Television in California is Here To Stay

“Without fanfare” television appeared in southern California in 1931.

The Los Angeles Daily News gave the most fanfare about the new station, which signed on December 23rd.

FIRST TELEVISION BROADCAST BEGUN IN STUDIO HERE
By KENNETH FROGLEY
Without fanfare of publicity, the first television broadcast went into operation at the Don Lee television station, W6XAO, situated at KHJ, Wednesday at 6 p.m.
"Due to the numerous false alarms and empty prophecies regarding television, emanating from all parts of the country, the management of the Don Lee organization decided to establish the service before making any announcement," read the announcement issued by the radio officials yesterday.
NEW HIGH FREQUENCY
W6XAO at present is sending put signals between 6 and 7 p.m. daily on a frequency of 44,500 kilocycles, or 6 meters, a new ultra-high frequency. It is the only regular television service in the west and is the only broadcast, according to KHJ executives, which employs the electrical scanning disc.
The new station uses cathode ray-beams at both transmitter and receiver, and is a development of Harry R. Lubcke, director of television tor the Don Lee broadcasting system.
900 REVOLUTIONS
With this system, Lubcke explained, reception is possible on the scanning disc as well as on the electric receivers especially adapted to television. To receive W6XAO’s programs, a set with a spiral disc of 80 holes, revolving at 900 revolutions per minute, is required.
The receiving area extends approximately 40 miles from the point of projection. Already a portion of Los Angeles and surrounding territory has been mapped for television waves with the aid of an especially equipped automobile.
CITY HALL SHADOW
Television experts at KHJ declared that the city hall cast a pronounced shadow on the waves, making reception difficult on the north eastside, which is opposite the Don Lee building at Seventh and Bixel streets. Reception also is weakened by intervening hills.

Several days later, the Long Beach Sun reported on a talk given to a women’s club by Dean T. Smith of Southern California Telephone. He showed a film dissecting the progress of a phone call, but also spoke on television. The story in the December 29, 1931 edition quotes Smith:

“In order to receive this kind of television, it will require a specially constructed receiving set, which is not yet on the market,” the speaker said. “It is good to know that Los Angeles is vying with New York centers of radio development in an effort to solve the enigma of television that is still just around the corner—only none of us know which corner.”

The April 1932 issue of Modern Mechanics and Inventions contained a wonderfully illustrated article on television. The editor augmented a story written by RCA president David Sarnoff with two paragraphs on W6XAO. It emphasized the lack of a whirring disc, used by the East Coast TV stations, to send out signals.

Regular television service from station W6XAO, in Los Angeles, was opened recently, broadcasting on a wavelength of 6 3/4 meters, or 44,500 kilocycles. At the present time signals are being sent out between six and seven P. M. (P.S.T.). Eighty lines are used and the image is repeated fifteen times per second.
There are practically no mechanical features to the system in use at W6XAO, as the system employs cathode ray beam at both transmitter and receiver, instead of motors and scanning discs. The receiving area extends approximately forty miles from the point of projection. Reception is also weakened by intervening hills.

W6XAO had a problem. The Daily News explained it in the paper’s July 9, 1932 edition:

SEVERAL television fans dropped into the office to complain that Don Lee's television station, W6XAO, broadcasts on such ultra high frequencies (44,500 kilocycles), that it is almost impossible for the average fan to tune in.
Clarence [sic] Lubcke, W6XAO’s builder, has this to say in defense of the station: “It is generally felt that the ultra high frequencies hold great promise for television perfection, by reason of the wide ether channels available in this region. There also is a remarkable lack of fading and interference when operating in this part of the air.
“Although this region is only being exploited now, experience enables anyone to build and operate a receiver on 44,500 kilocycles as easily as on the regular commercial or short wave bands.” Owners of W6XAO, moreover, hold a television permit for a new station, W6XS, on the lower 2100 to 2200 kilocycle band, near where most television stations operate. Although not yet in operation, W6XS is under construction.
In the meantime, W6XAO is broadcasting receivable pictures reproduced from motion picture film—closeups of screen stars and action scenes—each night at 6 to 7, and has been since March of this year.

It took some time, but finally the problem was solved. Projection Engineering magazine of January 1933 summed up the situation:

COMPLETION of the most powerful television transmitter in the West, and among the most powerful in the United States, is announced by the Don Lee Broadcasting System, through Harry R. Lubcke, director of television for the network.
Rated at 1,000 watts, and with 4,000 watts maximum output for signal peaks, the new transmitter, with call-letters W6XS, went on the air for the first time on regular schedule, Friday, December 23, 1932, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. broadcasting action reels and closeups of motion picture stars. This schedule will be maintained daily, except Sundays and holidays, it is announced.
Embodying many ultra-modern and far-advanced features, many refinements of which have been worked out, W6XS is ten times more powerful than the sister television transmitter W6XAO which has pioneered several achievements in the ultra short-wave field.
Opening on regular schedule on the first anniversary of W6XAO, the new high-powered television transmitter of W6XS, operates on a frequency of 2,150 kilocycles, or 140 meters. Grid modulation, new air-cooled vacuum tubes and other highly advanced features of the 1,000-watter, are expected to provide signal coverage of the entire State.

Radio Digest of January 1933 reported there were other frequencies Don Lee was using: 49,300 kcs. or six meters, and 66,750 kcs. or four-and-a-percentage meters. In other words, all the stations were simulcasting on different wave-lengths, like AM/FM stations sometimes do today.

Which “action reels” and which stars’ pictures were being aired? None of the Los Angeles stations printed TV schedules, and it’s not a surprise. One trade publication in early 1933—and I can’t find the reference now—explained there were fewer than a dozen TV sets in Los Angeles at the time. Any one of those set owners had to be diehards who’d tune in anything Don Lee had to offer. International Photographer’s issue of November 1933 says the first Paramount features to air were Cecil B. DeMille's "This Day and Age" and "The Texan," starring Gary Cooper, along with Pathe Newsreels and unidentified Paramount shorts and trailers.

Despite being the most powerful of the pair, W6XS was taken off the air. Variety’s Radio Directory for 1937-1938 says the two were operated by Don Lee until October 25, 1934. W6XAO carried on as an experimental station, with its commercial license held up by the FCC while it investigated anti-trust claims against the Lee radio network, until becoming KTSL on May 6, 1948. It’s now called KCBS-TV.