke Crotty
Palace show producer: Larry Puck
Technical Supervisor: George Milne
4 Hrs., 37 Mins.; Tues., (10), 7 p.m.
Sustaining ABC-TV, from N. Y., Philadelphia, Washington
ABC Pulls Out All Stops for Its TV Inaugural with 'Dream' Vaudeo
By DICK DOAN
In keeping with what seems to have become the standard pattern for launching a TV station, ABC last week pulled out all the stops for the getaway of its first owned and operated station, WJZ-TV, N. Y., the sixth video outlet to hit the air in the Gotham area. It was a grandiose affair, built on high intentions, with some bold pretensions. It had some moments of high dramatic and entertainment value, notably during its airing of a two-part dream show as it might have played the old Palace theatre. Televiewers have never before seen a show quite matching that one, and possibly never will again.
Best function of the remainder of the long evening's agenda was its showcasing of the Station's future fare, with top billing in this sequence going, deservedly, to Allen Funt's "Candid Microphone." Slices of other stanzas were somewhat less promising. The formalities attendant and apparently necessary to the occasion—remarks by ABC toppers Edward J. Noble and Mark Woods, city greeter Grover Whalen, FCC Chairman Wayne Coy (picked tip from Washington) and others—were commendably brief. The program's weakest segments were those saluting the city's Golden Jubilee. Civic-minded as this tie-up was, and perhaps spectacular on paper, it jelled into nothing more than a couple of fillers. (It must be noted that, due to unexpected last minute obstruction by the gendarmes, ABC had to move its "block party" sequence from Duffy Square, where it might have bad more color, into a bare studio where it came off as a formless run-through of polyglot song and dance numbers. It was a discordant amateurish interlude amidst the wealth of expert professional talent.)
The presentation of ABC's battery of gabbers, seated around tables in a restaurant setting, was stiff and lacking in showmanship. The sampling of shows had an unrehearsed, thrown-together air. The lighting, staging, camera work were occasionally faulty. But, considering all things—that TV techniques are everywhere still in an experimental stage at this point; that ABC was badly handicapped by shortage of studio space; that the long array of sequences represented an immense amount of mobilization and coordination—the teeoff came across amazingly well, with nothing worse than minor hitches. Web's video director Paul Mowrey and his crew rate an A-plus for effort and plenty of kudos for overall performance.
The Palace bill, aside from its sock entertainment payoff as a nostalgic revival of the top vaude fare of yesteryear, presented for trade observers some interesting developments. Acts by singles and duos were comparatively simple TV pickups; offering televiewers an even closer than front-row seat closeup of performers' facial expressions. On the other hand, the closeup camera (several rows back from the orch pit), possibly due to its from-under angle, squashed some of the stars' images (notably Ella Logan and James Barton) with murderously unflattering effect. Also, the cameras had an exasperating way, it was found, of often ogling the wrong person—or part of a person—that the viewer wanted to see. (I.e., the pickup would switch to a long shot mid-way through a closeup sequence you wanted to see; two performers would be bantering and you only saw one; Ray Bolger's feet were dancing and you only saw his face, or vice-versa.) The fault seemed to lie in too frequent camera switches, striving for variety and action when both of these were inherent in the act itself, and often ill-timed or poorly selected switches.
As for the calibre of the Palace bill—what can be said of such top acts as Bea Lillie, Barton, Miss Logan, Bolger, et al., that hasn't been said before? It was terrific entertainment. Pat Rooney, Sr., was absolutely inspired. Bolger handled his difficult emceeing role with a thoughtful checkrein on nostalgic emotion. The brief revival of vaudeville's heyday was complete even to Jules Lenzberg batoning the pit orch.
It was a bill to end all Palace bills from a talent cost standpoint, too. ABC laid out $14,000 for the one-nighter's acts, not including Paul Whiteman's band and the pit orch, whereas the total cost of a week's acts in the Palace's best years usually hovered around $10,000.
For some unapparent reason, the director of the Palace pickups favored two cameras, the closeup, which at times seemed almost too intimate, and a side balcony ike which seemed too far away on most occasions. A third camera, in center mezzanine, which afforded an undistorted and middle-distance view, was seldom used.
Another discovery: all-over-the-stage acts like the Willie, West & McGinty bricklayers' farce are difficult pickups. The ike ogling the whole scene is too far back in the house to effectively display the act when it's reduced to a tiny tele-screen, and closeup shots are bound to miss 25 to 50% of the gags. It seems doubtful that a director, even if he knew the act as well as the performers themselves, could satisfactorily project it on TV as it is traditionally performed. (On the other hand, the ikes were able to do beautifully by Carlton Emmy's dog act.)
As TV material, the Palace bill put together by ABC's Larry Puck, who knows his way around in show-biz, only verified what the "Texaco Star Theatre" is proving every week: vaudeo has solid value in video.

Ah, yes. The Texaco Star Theatre with Uncle Milty. It seems fool-hardy putting an extravaganza like this against the Number One Show in television. Sponsor magazine, in its September 1948 issue, had this to say:

STAR THEATER HOT COMPETITION FOR WJZ-TV BOW
Viewing habits are developing quickly in TV. Despite tremendous program which ABC staged for opening of WJZ-TV (New York) with first hour (7-8 p.m.) television Hooperating 32.7, almost half station's viewers switched over to WNBT for 8 to 9 hour "Texaco 's Star Theater" is telecast. When "Star Theater" left air viewers returned to WJZ-TV which received a rating of 33.2 for 9-10 p.m.

The broadcast almost didn't get on the air. The New York Herald Tribune explained in its August 10 edition:

WJZ Television Debut Assured As Injunction Halts Union Row
Judge Samuel H. Kaufman insured the opening tonight [10] of television station WJZ-TV at the Palace Theater by signing a temporary injunction yesterday in United States District Court against a theatrical union which threatened to strike because of a jurisdictional dispute over the manning of television cameras.
The order restrains the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Motion Picture Operators Union from interfering with the inaugural broadcast and calls on union officials to show cause on Thursday why they should not be permanently enjoined. Violation of the order would make the union guilty of contempt.
The American Broadcasting Company, operators of the sixth and newest television station in New York, filed a charge of unfair labor practices against the I. A. T. S. E. with the National Labor Relations Board last Friday. After investigation, the N. L. R. B. filed a petition requesting the injunction.
The petition stated that the dispute involved the American Federation of Labor affiliate and an independent union, the National Association of Broadcasting Engineers and Technicians, and that A. B. C. was "an innocent victim of a jurisdictional dispute."
The broadcasting company was bound by contract to give jurisdiction over all technical equipment, including television cameras, to N. A. B. E. T. The I. A. T. S. E., according to the petition, demanded that 50 per cent of the jurisdiction over television cameras be given to their union because the cameras were being set up in a theater.
Secondary Boycott Alleged.
The N. L. R. B. petition charged that the I. A. T. S. E. was "inducing and encouraging" other union employees to strike and said the union tried to influence workers for the New York Telephone Company and of the Palace Theater. The union, it charged, also had threatened to refuse to furnish stagehands for the opening.
The N. L. R. B. charged that the I. A. T. S. E. had violated the secondary boycott and jurisdictional dispute provisions of the National Labor Relations Act.
The N. L. R. B. told Judge Kaufman that unless a temporary restraining order were issued the broadcasting company would suffer "irreparable injury," including "a direct loss of $29,000" involved in preparing for the opening, and "impair its investment of more than $3,000,000 over the last four years."
Two Unions To Be Used
Informed of the decision, Mark Woods, A. B. C. president, said last night the program will open over Channel 7 at 7 p. m. with N. A. B. E. T. engineers manning the television cameras. The I. A. T. S. E. will be used for other duties at the opening. After the initial broadcast all other television programs of the new station will emanate from A. B. C.'s studios in Radio City or in the company's new television center at Central Park West and Sixty-sixth Street.
Here’s what was on Channel 7 that week.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 10
7:00—Opening night ceremonies, Mayor O’Dwyer, Edward J. Noble, Grover Whalen. 7:10—“Fifth Years of New York City’s Progress”; film with Milton Cross. 7:15—Interviews with celebrities entering Palace Theater. 7:40—Talks by Mark Woods, religious leaders, state and Federal officials; Bert Parks interviewing Arlene Francis, Elmer Davis, Drew Pearson, H. R. Baukage, Earl Godwin, Martin Agronsky, Ted Malone, others. 8:00—A film of “Candid Microphone,” with Allen Funt. 8:30—“You’re Invited,” preview of WJZ-TV programs. 9:00—Stage of Palace Theater—All-star vaudeville program, with Ray Bolger, m. c.; James Barton, Buck and Bubbles, Carlton Emmy, Ella Logan, Beatrice Lillie, Mary Raye and Naldi, Pay Rooney, sr., Willie West and McGinty and Paul Whiteman. 9:45—Duffy Square—Block party and pageant. 10:15—All-star vaudeville show from stage of Palace Theater. 11:30—Pickups from Broadway, Times Square, Duffy Square.
Candid Microphone
Reviewed Tuesday (10), 8 to 8:30 p.m. Sustaining via American Broadcasting Company television network. Producer, Nat Fowler. Emsee, Allen Funt. Style, Interview.
Man's inhumanity to man is nowhere better illustrated than on the tele version of Candid Microphone, which had its premiere as part of the opening night bill of WJZ-TV. For the sadistic of heart, who dote on watching an unsuspecting subject being edged on to a state of hypertension, this show probably supplies the perfect outlet. For the general public, that section which enjoys practical jokes should buy Candid Mike with no qualifications. The remainder will find portions to be hilarious, and other parts which smack of bad taste.
The 30-minute program is a counterpart of the radio version, with a hidden camera tossed in. As a result, the efforts of emsee Allen Funt to goad five selected victims into a reaction were captured, not merely on a platter for sound but on film, as a visual record. Some of the film was shot silent, with Funt commenting on the developments.
The only sequence which did not follow the usual victim-baiting pattern was shot silent in a spaghetti emporium. Here the camera showed the techniques of spaghetti slinging as practiced by lovers of the pasta. It proved quite amusing, altho it was a trifle long.
In each of the other episodes, somebody suffered. In the case of a gal in a reducing salon who was put thru some extra-curricular exercises, or in the instance of a man in a tailor's booth who was informed his trousers had a huge rip, not much sympathy was aroused, and one could enjoy the gag for its own sake. But the other two were hard on the soft-hearted.
In one case, a man checking a bag at a railway terminal was told everything must be examined, and the contents were gone over one item at a time, with the feminine apparel therein causing more than a modicum of embarrassment. Later, with Funt in the role of a still photographer, a schmoe-type character who wanted to pose with his fiddle was needled almost to the busting point, with Funt insisting that the poor devil didn't look serious enough. The sympathy here was all with the victim.
It's unlikely that any of this is done with the intent to injure. But the result is likely to be hard on sensitive viewers. What the show can get away with on radio may become too rough for video, where the impact is far greater. However, should great care and selectivity be employed in gathering material, the format and the idea provide good possibilities for a genuinely humorous program. Sam Chase. (Billboard, Aug. 21)

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11
5:30—Cartoon Teletales. 7:00—News. 7:15—Three About Town. 7:30—The Fitzgeralds with Ed and Pegeen Fitzgerald. 7:45—Film. 8:00—You’re Invited. 8:30—Miss Rheingold Candidates. 8:55—Quizzing the News. 9:00—Wrestling, from Washington (WMAR-TV)
NEWS AND VIEWS
With Walter Kiernan, guests
Director: Bob Doyle
Producer: John Madigan
15 Mins.; Wed., 7 p. m.
Sustaining WJZ-TV, N. Y.
The search for a wholly satisfactory method of presenting news on tele, other than via newsreel, is still on. And WJZ-TV obviously hasn't found it in this stanza. The viewer doesn't get much news, or many views, either, despite the fact that the format seems to contain the germ of a good program idea.
Getaway sequence last week (11) opened with Walter Kiernan pointing to a world map showing where ABC's news correspondents were stationed. Then he sat himself behind a small desk authentically cluttered with books, papers, etc., and introduced, sitting on either side of him, a couple from Connecticut and a gentleman from Missouri. It turned out they were passersby, plucked out of a group touring the broadcasting studios. Kiernan would read a dispatch (or, rather, just the lead of it) from the ticker machines, then try to draw comments from his guests on the subject. As might be expected on such chance selection, they didn't prove any too articulate. The only action involved was the appearance of a copyboy to spike some late dispatches on Kiernan's desk and the amusing departure of the Missourian ("I have to continue my tour") followed by his replacement by schoolmarm from Virginia.
The camera viewing the whole scene was so close up that the Missourian and his replacement never more than barely showed in the picture. Unaccountably, too, this camera seemed immobile, with the result that only the forearm of the Virginia schoolteacher was visible when she shook hands with Kiernan. Kiernan got to about half a dozen news leads during the sequence, but it could hardly be said that the viewer learned much more than he would by a 10 second kibitz of somebody's newspaper in the subway.
No question, though, but that ABC has a most engaging and capable guy in Kiernan. He's smooth on the adlib, pleasant of voice and appearance, and equally at home in the roles of newscaster, interviewer and emcee. ABC should make good use of him. Doan (Variety, Aug. 18)

THURSDAY, AUGUST 12
5:30—The Singing Lady. Ireene Wicker invites four little children each week and tells them Fairy Tales which are acted out with puppets and a piano accompaniment. 7:00—News. 7:15—Buddy Weed Trio. 7:30—Film. 8:00—Gay Nineties. 8:30—Film. 9:00—Film. 9:30—Thompson’s Talent Show. 10:00 to 11:00—Boxing, from Philadelphia (WFIL-TV).

FRIDAY, AUGUST 13
5:30—Film, “Historic Switzerland.” 7:00—News. 7:15—Film, “Skiing on Your Feet.” 7:30—Teen-Age Book Club. 8:00—Film, “Tavern in the Town.” 8:30—In the Kitchen. 9:00—Film, “Blue Harlem.”

SATURDAY, AUGUST 14
7:00—News. 7:15—Film. 7:30—Sports Review. 7:45—Film. 7:55—Miss Rheingold Candidates. 8:00—Sing For Your Supper. 8:15—Three About Town. 8:30—Film. 9:00—Film. 9:30—“Hayloft Hoedown,” from Philadelphia (WFIL-TV)

SUNDAY, AUGUST 15
2:00—Southernaires. 3:00—Film. 3:15—Polo from Bostwick Field, Westbury, L.I. 7:00—Pauline Frederick’s Guest Book, interview. 7:15—Film. 7:30—“Hollywood Screen Test,” with Neil Hamilton, Mimi Benzell, Claire Niesen. 7:55—Favorite Girl. 8:00—“Candid Microphone,” with Allen Funt. 8:30—Variety. 9:30 to 10:30—Feature Film.

MONDAY, AUGUST 16
5:30—Cartoon Teletales. 7:00—News and Views. 7:15—Film. 7:30—Quizzing the News. 8:00—Kiernan’s Korner,” with Walter Kiernan. 8:30—Film. 9:00—You’re Invited.

A TV Home For the Hens

Ohio’s third television station had the same problem at the beginning as the other two. None were able to connect with any of the four networks, so they had to fill time on their own.

Cincinnati went on the air first. Cleveland was next. Toledo followed in 1948.

The Toledo Blade followed the station’s progress. First, a story from Feb. 21, 1946.

RADIO STATION SEEKS TELEVISION PERMIT
The Fort Industry Co., operators of radio station WSPD and others, yesterday [20] applied to the Federal Communications Commission for authority to operate here a commercial television station, it was announced today. E. Y. Flanagan, manager of WSPD, said the company expects to spend $200,000 on equipment if the permit is granted.

On December 7, 1946, we learn:

Television Station Planned By WSPD
FCC Grants Permits For Construction
Construction permits for a commercial television station and a frequency modulation broadcasting station in Toledo were granted the Fort Industry Co., operators of WSPD, yesterday [6] by the Federal Communications Commission.
J. H. Ryan, vice president and treasurer, said plans have been made to construct new studios in Superior St., between Lafayette and Markets Sts. A television tower more than 500 feet high will be erected.
Mr. Ryan said the building program would depend upon priorities, but it is hoped the FM broadcasts will be in operation within a year and television broadcasts within two years. The call letters WTVT have been assigned to the station.
The entire project is expected to cost $453,000.
The FM and television broadcasts will have no effect upon standard broadcasts, officials said.

There was a call-letter change to match the AM and FM stations, as readers of Broadcasting magazine were told on December 23, 1946:

WSPD VIDEO ORDER
FILM ORDER for approximately $200,000 in RCA television equipment placed Friday by Fort Industry Co. for WSPD-TV Toledo with P. B. Reed, RCA Victor Washington representative. Order covers type TT5-A transmitter (5 kw video, 3 kw audio), plus antenna system, four image orthicon cameras for field and studio use, control equipment for field and studio, and motion picture projection equipment for both 16 mm and 35 mm projection. WSPD-TV assigned channel No. 13 (210-216 mc).

Fort needed more space. This Blade story is from February 1, 1947

Permit Issued On Radio Tower
FM And Television Facilities Planned
Building permits for a commercial frequency modulation and television radio station and tower at 117 South Superior St. were issued [Jan. 31] yesterday to the Fort Industry Co., owners and operators of WSPD.
E. Y. Flanigan, managing director of the station, said that while equipment has been ordered, an actual construction date could not be set, although it is hoped to have the 500-foot holding tower and transmitter house up by early summer.
Television, Mr. Flanigan predicts, definitely will be available in Toledo in 1948, provided the government's estimate of 2,200 receiving sets for Toledo is reasonably accurate. He estimates perhaps 5,000 to 6,000 FM sets for next year also.
The Fort Industry Co. has been assigned the letter's WTVT for its television station. The FM call letters will be WSPD-FM.

Despite the fact the station was nowhere near on the air, Fort started signing advertisers. This story is from October 20, 1947:

Television Contract Signed By Toledo Firm
Lee Motors is the first firm in Toledo to sign a contract for sponsorship of a television program to be beamed from the new Fort Industry station which will begin operations next April, the Wendt Advertising Agency said today.
The hour of the program has not been set, but Matt Tank, Lee Motors president, said it probably would be early each Monday evening. Arrangements are being made with motion picture companies to supply cartoon films for the program.

From Nov. 13, 1947:

First Television Unit Contract Let By Fort Industry
Contract for the first unit of the new television and FM studio of the Fort Industry Co., owner of WSPD and other radio stations, was awarded today to the J. H. Berkebile & Son Co. The $40,500 unit to be built now, representing less than one-quarter of the total cost of the development, will be at 117 South Superior St. This lot, also, will house the more than 500-foot tower which is nearing completion and is due to be shipped from Pittsburgh the latter part of this month.
J. Harold Ryan, head of the Fort Industry Co., said the work to be done in the first unit will consist of transmitter rooms, offices and quarters for engineers. The building, when completed, will cover the entire lot. John Richards, of Bellman, Gillette & Richards, drew plans for the development.

Broadcasting (and other trade journals) got an idea when the company hoped the station would be broadcasting. This is from Feb. 16, 1948.

WSPD-TV Toledo Plans To Be On the Air by May ’48
PLANS are being completed for WSPD-TV Toledo to go on the air in May, according to E. Y. Flanigan, vice president in charge of the Toledo operations for the Fort Industry Co. The station is augmenting its present staff with specialists in various television departments.
Latest addition to the staff is Steve Marvin, television studio production director. He was formerly producer-director of WWJ-TV Detroit. Prior to that time he had been producer-director with CBS TV New York.

Sports was a huge part of television in the mid-to-late 1940s. The Blade reported on April 2, 1948:

Mud Hen Games To Be Televised
Home games for the Toledo Mud Hens will be televised by Station WSPD-TV, according to an announcement made yesterday [1] by E. Y. Flanigan, vice president of the Fort Industry Co. which operates the station.
The television station will be ready to operate in May or early June according to Flanigan. The contract for the television broadcasts was signed recently by Waldo Shank, while he was acting president of the Toledo Baseball Club and Flanigan. The club will receive 25 per cent royalty on the commercial time per game. No sponsor has been signed as yet.

A different kind of TV programme was unveiled by Billboard:

Sharpen Pencils---And Wits---Men!
TOLEDO, May 29.—A deal has been set by WSPD-TV, Fort Industry video station here, for broadcast of a weekly crossword puzzle, adapted for video. Production director Steve Marvin is said to be readying a new technique which will permit tele’s initial use of the feature when the station debuts about July 1. The station has contracted with Harle Publications, New York, publisher of two crossword periodicals, for material to be used.

Broadcasting, July 10, 1948:

WSPD-TV, Toledo, the Fort Industry station, has signed with Publishers Syndicate of Chicago for video rights to the comic strip Kerry Drake. The strip has never run in the Toledo area, and the station plans to utilize a special technique in its production.

And one other programming piece was picked up. The International News Service “Telenews” weekly newsreel became part of the schedule, sponsored by the local Chevrolet dealers.

July 19, 1948 was the premiere day. Here’s how Broadcasting’s publication on that date looked ahead:

WSPD-TV Begins Telecasting Today
Fort Industry Outlet Is Epuipped [sic] At Half-Million Dollar Cost
WSPD-TV TOLEDO, equipped at a cost of $500,000, was slated to take the air today (July 19) with the first telecast of baseball in Toledo.
With a 655-foot antenna tower in the heart of the city, the station expects to cover a radius of 45 miles. It is assigned Channel 13 (210-216 mc). By fall, WSPD-TV hopes to be linked by coaxial cable and radio relays with St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo and New York.
It is planned to use $30,000 video equipment in covering games of the Toledo Mudhens from Swayne Field. In order to protect the equipment a special platform on the second deck of the stands has been partially enclosed by heat-tempered plate glass through which the cameras will shoot most action.
Made by Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Co., the glass is a plate 4x9 feet and one-half inch thick. It provides clear vision and is said to be five to seven times stronger than ordinary plate glass with greater resistance to shocks.
Completion of the production staff of the Fort Industry station was announced by E Y. Flanigan, general manager.
Steve Marvin, who started in video in 1940 at WCBS-TV New York, is production director. Film director is Elaine Phillips, who started in TV in 1943 at WBKB Chicago and set up and directed the film department at WWJ-TV Detroit. Ashley Dawes is remote director. He entered TV in 1943 at WRGB Schenectady and worked there until joining WSPD-TV in May. The art director is Jerry Peacock, who entered video in 1947 doing free-lance art work for WWJ-TV while working for a local agency. Mr. Peacock joined WSPD-TV in May.

The Mud Hens didn’t make their Toledo TV debut that day. For one thing, their game was rained out. For another, it was in Kansas City, and there was no video link between the two cities.

Here’s the Blade’s preview:

Television Will Be 'On Air' In Toledo First Time Tonight
Initial WSPD-TV Presentation Slated For 6 O'Clock; Mayor Will Be Speaker Television will be "on the air" for the first time in Toledo tonight with the formal dedication of the WSPD-TV, the first station in this city and the third in Ohio. The station regards its "primary coverage" area as the territory within a 45-mile radius from Toledo, but during tests last week its signals were received as far away as Fort Wayne, Ind. First WSPD-TV presentation, at 6 tonight, will be the station's "time pattern." At 6:30 the first video program, a children's show with western films and cowboy songs by studio entertainers will begin, said Glenn C. Jackson, program director. From 7 to 8 p.m. the station will present a variety program made up of typical excerpts from the shows it will offer. Mayor Michael V. DiSalle will speak at the formal dedication of the station at 8 p.m., followed by an explanation of how television works and, weather permitting, televising of the harness races at the Fort Miami Raceway. WSPD-TV will be on the air every night Monday through Friday, starting at 6:30. It has no network commitments, a spokesman said.

The Blade reported the next day:

Television Debut In Area Praised
Reports Received Of Good Reception
Reports of good reception of Toledo's first television program last night came [21] from points as far distant as Detroit, Lima and Archbold, Glenn Jackson, program director of WSPD-TV, said today.
Mayor Michael V. DiSalle last night spoke on the first program.
Officials of the Fort Industry Co., which operates WSPD-TV, estimate that there are now about 500 television receivers in the immediate Toledo area, with the number growing rapidly.
Televising of the harness races at the Fort Miami Raceway was hampered last night by ground haze and light conditions. The Water Follies at the Sports Arena will be shown tonight.

In Woodville, Ohio, television dealer D.R. Bruns invited friends and neighbours to watch his set. A columnist in the local paper gave this brief review in the issue of the 23rd:

The broadcast was very interesting and the pictures came through very clear and sharp. The mobile transmitting unit did a very good job in picking up the horse races at Ft. Miami track. It was almost the same as sitting in the grand stand at the track. Introduction of staff membeds [sic] of WSPD was also very interesting.

The big hit, according to Variety of July 28, 1948 was something else.

`TELESCRIBER' ON WSPD-TV PREEM
Toledo, July 27.
Hit of WSPD-TV's opening-night show last Wednesday (21) was a "telescriber," invented by the Fort Industry station's staff, which permits writing or drawings to be done "live" on the tele screen without showing the artist's hand or pen or any shadows from either.
Lines or letters appear as if from nowhere and form themselves before the viewers' eyes. Opening-night telelookers were mystified, many thinking it was done with film. Gadget was designed by production director Steve Marvin, art director Jerry Peacock and floor manager Al Ruhfel, and has many uses. It's possible, for instance, to move the paper on which the drawing or writing is appearing, up, down or sideways, smoothly while the telescriber is on the air.
Marvin is planning to use it for a weekly cartoon show, for live commercials, for the station's nightly "coming attractions" segment, and elsewhere. Name "telescriber" is being copyrighted and the gadget itself is to be patented.

A network feed was on the way. Broadcasting mentioned on July 26, 1948:

WSPD-TV TOLEDO, owned by Fort Industry Co., signed as an NBC television affiliate. Station went on the air July 21. It will become inter-connected with the NBC Midwest video network Sept. 20.

This was no surprise. WSPD-TV was included in the NBC rate card published in Billboard on July 3. The Midwest network began on schedule; Broadcasting of Sept. 27 aired the NBC programming, which started at 7 p.m.

The Blade published the station’s schedule mid-way through its first week.

SATURDAY, JULY 24 and SUNDAY, JULY 25
Off the air.

MONDAY, JULY 26
6:00—Time Pattern. 6:30—TV Ranch. 6:55—Program Preview. 7:00—Sports. 7:10—Kerry Drake. 7:20—Americana. 7:50—News Reel. 8:00—Theater Time.

TUESDAY, JULY 27
6:00—Time Pattern. 6:30—TV Ranch. 6:55—Program Preview. 7:00—Music at Seven. 7:10—World Neighbors. 7:30—Tomorrow’ Talent. 8:00—Newsreel. 8:10—Remote.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 28
6:00—Time Pattern. 6:30—TV Ranch. 6:55—Program Preview. 7:00—Music at Seven. 7:20—Drawing for Fun. 7:20—Snapshots, produced by Telefilm, Inc. 7:30—Crossword Puzzle. Puzzles made available by publishers of “Dime and a Half Crosswords” and “Handy Crosswords.” 7:50—Newsreel. 8:00—Barbershop Harmony. 8:10—Baseball, Louisville Colonels at Toledo.

THURSDAY, JULY 29
6:00—Time Pattern. 6:30—TV Ranch. 6:55—Program Preview. 7:00—Views of the News. 7:10—Talk of the Town. 7:30—Telenews Digest. 7:59—Views of Science. 8:00—Woman Speaks. 8:10—Baseball, Louisville Colonels vs Toledo Mud Hens.

FRIDAY, JULY 30
6:00—Time Pattern. 6:30—TV Ranch. 6:55—Program Preview. 7:00—Views of the News. 7:10—Animal Kingdom. 7:20—Cartoon Parade. 7:30—Tennesseans. 7:50—Newsreel. 8:00—Music at Eight. 8:10—Harness Racing.

The TV Station With No Studio

Two TV stations began their lives on the same day. One marked it with an array of stars live from Broadway. The other one just flicked a switch.

WPIX in New York City and WNHC-TV in New Haven both started commercial programming on June 15, 1948. While WPIX generated a full schedule of its own, the Connecticut station had no studios and no remote van. It had equipment to pick up relayed programming from DuMont in New York and re-transmit it. And it had two cameras either pointed at a test pattern card or to play commercials. That was about it.

Unlike WPIX, WNHC didn’t have an application that sat in a file for the duration of the war. Television Digest of July 26, 1947 reported:

Fourth TV application since color TV decision (Vol. 3, No. 29) went into FCC hopper this week — from Elm City Broadcasting Corp., operating 250-watt independent WNHC, New Haven, Conn. It asks for city's sole channel (No. 6) for a 1.82 kw community class outlet, estimates coverage of 500,000 population. It proposes to get "off-the-air" service from DuMont ' s WABD, New York, stipulates DuMont equipment, plans to build and equip studios and transmitter plant for §100,000 in conjunction with its FM plant on Gaylord Mt. Local program tieups with Yale University are planned. Stockholders are Patrick J. Goode, New Haven postmaster, 40%; Aldo D. Dominicis, macaroni manufacturer, 40%; Garo Ray, consulting engineer, 10%; employes, 10%.

Five weeks later, it had a construction permit. The FCC granted it on August 30, 1947.

At the end of February, the FCC was asked to allow the station (not on the air yet) to increase its power. The Hartford Courant of Apr. 18, 1948 had this situational story:

Television Broadcasts Due In May
New Haven Station to Begin Operations With Relays From New York
Regular television broadcasts from New York will be within the range of television sets in Hartford within a month.
Station WNHC-TV in New Haven is scheduled to begin operating by the first week in May. The station's television signal will be received easily in Hartford.
During the first months of operation. WNHC-TV will act solely as a relay station for New York television programs and will not produce any "live" shows until September when adequate studio facilities are expected to be completed.
Dumont Network Affiliate.
WNHC-TV is affiliated with the Dumont television network and will relay all Dumont programs from New York. In addition, the station has agreements with other television networks and will be permitted to relay their programs besides the Dumont shows.
A regular afternoon feature will be the relaying of television broadcasts of New York Yankees baseball games from Yankee Stadium. Hartford fans will be able to see most of the games played in the stadium on television sets, including the World Series if the New York team wins the pennant.
WNHC-TV will be the first regular television station in New England and will start operating a full month ahead of a proposed station in Boston, according to James T. Milne, general manager.
Transmitter in Hamden.
The New Haven station will operate on channel six of the television band with a power of 500 watts. The effective range of a 500-watt television signal is up to 35 miles from the transmitter [sic]. Downtown Hartford is 28 miles from the WNHC-TV transmitter now being constructed on Mount Carmel in Hamden.
The station has applied to the Federal Communications Commission for permission to operate with 5000 watts. The effective range of a 5000-watt signal is about 73 miles and would be received as far north as Springfield, Mass.
Mr. Milne said that there are now approximately 2500 television sets in Connecticut, most of them in Fairfield County where New York programs ran he received without the need of a relay station. He estimates that within three months following the opening of WNHC-TV, the number of sets will have tripled in the state.
'Air Line' Type Station.
WNHC-TV will be a micro-wave, or "air line," type of relay station, as opposed to the direct wire relay stations which receive a television signal through a co-axial cable and then rebroadcast the signal through the relay transmitter. In the "air line" system, the signal from New York will he received through the atmosphere, amplified, and then rebroadcast to the outlying areas.
The New Haven station will be operated by the Elm City Broadcasting Company which now operates the independent WNHC and WNHC-FM stations.
In Hartford, WDRC, WTIC and WTHT all have applications pending with the FCC in Washington for television station permits. Bearings on these applications are scheduled within the next five weeks.

The Bridgeport Post reported on May 23, 1948:

New Haven Station Hopes to Star State's First Television June 1
By ROCKY CLARK
Whether television will live up to the expectations of its enthusiastic press-agents and make present-day radio as obsolete as the horse-and-buggy remains to be seen. But wherever it leads, Connecticut will be among its pioneers.
Barring unforeseen delays, Connecticut's first television station will begin operations June 1. Representing an investment of almost half a million dollars, it is located on a mountain top in Hamden.
The station, WNHC-TV, is the only television station for which the Federal Communications has granted a construction permit in this state, although applications are on file from Bridgeport, Hartford and Waterbury concerns.
A Three-Year Project
It was three years ago, according to Aldo De Dominicis, secretary-treasurer of WNHC, that the New Haven radio station began planning a television affiliate. Though wartime shortages prevented the purchase of equipment at that time, WNHC engineers were instructed to study the surrounding countryside for an ideal transmitter site.
A year later, in 1946, the summit of Gaylord Mountain in Hamden had been agreed upon as a promising spot. WNHC lost no time in purchasing the mountain-top plus a right-of-way up the mountain. Next came the task of building a road up the mountain—a task that was completed late the same year.
Architect's plans for a modernistic transmitter building to house both a television and frequency modulation broadcasting station were drown up during the winter and spring of 1947. Work on the building began in August. Before the end of December, the building had not only been completed but the equipment had been installed.
WNHC-FM, utilizing a General Electric 20,000-watt transmitter on 99.1 megacycles, is already on the air—relaying WNHC programs to the FM audience in most parts of Connecticut.
150-Foot Tower Goes Up
Just over three weeks ago, strong steel beams for the 130-foot antenna tower were delivered to the mountain top. Workmen lost no time in erecting the high tower, on the top of which they added an RCA super-style triplex antenna which rose another 52 feet toward the heavens.
Meanwhile, a five-kilowatt Dumont television transmitter has been installed in the mountain-top building. Electric lines, bearing enough power to illuminate a small community, have been strung up the mountain to operate the costly equipment.
While engineers are putting finishing touches on the television transmitter, WNHC-TV officials are preparing for the day when program service begins. Already they have the distinction of being the first to sign an affiliation contract with the Dumont Television Network.
During its first few months of operation. WNHC-TV will confine its activities to relaying Dumont programs to its audience. Until a sizeable audience develops, costs of local programs would be prohibitive. Local spot announcement, however, will be broadcast direct from the mountain-top station.
By fall, however, the station hopes to broadcast television programs originating in WNHC's modernistic studio building on Chapel street in the center of New Haven. An unique RCA relay system will be used. A small television transmitter atop the Chapel street building will "beam" the programs to Gaylord Mountain where they will be picked up and relayed over WNHC-TV.
A similar but more complicated relay system will be used for relaying Dumont programs from New York to New Haven. Instead of linking WNHC-TV to Dumont's WABD by wire, a relay station has been erected at Huntington, Long Island, to pick up the WABD programs and "beam" them to a second relay station being built at Wolcott, near Oxford. From there they will be beamed to WNHC-TV.
Costly Cables Eliminated
As the Dumont network extends into northern New England, WNHC-TV will relay the Dumont programs by air to Hartford. Other relays will carry the programs to Springfield, Worcester, Boston and Providence, eliminating the expense of costly co-axial cables.
Postmaster Patrick Goode of New Haven is president of WNHC, which becomes Connecticut's most complete radio enterprise, with AM, FM and television transmitters. Garo W. Ray, Stratford radio engineer, is the vice president who, with Vincent de Laurentis, chief engineer, has supervised construction of the huge plant atop Gaylord Mountain. Mr. de Laurentis is the chief engineer of WNAB, Bridgeport.
James T. Milne, former Bridgeport radio announcer, is WNHC’s progressive station manager who assumes the added duties of supervising FM and television operations.
Owners of television receivers will find WNHC-TV at Channel No. 6 the dial. Pictures will be broadcast at 83.25 megacycles; sound at 87.75 mcs.
The mountain-top transmitter building includes living quarters or an engineer whose control panel will be located in front of a huge view window, affording him one of the most beautiful views of Connecticut. His mountain-top larder, however, will have to be well-locked in winter when he will he faced with the prospect of being isolated there for days after heavy snows block the mountain road.

Things weren’t ready. The FCC, on May 28, extended the completion date to Oct. 28. But the station started sending out DuMont shows in June.

WNHC-TV TESTS BEGIN
NEW HAVEN, June 3—(AP)—WNHC's television station put its first test pattern on the air over Channel No. 6 last night [2] and general manager James T. Milne reported today it was "highly successful." He said WNHC-TV will begin operating formally on or about June 14. It will be Connecticut's first television station.
Said Milne: "The engineering staff of WNHC along with consult ing engineers from the Dumont network last night put a test pattern on the air over WNHC-TV's channel No. 6. Test patterns are also being put on the air at different intervals throughout today. The pattern last night was highly successful."

WNHC-TV Today Starts Television Broadcasting
NEW HAVEN, June 14—(AP)—General Manager James T. Milne of radio station WHNC and television station WNHC-TV announced tonight that the television station will start broadcasting tomorrow on a test basis at 6 p. m. The station will relay programs from the Dumont Network of New York City. Mile said if the tests prove satisfactory, the station will relay programs on a regular basis in about two weeks.
The station has been making test patterns for the past two weeks, Milne said. The station range, he said, will take in all of Connecticut.

Back issues of the New Haven newspapers don’t seem to be on-line. However, there was this brief review in the Bridgeport Post on June 16:

NEW TV STATIONS
Television owners report "snowy" reception here of the two new stations that went on the air yesterday [15]—New Haven's WNHC-TV (Channel 6) and New York's WPIX (Channel 11 )—but experts point out that it takes time to iron out the kinks in television transmission and that improved reception should he forthcoming shortly. In the ease of WNHC-TV, the station is operating on 500 watts at present but will boost its power to 5,000 as soon as it receives the go-ahead signal from the FCC. For the time being, the New Haven station is confining its broadcasts to relaying Dumont programs from WABD, New York.

Being the only station in town, WNHC-TV was free to sign a contract with anyone to air their programming. Rocky Clark’s radio/TV column in the Post on Oct. 9 said an agreement had been inked to broadcast CBS shows, though there was no start date at that point. As another example, on Oct. 22, 1948, the station aired the Yale-Vanderbilt football game originating from WNBT.

There was some locally generated programming before the end of the year. Clark’s column mentioned on Dec. 8:

New Haven’s WNHC-TV will interrupt its Dumont relays to broadcast Christmas programs by the Telephone Company Glee Club tomorrow at 6:45, the New Haven Railroad Glee Club next Tuesday at 6:45 and a studio party for children Dec. 24 at 4:30 p. m. (The last one actually aired Christmas Day from 4 to 6:30).

The Sept. 20, 1948 issue of Television magazine included a feature story on the station.

Despite the modesty of its initial operations, WNHC-TV has hit New Haven the way Pudge Hefflefinger used to hit opposing linemen. Although the station has no regular measurements of video viewing in its area, it asserts—with good reason—that its influence is widespread.
At the start of the operations last June WNHC-TV attempted without success to carry the New York Yankee baseball games. According to the station, the Yankees asked $500 more per game from the Ballentine Co. (ale and beer), which was sponsoring the telecasts on DuMont's New York outlet to permit the pickups by New Haven. Ballentine felt the price was high, and consequently WNHC-TV was without the Yankees.
The New Haven television station broadcast four announcements, explaining to its audience that it could not broadcast the games and suggesting hopefully that if enough listeners wrote to request them, the Yankee management might let the station do the telecasts unsponsored—as a public service. Although it was not enough to move the Yankees to such magnanimity, the response was in sufficient volume to prove New Haven was a hotbed of Yankee and television fans.
The four announcements, broadcast only over the television station, pulled more than 3500 pieces of correspondence, some of them petitions bearing hundreds of names. Several of the petitions came from saloons where irate customers were up in arms at the deprivation.

As you can see, the station had no control over its programming. It was dependent on DuMont. Clark’s column of Jan. 27, 1949 explained the peril in this, and what station management had to do:

Athough the Fairfield county television audience enjoys a wide variety of programs because New York stations can he received with reasonable clarity in most parts of the county, the rest of Connecticut is forced to rely on New Haven's WNHC-TV, the only station providing reliable reception upstate.
And, from what we can determine, the audience is not too pleased with the general program fare offered by the Dumont network, of which WNHC-TV is a basic affiliate. Sudden cancellation of all boxing and wrestling shows, plus the failure of Dumont to substitute ether sporting features, has brought numerous complaints from upstate video viewers.
The WNHC-TV management, desirous of keeping its audience content, has entered into a working agreement with both NBC and CBS to supplement the Dumont program fare. Thus, last night WNHC-TV's audience was able to view CBS' Tournament of Champions bouts, and these will now be a regular feature of the station.
Arthur Godfrey's Wednesday night video show has also been added to the WNHC-TV schedule. So has NBC's Philco Television Theater on Sunday nights.
In addition, the New Haven station is completing studio arrangements whereby it will begin producing local shows next month.

Walter Archer in the Hartford Courant of April 17, 1949 said the station had signed a deal with ABC to rebroadcast shows and only had to figure out how to get them there to do it.

A year after the station signed on, its programming that day was a mix of ABC, NBC, CBS and DuMont. Only one show doesn’t appear to have come from the four networks.

Here’s the first week of the station’s schedule, all from WABD.

TUESDAY, JUNE 15
6:00—Small Fry Club with Bob Emery. 6:30—Russ Hodges Scoreboard. 6:45—Film Shorts. 7:00—Alan Dale show with Janie Ford. 7:15—Mary Kaye and Johnny. 7:30—Camera Headlines; Tele-News. 8:00—Court of Current Issues. 9:00—Boxing from Jerome Arena.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16
6:00—Small Fry Club with Bob Emery. 6:30—Russ Hodges Scoreboard. 6:45—Film Shorts. 7:00—Photographic Horizons. 7:30—Camera Headlines, Film Shorts. 9:00—News, Harness Racing. 11:00—Sign Off with newsreel.

THURSDAY, JUNE 17
6:00—Small Fry Club with Bob Emery. 6:30—Russ Hodges Scoreboard. 6:45—Film Shorts. 7:00—Birthday Party. 7:30—Camera Headlines. 7:45—Jack Eigen. 8:00—Charade Quiz. 8:30—Adrienne, “Champagne and Orchids.” 8:45—Film Shorts. 9:00—Wrestling from Jerome Arena.

FRIDAY, JUNE 18
6:00—Small Fry Club with Bob Emery. 6:30—Russ Hodges Scoreboard. 6:45—Film Shorts. 7:30—Camera Headlines. 7:45—Film Shorts. 8:00—Fashions on Parade. 8:30—To be announced. 9:00—Wrestling from Jamaica Arena with Dennis James.

SATURDAY, JUNE 19
No programming scheduled.

SUNDAY, JUNE 20
6:00—“Key to Missing Persons.” 6:30—“Thanks, America”; film shorts. 7:00—Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour. 8:00—G.O.P. Convention Program.

MONDAY, JUNE 21
10:50 a.m.—G.O.P. Convention. 5:50—Teletunes. 6:00—Small Fry Club with Bob Emery. 6:30—Russ Hodges Scoreboard. 6:45—News with Walter Compton, from Washington. 7:00—Doorway to Fame. 7:30—Camera Headlines. 7:45—Sylvie St. Claire. 8:00—Television Televised. 8:05—G.O.P. Convention. 8:30—Swing into Sports. 8:55—Drew Pearson. 9:00—Sports Names to Remember. 9:05—Boxing from Jamaica Arena.

Boston Gets Commercial TV

Boston started June 1948 with no television. It had two stations before the end of the month.

There were television transmissions in the early ‘30s in Boston by the Shortwave & Television Co.’s W1XAV. General Television received a license to put experimental station W1XG on the air in 1934.

Westinghouse’s radio station operations filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission on March 22, 1944 for a commercial television station in Boston to operate on Channel 5. Television magazine noted in May 1945 that General Television had withdrawn its application to go commercial and leased W1XG’s transmitter and studios to Twentieth Century-Fox, which then applied for an experimental station. The story also pointed out there were only 15 sets in Boston, all owned by General Television.

It took two years for the FCC to decide to hand Westinghouse a construction permit for a TV station. It happened Aug. 12, 1946. Walter E. Benoit of Washington declared to the Boston Globe “As soon as equipment and facilities are available, television will be placed in operation in the Boston area.” Television Digest of Aug. 17 added the owners of WBZ and WBZ-FM were granted Channel No. 4 (66-72 me) with 10 kw visual power, 7.5 kw aural power, 500 ft. antenna height. The same trade paper, on Nov. 16, 1946, said the station had been assigned the call-letters WBZ-TV.

It took some time to get things ready. The papers tracked the progress. Here's what Television magazine said in its July 1947 issue:

WBZ-TV, Westinghouse station in Boston, will be on the air with test programs by the end of the year and will inaugurate a regular television program service early next year, according to W. C. Swartley, station manager. New radio-television center now under construction, will include a 40x45 foot television studio, with a mezzanine operations room for technicians, producers, etc.; an auditorium type studio equipped for television; make-up rooms, film studios, and a film vault. Also included will be garages for the WBZ-TV mobile unit, which will pick up special events throughout the area and relay them to the center for broadcast.

Billboard, Aug. 2, 1947:

Boston Tele Preps' For Remote Pick-Ups
BOSTON, July 26.—Boston's first television station, WBZ-TV, now being constructed on a 10-acre tract adjoining Harvard Stadium, will be equipped with an RCA microwave relay unit for use as needed in remote pick-ups. In announcing this new equipment, W. H. Hauser, chief engineer of the New England Westinghouse stations, said it was being installed so that all special event requirements in the metropolitan Boston area could be met where co-axial lines from the pick-up point were not available.
The added coverage will bring plenty of Boston and suburban sport events within range of the tele station. Suffolk Downs Race Track, Wonderful Dog Track, and the stadia of Harvard, Boston College, Boston University, Tufts, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other colleges will be within easy reach.
Test patterns are expected to be aired late this year, and Jordan Marsh, the department store head, reports early customer-interest in television sets.

Variety, Aug. 27, 1947:

WBZ-TV's Mobile Unit
Boston, Aug. 26.
WBZ-TV, Hub's first video outfit readying for fall debut, acquired a mobile television unit this week for spot coverage. No tests are planned for some time but vehicle, a special unit on a Chevy chassis, is being used for personnel training under direction of W. H. Hauser, WBZ-TV chief engineer.
Outfit has a two-camera video pickup plus Microwave Relay Unit for relaying spot coverage back to main transmitter when coaxial lines are not available. It's figured that new WBZ studios, under construction in Alliston, will be ready by Christmas. New building will house television center as well as standard band. FM, administrative staff plus shortwave affiliate WBOS.

Broadcasting, Oct. 13, 1947

WBZ's Radio-TV Center Cornerstone to Be Laid
CORNERSTONE will be laid for Boston area's new Westinghouse-WBZ Radio and Television Center at ceremonies next Thursday[16] in suburban Allston. Vice President Walter E. Benoit of the broadcasting division will head the list of Westinghouse officials participating. Other speakers include WBZ Manager W. C. Swartley and W. H. Hauser, chief engineer.
Ceremonies will be broadcast 1:30-1:45 p.m. on WBZ-WBZA Boston-Springfield. A tape recording of the program, and other mementos of the day, will be placed in the cornerstone.
Television programs, including NBC network video shows, are scheduled to take the air over WBZ-TV, sometime prior to March 1, 1948.

Something else had to be done. There was no coaxial cable to Boston, which meant no network feed from network. Billboard, Nov. 22, 1947, reported on the solution.

ATT Launches N.Y.-Boston Radio Relay
Big Step in Tele Networking
NEW YORK, Nov. 15.—Television networking made a major gain this week when American Telephone & Telegraph Company (ATT) Thursday (13) inaugurated radio relay service between New York and Boston. The system, based on microwave relays perched atop seven hills between this city and the Hub, can handle several hundred phone conversations and a limited number of television transmissions simultaneously.
A demonstration of the facilities also inaugurated the world's longest existing television network, flashing images from Boston to Washington and vice versa, some 500 miles. The pictures were routed thru New York City, the coaxial cable between New York and Washington serving as a second link in the network and proving the possibility of combining radio relay and coaxial transmission.
Opens Big Market
The New York to Boston link cost an estimated $2,000,000 to install. It opens in conjunction with the Washington hookup, a market of 25,000,000 potential television viewers. A New York to Chicago relay system is now under construction and further experimentation will determine which transmission system is the more practical. The Chicago line is to be finished in about 18 months.
The ATT demonstration, which used both live pickups and film, resulted in an excellent picture, with no loss of fidelity in transmission. Program was aired by WABC, WCBS-TV and WNBT in New York; WFIL-TV and WPTZ, Philadelphia; WMAR-TV, Baltimore; WMAL-TV, WNBW and WTTG, Washington, and WRBG, Schenectady.
As matters stand now NBC will benefit most thru the Boston link, since its affiliate, WBZ-TV (Westinghouse) is to be the first Boston telecaster, due on the air in a few months. Yankee Network's tele station is now being built, with service due probably in the fall of next year. Since there are now no Boston video facilities, NBC mobile equipment did the pickup for this week's demonstration.

Even though the station wasn’t on the air, the WBZ-TV remote truck was used on Jan. 22, 1948 to relay a broadcast of the approach of the beam trawler Dorchester to the Boston Fish Pier on NBC stations in Schenectady, Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia—in the middle of a snowstorm. A special telecast of films of the spring training action of Boston’s two baseball clubs was sent by microwave from the WJZ-TV studio to the Boston Electrical Show, April 3 to 10. Then on May 11, it was announced both teams would televise their home games on the eventually-two Boston stations.

The weather continued to be a problem, making it impossible for engineers to put up the transmitter tower. Dates of testing and the start of programming kept being postponed. The Christian Science Monitor reported on the first tests in its issues of June 3 and 4.

WBZ-TV Shows `Preview' Of Regular Video
A limited television schedule of 60 minutes daily of motion pictures and films by Station WBZ-TV, prior to "T-Day," June 9, was initiated today by Westinghouse officials in Boston. The program, on Channel 4, in the 66-72-mega-cycle region, was, and will continue to be, telecast from 12 noon to 1 p.m., daylight time.
The new video plant at Allston, Mass. next to the Harvard Stadium, will be dedicated with special ceremonies beginning at 6:15 p.m., on Wednesday, Mr. Swartley said. At that time visual greeting will be telecast by leading national and local civic, religious, and business leaders.
WBZ-TV's telecasting schedule after T-Day will be limited initially, Mr. Swartley explained, with regular programs scheduled Wednesday through Sunday at 7 p.m.
“We plan no television pro-grams on Mondays and Tuesdays with the exception of baseball games,” Mr. Swartley said.
He disclosed that on Wednesday, WBZ-TV, furthermore, would join the National Broadcasting Company's television network. This link, now largely regional, extends from Boston south to Richmond. Va., though it is being pushed farther South to Atlanta, Ga., and west to Chicago.
Among the Wednesday network NBC television programs are television newsreels at 7:50 p.m. and 10 p.m.; "In the Kitchen," with Alma Kitchell, at 8:30 p.m., and a 60-minute drama in "Television Theater." at 9 p.m. WBZ-TV test patterns will continue on a regular transmission schedule, Mr. Swartley added, to enable local service personnel the opportunity in line up receivers. The test pattern is a geometric-figured diagram placed before the TV cameras of WBZ-TV which permits both station engineers and television set dealers to tune up their equipment and receivers for a clearer and sharper picture.

First Program in Boston Telecast; WBZ-TV Shows Three Short Movies
By Albert D. Hughes
Radio Editor of The Christian Science Monitor
A Panagra film short depicting a flight over company routes from the Canal Zone to Bolivia was included in the first modern television program telecast yesterday [3] in Boston by Westinghouse Station WBZ-TV.
Reception was clear though marred slightly by local "man-made" static at the Massachusetts Trade School, 100 Massachusetts Avenue, where several receivers were tuned into the program. Due to technical difficulties, the picture program, scheduled at noon, did not go on the air until 12:40 p. m.
Other films, one a United States Army recruiting feature, and a local short showing the arts and crafts classes organized by the Metropolitan Chapter of the American Red Cross for veterans in local hospitals, were also shown.
Today, Westinghouse showed three films beginning at noon. One was "Let's Stop Starvation," a United Nations appeal for aid to European children; the second was "We of the West Riding," a British Information Office film showing life in the northern English county of Yorkshire; the last film, second part of yesterday's airline travelogue, took travelers on down the South and East Coasts of South America.
The Red Cross film drew comment because of the local scenes shown, such as the sign and driveway at the West Roxbury Veterans Hospital.
Evidence of the great interest in television in Boston was shown by the crowd which quickly gathered in the small room in the Trade School where several sets were turned on. Only two per. sons were on hand when the DBZ-TV [sic] programs began. In a short while classrooms of the school began to fill as word went around quickly in the corridors. "Television!"
Westinghouse officials also re-ported, crowds gathered outside radio stores about Boston where picture receivers were tuned into the WBZ-TV program.

WJZ-TV formally began programming on June 9, 1948. The NBC relay worked just fine. Here is the report from Broadcasting of June 14.

WBZ-TV Formally Opened at Boston
Inaugural Features Government, Business, Religious Leaders
COMMENTS on television's impact by government and business officials and religious leaders featured the formal dedication of WBZ-TV Boston and expansion of its program service last Wednesday evening [BROADCASTING, June 7].
Inaugural program gotunderway at 6:30 p.m. from the Boston studios of WBZ and WBZA Springfield, Mass., with brief talks by several religious leaders. Among their comments was this one by the Most Rev. Richard J. Cushing, D. D., Catholic archbishop of Boston:
"Recreational, spiritual and cultural posibilities of this medium cannot be fully estimated. It will be a healthy and wholesome service to the spiritually-minded ... It will be a happy medium for pleasant and profitable diversion."
Speaking on behalf of business, C. Lawrence Muench, new president of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, said in part: "I have considered my radio indispensable, and now realize that my radio is blind." Mr. Muench forsees numerous possibilities for business and public relations through television.
On the governmental side Boston's Mayor Curley pointed out that a public servant "can no longer be unaware of his appearance. Television will have a great impact on the future of all public servants."
Also appearing on the inaugural program was Gov. Robert F. Bradford of Massachusetts,who recalled his first television experience last winter when NBC, in cooperation with WBZ-TV, televised Boston Fish Pier activities.
Other participants were J. B. Conley, general manager of Westinghouse Radio Stations Inc., Philadelphia, and W. C. Swartley, WBZ station manager.
WBZ-TV is operating on Channel 4 (66-72 mc), and its programming includes a full evening schedule beginning at 7, plus big league baseball and other Boston events.

Television's June 1948 issue looked at sponsors and programming, both local and network.

WBZ-TV Boston
Opening of Westinghouse's WBZ-TV in Boston adds another link to the Eastern seaboard network and another affiliate to NBC. First television outlet to open in the nation's fifth market area, WBZ-TV's coverage is estimated as serving a 40-mile radius, with a population of nearly three million people. Programs will be telecast over channel 4. Westinghouse also has applications on file in Pittsburgh and Portland.
Initial schedule calls for Wednesday through Sunday programming, beginning at 6:55 each evening. Afternoon pickups will feature the home games of both the Red Sox and the Braves and station will also telecast these events on the "off" days, Monday and Tuesday, when the line-up requires it. Bulk of their programming will be relayed over the A.T. & T. radio relay from NBC, but Saturday night's fare will be purely local. Emphasis is on news, with such daily five minute features as a news tape preceding evening shows; the "Daily Newsteller," the" INS Newsreel," "Views and News of New England," using Boston Post pictures and the WBZ newsreel, a Saturday feature. The 10 minute Camel Newsreel Theatre will be relayed three times weekly. Station has also contracted for the Korda films, shown Sunday night at 9.
Studios will be located in the Radio-Television Center, which has one large auditorium studio with stage 28' x 30' and another 40'x 50'.Facilities include four studio image orthicon cameras, 16mm and 35 mm film projectors and complete mobile equipment, including four image orthicon cameras.
On the commercial side, the outlook is bright, withabout 70% of its program time commercially sponsored (based on an average of 20 hours a week, excluding baseball.) This includes such network sponsors as Kraft, Lucky Strike, Camel, Swift, Gillette, Kelvinator, Motorola, Gulf, U.S. Rubber, Kools, General Electric and General Foods. Local accounts include Atlantic Refining and Narragansett Brewing, co-sponsors of the ballgames; Bulova, Clinton Clothing Mfg. Co., John Donnelly & Sons Advertising, Esso Standard Oil of New Jersey, Filene's, First National Bank, Haffenreffer & Co., Jordan March, Mass. Cooperative Bank League and National Shawmut Bank of Boston.
Station is staffed by W. C. Swartley, station manager; W. H. Hauser, chief engineer; W. Gordon Swan, program manager, and C. Herbert Masse, sales manager.

And the story in the Boston Globe the day after the broadcast:

Historic Date
Boston's First Day of Television
By ELIZABETH SULLIVAN
Globe Radio Editor
How did you like it ... you sidewalk brigade who viewed the debut of television from the store windows of Boston last night?
Would you like to know how the show was put on?
Many weeks went into its preparation. Leaders of the three dominant faiths were invited long ago to start off the inaugural ceremonies. As you know, the weather delayed T-Day and since these men are extremely busy fulfilling engagements, it was possible they would be out of town just when they were needed at WBZ. So WBZ officials sent cameramen to film them at their offices, or at the film studio where WBZ does special work.
Dean Edwin van Etten and C. Lawrence Muench, new president of the Chamber of Commerce, were filmed at the studio, while Archbishop Cushing, Gov. Bradford and Mayor Curley were filmed in their executive offices. Dean van Etten looked most comfortable as he rocked casually in an easy chair. Mr. Muench looked as if he were speaking from atop a tall building but that was an aerial view of Boston banging on the wall. It was so appropriate, for his talk was on the scenic beauty of Boston as seen from atop the John Hancock building. Smart people, these television execs!
This film part of the show was run off at the transmitter site in Allston, where WBZ has just completed its new steel television tower. Signals making up the film were sent from the new building beside the tower through a co-axial cable up the tower and out over the air for television set owners to pick up. Incidentally, WBZ had the pleasure of picking up its own signals last night. All the receivers assembled in Studio A, where invited guests viewed the show, at the Bradford Hotel, tuned in WBZ-TV signals right from Allston. One antenna served the six sets in the studio, a clever engineering stunt.
Remember the group of young folks you saw sitting on a divan, with a coffee table nearby covered with goodies to eat? This presentation, put on under sponsorship of Filene’s, took place right in the WBZ studios at the Bradford. Cameras, lights and engineers were in a large rear studio televising the show. This was sent out of WBZ to Allston and then retransmitted for public consumption ... from the tall, steel tower.
When you saw Gov. Bradford, he was by film. . . made several weeks' ago. . and this film was out at the transmitter in Allston. On the other hand, Senator Leverett Saltonstall, who was down in Washington, was actually being interviewed when you saw him. Televised in Washington, his picture we sent by co-axial cable (an underground wire process) to WNBT, New York. From WNBT, it came to Boston over the air by microwave system, which is the telephone company's system to Bowdoon sq. from which point it was sent to the transmitter at Allston and here again WBZ turned in its own television signals.
J. B. Conley, general manager of broadcasting for Westinghouse, sat in a comfortable chair at the Bradford WBZ studio, surrounded by door lamps, open fireplace and carpeted floor, while television cameras were focused upon him. This was a live studio show, sent to the transmitter for telecast.
New Television Center
So there you have it. Some of the pictures were by film, some right from the studios of WBZ, in the Bradford and the Senator in a real live interview all the way from Washington by microwave system.
Very soon WBZ will be moving out to its new radio and television center in Allston. There will be no need then for the shifting back and forth ... from the Bradford to the transmitter ... as was necessary last night. Whether a show is live, or by film, it will go right out over the air from the new site.
Equipment to televise from WBZ studios last night was borrowed from the televan. This is a large van WBZ has equipped for outdoor television. You will see this truck at the ball games and at special events.
And while we're letting you in on secrets, let us tell you about that Indian head symbol you have been seeing during the past week while WBZ-TV has been putting on test patterns. The symbol has caused no amount of comment. We tracked it down last night.
Lynn Morrow, assistant sales manager of WBZ, thought it up. It signifies "tepee" ... get it? 'T.P"— for test picture!

The broadcast had the unenviable distinction of featuring a dead man.

BOSTON, June 9. (AP)—The death of Rabbi Joshua Loth Liebman, author of the best-seller Peace of Mind, came today shortly before he was to participate, via film, in the first television broadcast in Boston.
Officials of Station WBZ-TV were notified of his death less than half an hour before a movie showing Rabbi Liebman was to be televised.
Station Manager W. C. Swartley conferred with the clergyman’s relatives and friend. Swartley went on the air with an explanatory message stating that it was believed the noted rabbi would want the film used despite his death.
In the televised film, Rabbi Liebman prayed for a renewal of the spirit of religion.

We’ve talked about two Boston stations signing on in June, but there was a third that went on the air in New England. Folks in Holyoke, Massachusetts could pick it up and, in fact, it began tests the next day after WBZ-TV began full programming.

Here’s the Holyoke Transcript-Telegram of June 11.

Subway Café Mobbed At Its Television Goes Into Action

Television made its public debut in Holyoke last night at the Subway Cafe in John St., just below High. Altho tests were started at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon [10] with reception from WNHC-TV, "New Haven's Window on the Air," no pictures were flashed on the screen until 6 o'clock last night when the programs out of Boston on WBZ-TV were brought in.
Fred Pafik of 244 Oak St., owner and operator of the cafe, said today that altho he is satisfied with yesterday's test, he is already thinking of having the present piece of apparatus replaced with a larger and more expensive radio. The television set at the Subway, which was installed by the Holyoke Radio Supply Co., sells for $375 plus installation costs. The work was done by Wallace Foerster of 898 Main St.
This apparatus has a 12 by inch screen and Pafik hopes to have a radio with a screen 18 by 18 inches.
The attendant publicity in last night's edition of the T.-T. relative to the appearance of television at the Subway resulted in an overflow crowd thruout the night. At one point three police cruisers appeared on the scene due to an erroneous report that trouble was brewing at the cafe.
The test which started yesterday afternoon at 4 p. m. from New Haven merely flashed a test pattern on the screen. Vocal reception attended the testing with announcements made that WNHC-TV would go on the air Tuesday, June 15th on a tie-in with the Dumond [DuMont] Corporation out of New York city on Channel 5. The New Haven station will have a relay station at Hampden, Conn.
After WBZ-TV started telecasting at 6 last night, Foerster managed to bring it in immediately with a very strong "signal" or in other words, a clear picture on the screen. The station is on Channel 4 and Foerster believes that even better reception can be expected on Channel 5 from New Haven, due to the fact that the relay station at Hampden will boost the "signals" into this area.
The receiving set at the Subway was set up on a table at the east end of the cafe. Pafik today stated that a special platform is already under construction which will have the radio set up almost to the ceiling and stationed in this position, patrons can get a much better view of the picture.
Last night's telecast out of Boston comprised mostly drama, altho an orchestra, complete with vocalists, and newscasts were also received here. Pafik admitted that business was unusually good last night. As a couple of television and bar customers said. "You pay for a movie—the least you can do is to 'have a few' when you're watching this screen."

Here’s the first week’s schedule for WBZ-TV.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9
10-noon—Test Patterns. 1:00-4:00—Test Patterns. 6:15—Boston Scenes. 6:25—Test Pattern and News Tape. 6:30—WBZ-TV Inaugural Program including: Dean Edwin J. van Etten, Archbishop Richard J. Cushing, Rabbi Joshua Loth Liebman, Mayor James M. Curley. 6:54—National Sports Gallery. 7:00—Kit Carson Serial. 7:20—Big Broadcast, cartoon. 7:25—Nightly Newsteller. 7:30—New England Holiday. 7:42—Weather. 7:45—Coming Attractions. 7:47—Talk by Gov. Robert F. Bradford. 7:50—Newsreel Theatre, sponsored by Camel cigarettes (NBC). 8:00—Magic Words. 8:12—Future Look, Mrs. Mary Wight, H.D. Hodgkinson interview young boys. 8:27—Kisses to You. 8:30—“In the Kelvinator Kitchen,” with Alma Kitchell (NBC). 8:45—Story of the Week with Richard C. Harkness (NBC). 9:00—Kraft Television Theatre (NBC). 10:00—To be announced. 11:00—INS News. 11:05—News and View of New England. 11:10—Sign Off

THURSDAY, JUNE 10
10-noon—Test Patterns. 1:00-4:00—Test Patterns. 4:00—INS Newsreel. 6:30—Test Patterns. 6:55—Newstape. 7:00—Film, “Fighting with Kit Carson,” John Mack Brown, Noah Beery, Sr., Noah Berry, Jr. 7:30—Jack and the Beanstalk, cartoon (Iwerks, 1933). 7:40—Stop Starvation (Children’s Crusade). 7:50—Newsreel Theatre, sponsored by Camel cigarettes (NBC). 8:00—Salt Water Wonderland. 8:15—Nature of Things, with Dr. Roy K. Marshall (NBC). 8:30—Lanny Ross Show, sponsored by Kraft. (NBC) 9:00—You Are an Artist with John Gnagy, sponsored by Gulf. (NBC). 9:15—NBC Newsroom. 9:30—Barney Blake, Police Reporter (NBC). 10:00—INS News 10:05—Views of New England. 10:10—Sign Off.

FRIDAY, JUNE 11
10-noon—Test Patterns. 1:00-4:00—Test Patterns. 4:00—INS Newsreel. 6:30—Test Patterns. 6:55—Newstape. 7:00—Film, “Fighting with Kit Carson,” John Mack Brown, Noah Beery, Sr., Noah Berry, Jr. 7:20—Coming Attractions. 7:30—Preamble to Peace (U.S. Army). 7:42—Bold King Cole, cartoon (Van Beuren, 1936). 7:50—Newsreel Theatre, sponsored by Camel cigarettes (NBC). 8:00—Sports Time. 8:15—New England Calling 8:49—Big Bad Wolf. 9:00—Sports Reports. 9:15—Newsreel. 9:25—“Gillette Cavalcade of Sports” from Madison Square Garden (NBC). 10:00—Boxing feature match (NBC). 10:30—INS News. 10:35—Views and News of New England. 10:40—Sign Off.

SATURDAY, JUNE 12
9:00-10:00—Test Patterns. 1:00-5:00—Test Patterns. 4:00—INS Newsreel. 6:30—Test Patterns. 6:55—Newstape. 7:00—Film, “Fighting with Kit Carson,” John Mack Brown, Noah Beery, Sr., Noah Berry, Jr. 7:20—Coming Attractions. 7:25—Daily Newsteller. 7:30—Julius Caesar. 7:50—WBZ Newsreel. 7:55—INS Documentary. 8:00—Little Ballerina. 9:00—Instruments of Orchestra. 9:23—INS News. 9:28—Views and News of New England. 9:30—Sign Off.

SUNDAY, JUNE 13
5:30—INS Newsreel. 6:30—Test Patterns. 6:55—News Tape. 7:00—Life of St. Paul. 7:20—Coming Attractions. 7:25—Daily Newsteller. 7:30—Sea Going Thrills (Castle film). 7:40—Weekend in Bermuda (Pan-Am, 1945). 7:50—Sunday Newsteller. 8:00—Film. 8:30—NBC Play House. 9:00—Home Theatre, Alexander Korda Film “Q-Planes” with Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Valerie Hobson. 10:30—INS News. 10:35—News and Views of New England. 10:40—Sign off.

MONDAY, JUNE 14
No programming.

TUESDAY, JUNE 15
7:00—Test Pattern. 7:45—News Tape. 7:50—Newsreel Theatre, sponsored by Camel cigarettes (NBC). 8:00—Film. 8:15—Pre-Game Ceremonies. 8:30—Baseball, Boston Braves vs. Chicago Cubs. 10:30—Sign Off.
Video Baseball Pleases Hub Fans
Most Favor Closeups, Offer Suggestions
Greater Boston baseball fans, who saw the first televised game last night [15] between the Braves and Cubs, today called it a good and interesting show. But they had a few suggestions to offer.
* * *
They were impressed most by the closeups, which they thought were very good. They reported they could see every move of the players in these closeups—even their mouths moving when they talked.
In some respects, one fan said, the television was superior to a grandstand seat. For example, when a batter hit a fly ball, television took its audience right out into the outfield for a closeup of the outfielder making the putout catch.
But when the televisers tried to take in the whole infield or show a large part of the outfield, results were not so successful, according to some fans. They said the picture blurred so they had to concentrate on it to make out what was going on; they couldn't tell where the ball was, for one thing.
It was helpful, at times like this, when the announcer kept abreast of the play and told them what was happening. But when a pitcher would wind up and let go and there was a lapse before the announcer came through with the information of what happened, it was a little confusing for some fans.
Station WBZ-TV reported today that it received many favorable comments on the broadcast. The few complaints about jumping pictures, etc., were due, station officials said, to sets that were not tuned in properly. A group of Boston sports writers who watched the television of the game called it a "good show," but said it wasn't quite equal to a seat in the press box. They said that sometimes the action seemed a little far away and they couldn't quite make out whether the batter had ducked away from the ball or had taken a swing at it.
More people are believed to have watched last night's game, due to the television show, than have ever before seen a local ball game. They watched Boston's first "live" television show on home sets, in taverns, restaurants, cocktail lounges, bars, hotels and store windows. (Boston Globe)

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16 10:00-Noon—Test Pattern. 2:00—Baseball, Boston Braves vs Chicago. 6:55—News Tape. 7:00—Film, “Fighting with Kit Carson,” John Mack Brown, Noah Beery, Sr., Noah Berry, Jr. 7:20—Coming Attractions. 7:25—Nightly Newsteller. 7:30—Cartoon Corner. 7:50—Newsreel Theatre, sponsored by Camel cigarettes (NBC). 8:00—Film, “Clear Track Ahead.” 8:30—“In the Kelvinator Kitchen,” with Alma Kitchell. (NBC) 8:45—Richard Harkness Interview (NBC). 9:00—Kraft Television Theatre, “Applesauce” (NBC). 10:00—INS News. 10:05—Views and News of New England. 10:10—Sign Off.