One television station signed on, while two others got in trouble as the second half of 1930 began.
The Chicago Daily News put W9XAP on the ether at the end of August to a lot interest in the popular press. Meanwhile, Chicago’s other station, W9XAO, was accused of violating rules of the Federal Radio Commission, which refused to renew its license. The station carried on. It was pulled off the air almost two years later when the commission cancelled the license of the radio station it used to air sound portions of shows.
In Boston in July, the Commission refused to give a regular television license to the operators of W1XAV because they wanted to use sound in addition to picture. The FRC basically laughed off the whole idea of television. The station had been using the airwaves of WEEI for its sound. By the end of the year, W1XAV was using the airwaves of another radio station for its sound broadcasts.
In New York, CBS, through its subsidiary Atlantic Broadcasting, applied for a license. And the Jenkins Television Corp. station in Jersey City, W2XCR, put on a special broadcast with Broadway entertainers and others, including Georgie Jessel, Benny Rubin and cartoonist Harry Hershfield (later a panellist on radio’s Can You Top This?).
And despite the same silhouettes day after day after day, people kept tuning in Jenkins Lab’s station outside Washington, D.C., W3XK. Viewers in small towns some distance away were amazed, and we include a couple of stories below.
More interesting, perhaps, is the story behind the story of a “million dollar offer” made to a teenage inventor. Ernest Harden Patrick came up with a colour TV set in 1930. Patrick didn’t stop there. He devised an electronic garage door opener, and something that detected germs that could be destroyed in the blood stream with short radio waves. His marriage license in 1930 gives his trade as “radio expert.” In the 1940s, he owned an electronic manufacturing company. He has no occupation recorded in the 1950 Census. Likely it’s because he filed for bankruptcy after losing thousands of dollars on a toy radio with plastic earphones which he invented and manufactured from his home in Indianapolis. He resumed his electronic work in the 1950s and died in retirement in Florida in August 1983.
Below, find various stories and what are likely incomplete station listings. We have skipped a lot of industry predictions, but include one from Dr. Lee De Forest, who forecast the birth of the 6 o’clock TV news.
As for schedules, a newspaper in Portland, Maine provides information about W1XAV; if complete, the station was on the air only twice a week. Listings for the New Jersey station come from the New York Sun which, unfortunately, does not have about a month of its content on-line. A newspaper in Munster, Indiana, mentions W6XAO on Thursdays only. A story below gives the station's hours of operation.
TUESDAY, JULY 1, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters.
8:00—One Wild Day; one-reel movie.
8:30—Half-tone movies.
9:00—John Jones; Irma Lemke.
9:30—Direct scanning.
W1XAV, Boston (pictures on 137 meters/2180 kcs.; sound on WEEI, 508.2 meters/590 kcs.)
6:00 to 6:30—Rainbow Big Brother Club, with Bob Emery.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 2, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters.
8:00—At the beach; one-reel movie.
8:30—Movies of noted people.
9:00—John Jones, Irma Lemke.
9:30—The big fight.
W1XAV, Boston (video on 137 meters/2180 kcs.; sound on WEEI, 508.2 meters/590 kcs.)
6:00 to 6:30—Rainbow Big Brother Club, with Bob Emery.
THURSDAY, JULY 3, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters. 8:00—Love? One-reel movie.
8:30—Vocal technic
9:00—John Jones, Irma Lemke.
9:00—Synchronized half-tones.
W9XAO (WIBO), Chicago, video on 147 meters, sound on 560 kcs.
7:30—Variety and music.
FRIDAY, JULY 4, 1930
WASHINGTON, D. C., July 4 (NEA)—Within a year baseball and football games will be broadcast by television stations with a clearness that will make their broadcast worthwhile, is the belief of Joseph A. Burch, transmission engineer of the Jenkins laboratories.
Burch, who appeared before the radio commission in behalf of WLTH, New York, is seeking authority to build a television station.
SATURDAY, JULY 5, 1930
CHICAGO, July 5.—Two television stations, each associated with powerful sound broadcasting stations, will be in operation here when “The Chicago Daily News” television station is inaugurated in approximately two weeks.The stations now producing daily synchronized sight and sound programs are Western television Station W9XAO and sound Station WIBO. Completion of “The Daily News” new 1,000-watt short-wave transmitter will enable the second pair of television and sound stations to start broadcasting. The newspaper Sound station WMAQ, operates on a cleared channel with 5,000 watts. The intricate television apparatus is already installed and tested.
“Because of the extreme flexibility of the television equipment in the newspaper studios it will be possible for the station director to broadcast a boxing match or a radio-television play in which either full-length or close-up pictures of the boxers or artists may be shown. Change from one to the other is accomplished in a split second without optical interruption.”
This is on the authority of Clem F. Wade, president of the Western Television Corporation, who produced the apparatus. Mr. Wade is extremely confident in television, and believes the installation of the two stations in this city will mark the inception of a new era in sight and sound broadcasting. (Herald Tribune, July 6)
EVANSTON, Ill., Jul. 5 (AP)—An exclusive television store has come into existence here. Declared to be the nation’s “first” it handles only television receiving equipment.
LAWRENCE, July 5—Executives offices of the Pilot Radio and Tube Company and its allied organizations will be opened Monday morning.
Announcement has been made by officials of the company that the work of building the company’s television broadcasting station, 2XCK, will be started right away. Authority to transfer the station here, from Brooklyn, N. Y., has been granted by the Federal Radio Commission. (Boston Globe, July 5)
SUNDAY, JULY 6, 1930
Synchronization, or keeping the television receiver and transmitter scanning device in perfect step, has represented a difficult problem in the development of practical home television. The manual method of obtaining and maintaining synchronism is obviously unsatisfactory. The synchronized motor method, whereby an alternating current power system, common to both receiver and transmitter, serves as the synchronizing means, is simple and effective, but, unfortunately, limits the number of listeners to the immediate area served by a common power system.
The engineers of the Jenkins Television Corporation, in an announcement last week, claim to have solved the synchronization problem through the development of an automatic synchronizer operating by means of a component in the usual radio-television signal. This device is in the form of an attachment that fits the scanning disk shaft. An extra synchronizing amplifier is required to supply a 720-cycle energy to drive the synchronizer.
Depends on Disk Frequency
Briefly, the synchronizer depends on the fact that the usual forty-eight line, fifteen-picture-per-second signal contains a strong 720 cycle component due to the scanning frequency (which is obtained by multiplying fifteen by forty-eight). The synchronizer takes the form of a phonic motor, with toothed rotor which is on the scanning shaft and a field supplied with the 720 cycle energy filtered out of the carrier wave and properly amplified. The scanning disk is driven by a sixty cycle synchronous motor. The synchronizer serves to speed up or retard the motor slightly during each cycle thereby acting as an electrical governor.
The scanning frequency component is filtered out from the composite signal and fed to the windings of the synchronizer. When the toothed wheel or rotor is rotated at the fixed synchronous speed and during a particular half-cycle of the scanning frequency, the tooth which is nearest to one of the two poles of the field will be strongly attached. When the tooth is directly opposite the pole the alternating current impu1si will have fallen to a minimum and the tooth will pass by unimpeded. At any other speed the succeeding impulse wilt not occur at the right instant to attract the next pole so as to maintain the wheel in motion.
Synchronizer Drives Disk
With a light disk the synchronizer alone would be sufficiently powerful to maintain rotation once it had been brought up to speed. However, so that the synchronizer may be supplied with just a small additional amplifier in the radio-television receiver, the usual driving motor is employed to drive the disk at a rate very near the synchronous speed, while the synchronizer exerts sufficient power to resist any tendency on the part of the main driving motor to deviate from synchronous speed. (Herald Tribune, July 6)
MONDAY, JULY 7, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters.
8:00 P. M.—Half-tone movies and silhouettes.
8:30—Talk, Harold Higginbottom.
9:00—Twilight hour.
9:30—Silhouettes.
Washington, July 7 (CPA).—Television, if you accept the view of the Federal Radio Commission, is “in a highly experimental stage of development," and few, if any, of the television receiving sets on the market "are of any practical worth other than as a curiosity or novelty."
This "brass tacks" evaluation of the visual art today, is made by the rulers of the radio in a statement drafted for the edification of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia. In it the commission cites these as reasons why it has restricted television operations to "experiments" and has never licensed television broadcasting stations. It states also why it has refused to grant experimental television stations, licenses for regular broadcasting stations which would be used as "sound tracks" and operated in conjunction with the television stations, thereby offering "radio movies."
The views come as a bombshell in the midst of the most significant advances yet made In television. It was just weeks ago that life-size pictures were flashed onto a screen in a theatre in Schenectady—by radio. And about the same time the firms offered commercial television receiver sets at the annual trade show held at Atlantic City, marking the first display of complete receivers of this nature.
Made to Court
The governmental expression is made to court in explanation of its adverse decision refusing to grant the Short Wave and Television Laboratory of Boston authority to operate a regular broadcasting station as an adjunct or "sound-track” for its experimental television station. The proposed broadcasting station was desired to operate with 100 watts power at night on the 1370 kilocycle channel. The television station, as do all others, operates in the short wave spectrum on one of the five channels set aside for television experiments and entirely divorced from the broadcast or "voice" spectrum.
The spectrum of frequencies from 550 to 1500 kilocycles, the commission tells the court, has been set aside for broadcasting stations. “None of the frequencies within that spectrum has ever been designated by law or international treaty or by regulations of the commission for use as a sound track for programs to be synchronized with radio visual broadcasts." Television, the commission adds, "is in a highly experimental stage of development. All licenses for visual broadcasting stations issued by the commission are on an experimental and temporary basis."
All regulations touching the subject of television adopted by the commission up to the present time, it is brought out, have regarded visual broadcasting as experimental only. "For this reason the commission felt that the time has not yet come for the adoption of a policy or regulations whereby "sound tracks" should be provided to accompany television or visual broadcasting.” (Robert Mack, Consolidated News Association, July 7)
NEW YORK.—To amateurs is given much of the credit for the radio of today.
A great deal of it is deserved, for it was the young tinkerer who devised, approved or disapproved many of the innovations that make up the modern broadcast receivers.
Now with television declared to be in the offing these self-same amateurs and their successors are being given an opportunity to hasten the day of the proposed radio broadcasts of scenes at a distance—the radio movie as it were. Experimental radio receivers have been available for some time, but transmitting apparatus was not to be considered because of the expense involved. Those who desired to play with television had to resort to the sometimes difficult feat of copying pictures from the air lanes.
Besides television transmitting stations are not very numerous and "lookers" at a distance cannot depend, as a rule, upon the signals for satisfactory experimentation.
Taking into consideration the estimate that there are 100,000 and as well as uncounted others who are vitally interested in television, engineers have devised apparatus which may be set up and operated at a comparatively small outlay.
It consists of a transmitter, designed to send reproductions of moving picture films of the sllhouet type, and is the result of research work by Alexander G. Heller, chief engineer of the Insuline laboratories.
The transmitter contains a motion picture projector using a standard film. There is a synchonous motor to operate the projector and turn the scanning disk. An optical focusing system is mounted in front of the projector and just back of the scanning disk.
Between the scanning disk and photoelectric cell is a condensing lens which focuses the scanned rays or light coming from film upon the photocell. The light source in the projector is a 500-watt stereopticon lamp.
From the photocell wires convey the signals to the receiver which consists of a fourstage amplifier, mounted at one side of the transmitter. The amplifier feeds the neon lamp of the reproducer. In front of the lamp is a condensing lens which focuses the neon rays upon a 16-inch scanning disk.
The received image is enlarged by a magnifying glass mounted in front of the disk, which is turned by a motor similar to that in the transmitter.
While this equipment is designed entirely for film transmission, it can be arranged to televise a living image, thus giving the amateur a chance to study television from both the transmitting and receiving angles. (C.E. Butterfield, Associated Press, July 7)
TUESDAY, JULY 8, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters.
8:00—Jenkins Direct Scanner.
8:30—Half-tone movies (synchronized).
9:00—Twilight hour.
9:30—Jenkins silhouette movies.
W1XAV, Boston (pictures on 137 meters/2180 kcs.; sound on WEEI, 508.2 meters/590 kcs.)
6:00 to 6:30—Rainbow Big Brother Club, with Bob Emery.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters.
8:00—Jenkins silhouette and half-tone movies.
8:30—Talk, Horace Miller.
9:00—Twilight hour.
9:30—Studio program.
W1XAV, Boston (video on 137 meters/2180 kcs.; sound on WEEI, 508.2 meters/590 kcs.)
6:00 to 6:30—Big Brother Club, with Bob Emery.
A portable station of the Jenkins Television Corporation at Jersey City obtained a license to cover construction. It will use 250 watts power. (New York Times, July 9)
THURSDAY, JULY 10, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters.
8:00—Jenkins silhouette movies.
8:30—Don Short.
9:00—Twilight hour.
9:30—Synchronized half-tones.
W9XAO (WIBO), Chicago, video on 147 meters, sound on 560 kcs.
7:30—Variety and music.
FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters.
8:00—Jenkins radio movies.
8:30—Television Club.
9:00—Twilight hour.
9:30—Synchronized half-tone movies.
SUNDAY, JULY 13, 1930
CHICAGO has hopes of being the television centre of the United States. But in New York, plans are being made for a city of radio, which, according to its sponsors, will bring all television laurels to Manhattan Island. Anyway, the mid-Westerners will put the images on the air before Aug. 1, and they challenge the rest of the broadcasters to do likewise. The Radio City will not be complete until 1933.
It is expected that between July 19 and Aug. 1 the vision transmitter W9XAP, which will operate in conjunction with the sound broadcaster WMAQ, will go on the air so that mid-West listeners can see the performers. The images will travel on 2,800 kilocycles with a power of 1,000 watts.
Enrichment of sound radio by the addition of sight radio by one of the major pioneer broadcasting stations will do much to increase the speed with which television is adopted throughout the country, generally, engineers and broadcast directors assert. It is predicted by the Chicagoans that within another twelve months other important stations will have adopted the new art.
To tune in a sight-and-sound broadcast requires the use of two receivers, the customary receiving set for sound, and a short wave receiver for television, the usual loud-speaker and the television equipment. Engineers of Western Television corporation have arranged the entire apparatus in a compact console, not larger than the radio-phonograph combinations.
The Movies Set the Pace.
Television experts, taking a page from the experience of the sound broadcaster, apparently realize that the program is the main thing: that unless a wide variety of talent is presented in a smooth running program, free from interruptions, the looker-in will have cause for complaint. The talking picture has established a real criterion. The engineers at WMAQ point out that production advantages, at the moment, are in favor of the movies because film can be cut and patched, and doubtless may be used almost at will. In contradistinction television must take the program as it happens—while persons are broadcasting over voice transmission facilities. Consequent necessity for the selection of artists for personal appearance as much as for talent strongly intimates new broadcast standards quite as exacting as for the stage.
Heretofore the broadcasting of television pictures of persons has been confined largely to the head and shoulders. When Station W9XAP goes on the air, the audience will see full length pictures of several artists at once. A double scanner, developed in the Western Television Corporation laboratories, allows instant change of scene—a close-up or a long shot, at will, exactly as is done in the films. On a split second the television operator may take in a field not larger than a small drawing or he may expand it to include a half dozen people. The mechanical simplicity of the apparatus which makes this possible is one of the remarkable features of the installation. The WMAQ studio was designed and built to provide for the presentation of television-radio plays, dramatic skits and for acts in which action and symmetry of motion might delight the eye. A dancing team, an Ann Pennington or the four Marx brothers now become possibilities for radio television entertainment. By means of the equipment which is installed in W9XAP studio, television broadcasting technique now becomes nearly as simple as sound broadcasting, according to a representative of the station.
The announcer says, “Camera!” Lights within the studio are dimmed, and a brilliant finger of light penetrates the “twilight.” It is the scanning beam, projected through the glass window of the operating room adjoining. There is no television picture without this beam of light. At all times it must cover the field which is being broadcast. Formerly artists were limited in their movements before the television camera. There was no provision for the scanning beam following them about the studio. To turn the entire mechanism was too cumbersome, so a tilting mirror arrangement was invented by which the operator turns the light beam and follows the artist to the right or left.
Four Lenses on Turret.
Four projection lenses mounted on a turret on each of the two scanners make it possible to “shoot” a group in full length, and, an instant later, to show close-ups of each artist. This means extreme flexibility in the staging of television performances.
The scanning disk operates at 900 revolutions a minute synchronous with the sixty-cycle lighting circuit. It has forty-five tiny holes arranged in three 120-degree spirals, so that scanning is accomplished by three offset scans down the field per revolution. The three-spiral method of scanning is used because it practically eliminates flicker, and registers action much better than the single spiral, according to WMAQ’s representative.Two photoelectric cells, sixteen inches in diameter, are suspended from the ceiling of the studio on a track arrangement and provide the artist pick-up. For full-length television, engineers say there is a marked advantage in the use of such cells as opposed to the use of multi-cell bank. The track arrangement permits proper location of the cells for a particular set, and can be compared to the proper placing of lights in a motion-picture studio.
The announcer’s pick-up is entirely separate and distinct from that of the artists. Mounted on his table is a ring-bank of eight six-inch photoelectric cells. They enable him to be seen by the listener as he makes his announcement. Printed matter may be displayed or any object about which the announcer may be talking. (NY Times, July 13)
MONDAY, JULY 14, 1930
WASHINGTON, July 14.—(AP)—Drastic action has been taken by Federal Radio Commission against an experimental television broadcasting station in Chicago, charged with transmission over the air of pictures advertising certain commodities for which it received pay, in violation of regulations.
Marking the first time that it has attempted to regulate programs of this newest offshoot of radio, the commission has refused to renew, until a hearing is held next fall, the license of station W6XAO, operated by the Western Television Corporation, in Chicago.
The license of the station, according to commission records, expired more than a month ago.
The commission’s action was taken even while that agency is in recess over the summer. Commissioners Harold A. Lafount and W. D. L. Starbuck voted for the hearing, subject to the ratification of the three other members.
LICENSES TEMPORARY
Television licenses, it is made clear are issued on an experimental basis only, with the specific provision that they may not be commercialized by sponsored programs.
Official reports have come to the commission, it was said, that the Western Television Corporation station had been presenting visual programs over the air which had been sponsored, thus securing revenue from the operation of an experimental station, licensed only to further the visual art.
It was declared, the station had failed to adhere to the commission’s regulation requiring that all experimental stations submit detailed reports each three months relating to result of the experiments and the purposes for which the experimental facilities were used. This, coupled with the reports of illicit television advertising, caused the two commissions to set for hearing the renewal application of the station.
In the meantime a thorough investigation of the charges against the station has been ordered. It is possible that the station will file a new request for temporary continuance of its license until the hearing held next fall.
RADIO MOVIES
The Chicago station, one of the score of experimental television stations in the country, has been synchronized, with broadcasting station WIBO, in Chicago, thus offering sight and sound programs to the radio audience having the necessary short wave equipment. It actually has been offering radio movies, and the company itself is one of the pioneers in the television field.
The station has been operating on the experimental television channel of 2000 to 2100 kilocycles in the short wave spectrum, with 500 watts power.
Recently, the commission certified to the Department of Justice a list of three experimental television stations which, it alleged, have been commercializing. The identity of the stations was not divulged, but the department was asked by the commission to bring court action against them if it were ascertained that they were transgressing the radio law. (Robert Mack, Associated Press)
WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 1930
Memphis first commercial television receiving set is here. Films broadcast from the Jenkins laboratory, Station [W]3XK, Washington, D. C., were picked up last night [16] by H. N. Edmondson, manager of Orgill Brothers’ radio department with a Jenkins’ Television Scanner, in conjunction with a specially built short wave screen grid receiver.
Pictures broadcast by Jenkins laboratory on 103 meters could be identified easily by a group of persons who gathered at Mr. Edmonson’s residence, 45 Terrace Street, Iast night [16]. Hugh J. Mooney accepted Mr. Edmonson’s invitation to assist in the operation of the television receiver.
The silhouette films which were picked up on the screen of the television receiver, varied in nature, but all were distinct.
Mr. Mooney and Mr. Edmonson were well pleased with the results last night. Mr. Mooney predicted that the coming to Memphis of the first commercial television receiver was the beginning of the time when Memphians would sit in their homes and see as well as hear programs from New York City and other distant cities. (Memphis Commercial Appeal, July 17)
THURSDAY, JULY 17, 1930
W9XAO (WIBO), Chicago, video on 147 meters, sound on 560 kcs.
7:30—Variety and music.
FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1930
Lewiston, July 18—The first television reception in Mifflin county was reported this week. when Raymond M. Bell, of Carlisle, and his cousin, Clarence A. Bell, of Vira, succeeded in receiving television movies from a Washington, D. C., station for several nights on a set constructed from a regular radio receiving set with the addition of several parts, the total cost of which was $7.50.
The two young men are radio fans and recently started experimenting with a television receiving set at the home of Clarence Bell on Crystal Springs Farm, near Vira, five miles north of here. The image received is but a little over an inch in diameter, but has great detail, with the exception to times when static interferes. Mr. Raymond Bell has quite a record for long distance radio reception at his home in Carlisle. He is spending a vacation with his uncle, Ralph C. Bell, at Vira, and is a member of the faculty of State College, radio and television, being his hobbies. (Harrisburg Telegraph, July 18)
Permission for the construction of a broadcasting station in New York, which would be used entirely for broadcasting sound in conjunction with a television station synchronized with it, is being sought by Radio Pictures, Inc., of New York. (Ponca City, Okl., News, July 18)
Leslie Gould of Bridgeport recently perfected what he calls a “stereoscopic scanner” which gives a 360-degree picture.
The present methods of television transmission and reception are limited to the production of a 10-degree image. The three dimensional machine of Mr. Gould cuts out this limitation, permits views from all sides and makes possible without cumbersome and large mechanical instruments the producing of an image even of actual life size, should it be so desired.
For not only arc present television pictures limited to practically a plane surface but up to this time it has been impossible except with extremely large machinery to get an image of more than a couple inches square in the receivers set. In the new invention only the space and size of the room where the receiving outfit is located will limit the proportions of the picture to be visualized. (Hartford Courant, July 20)
WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 1930
Work is to begin soon on the installation of a new 50-kilowatt transmitter at Bound Brook, N. J., for WJZ, if the Federal Radio Commission approves the application made recently for this Improvement by the Radio Corporation of America, it was said yesterday [23] by the National Broadcasting Company. The equipment will be a duplicate of the transmitter of 100 percentage modulation now being installed at Bellmore, L. I. for WEAF, which is to be ready for Fall use.
The Radio Corporation has also applied to the Radio Commission for permission to install an experimental television transmitter to operate on the 2,000 to 2,100 kilocycle channel with 5 kilowatts of power. This is later to be turned over to the National Broadcasting Company, which will make a series of image tests.
Among the features of the new installation will be automatic control by push buttons, making it possible for one operator to start up or shut down the entire equipment; duplicate generators and power equipment; hot cathode mercury-vapor rectifier tubes of the latest design; 100-kilowatt water and air cooled transmitter tubes; interlocking switches and doors to protect operators from electrocution or injury, and unusually stable quartz crystal control apparatus. (NY Times, July 24)
REDFIELD, July 23—(Special)—Carrol M. Miller, 18 year old Redfield youth and radio experimenter, has just received his United States government amateur radio station and operator’s licenses from the Federal Radio Commission. The station call letters are given as W9DKL. He is authorized by the commission to operate wireless telegraphy, radiophone, television and the operation of picture transmission on low or short wave lengths. Carrol, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Mil1er, has his station located at his parents’ home on 449 North 5th street east. Miller’s station, like thousands of other amateur stations throughout the world, is home made and was constructed by himself out of bits of material found around the house. He has erected two sixty foot masts to support his antenna. He is now testing and experimenting with various circuits and antenna systems and expects to communicate with all parts of America and foreign countries this coming winter when radio conditions are ideal. It is estimated that there are over 17,000 amateur radio stations in America today, and many of them have been highly honored for the relief work they did during floods in the South and hurricanes in Florida, it was then that all other means of communication was cut off, and the amateur did great work and was highly praised by Red Cross officials. (Evening Huronite, Huron, South Dakota, July 23)
THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1930
W9XAO (WIBO), Chicago, video on 147 meters, sound on 560 kcs.
7:30—Variety and music.
TUESDAY, JULY 29, 1930
EDINBURG, July 29—Reports that Ernest Patrick, 19-year-old television genius of near here, would get $1,000,000 and $5,000 yearly income for life for his invention were denied tonight by Dr. Clarence Kincaid of Taylorsville, manager for the youth.
Young Patrick, whose home-made television apparatus has astonished and drawn the interest of leading radio and television engineers of the country, has developed a method of transmitting images in color, being received on a screen about fourteen inches square.
Simple Laboratory.
For the last two years he has experimented by himself on the new development of radio at the farm home of his father, John Patrick. In sharp contrast to the elaborate laboratories in which most electrical research has been carried on, young Patrick worked at a table with odd bits of metal and wire as his equipment.
Published reports indicated that the million-dollar offer for the invention came from the Crosley Radio Corporation of Cincinnati, and that the young inventor had been advised to accept it over a number of other flattering offers from other radio and television companies.
Dr. Kincaid tonight said that if "Ernest has had such an offer I know nothing about it and I have handled all his business affairs."
Viewed by Engineers.
Dr. Kincaid admitted that the chief engineer of the Crosley corporation had visited young Patrick about three weeks ago, had inspected the apparatus and had advised certain minor refinements on it. He also said that engineers for the Jenkins' Television Corporation of Newark, N. J., and other firms had shown interest in the invention, sending technicians to view it. Purdue university experts, who are now working on television apparatus which will do away with the revolving disc type now in general laboratory use, also have made extensive inquiries about the new development, Dr. Kincaid said. (Indianapolis Star, July 29)
WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 1930
Television development has been given added incentive.
Such is one interpretation placed upon the announcement of RCA that it had released to its licensees the right to use all patents it holds on such apparatus together with those on the superheterodyne broadcast set.
Permission to use its television should have no other effect than speeding up the effort to produce fool-proof television receivers.
In fact, it might be said that the dawn of public television transmission in the preliminary stages has been brought much closer. Although company officials expressed the opinion "that television apparatus has not yet been developed to the stage where it is practical for general use in homes,” the point cannot be overlooked that the day is approaching when television receivers will be an important factor in the set market.
Even today television sets of the experimental type can be purchased. And they give pretty fair results where the "looker" can find a station broadcasting test vision programs on short waves.
The number of television patents released could not be learned, but it is known that they cover the important items involved in television apparatus, giving set manufacturers an opportunity to start investigations that may terminate in something concrete before smother year is passed.
The earliest reaction as far the public is concerned in connection with the releases is that pertaining to the "superhet." Heretofore only RCA has had such broadcast set on the market. Now any licensee will be permitted to use the circuit, with the result that this year's late market as well as next year's may see many such sets. (C.E. Butterfield, Associated Press, July 30)
THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1930
W9XAO (WIBO), Chicago, video on 147 meters, sound on 560 kcs.
7:30—Variety and music.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 1930
WASHINGTON, Aug. 1.—Transfer of certain experimental television operations from the Radio Corporation of America to the National Broadcasting Company, its broadcasting subsidiary, was approved today by the Federal Radio Commission.
The commission sanctioned voluntary assignment of licenses to three experimental visual broadcasting stations, all in Bound Brook, N. J., to the N. B. C. The action is understood to be in line with the recent inaugurated plan of the R. C. A. to distribute actual operations among the various operating companies and establish the R. C. A. itself as a parent company.
Station WABC, key station in New York of the Columbia Broadcasting System, today was granted another three-month extension of time for the completion of its authorized new 50,000.-watt station, with which it has been having much difficulty. It is given until October 31 under the new extension in which to find a suitable location for this new transmitter, which will use the maximum power permitted, and to place the station in operation.
New Jersey Interests have thrown barriers in the way of the station’s plan to locate in New Jersey. They contend that the location of the high-powered station on Jersey shores would blanket local reception and would not be in the interests of listeners in the immediate vicinity. Nearly a year has elapsed since WABC procured its construction permit for the new transmitter. (Herald Tribune, Aug. 2)
SUNDAY, AUGUST 3, 1930
The most difficult problem in television—the scanning disc—is declared to have been solved by a new principle which eliminates the disc altogether and which may hasten this infant branch of the radio industry out of the laboratory sooner than previously expected. This encouraging development should not be construed to indicate, however that television is ready for the public. It is not. Rather, this news indicates that television development is progressing and the present advance places it a step nearer its ultimate goal.
The scanning disc has been the most troublesome feature of all television experimenters. This disc, with its holes through which the picture is received a segment at a time, must operate at exactly the speed of the disc used at the transmitter if a clear and perfect picture is to be received. This, of course, involves the use of a motor and control equipment to keep the motor at the required speed. Any surge or ebb in the flow of current taken from a power line for operation of the motor, however, would be reflected in a momentary change of speed in the motor, a very slight variation in which would be sufficient to throw the picture out of focus.
Other Problems To Be Solved
An additional difficulty has been thrown in the way of rapid development of television by the use of different experimenters of discs containing a varying number of holes, so that receiving-set builders had to secure two or three discs if they wished to experiment with a number of transmitting stations.
The new method of television is being developed in the electrical department of Purdue University, where Prof R. H. George, a research worker, has substituted a cathode ray tube for the scanning disc and neon tube used by other experimenters. As yet the inventor has not pronounced his method perfected.
While a great deal at attention is being given to the development of methods which will eliminate the scanning disc, experimenters are also making strenuous efforts to reduce the width of the channel now necessary for picture transmission, Already, it is claimed, a method has been developed which cuts the width in half, but even this ta declared to be too wide and research workers are aiming at the perfection of methods which will enable them to transmit pictures in as narrow a band as is now used for sound transmission. Visual broadcasting channels now assigned by the Federal Radio Commission have a maximum width of 100 kilocycles. (Boston Globe, Aug. 3)
MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 1930
WASHINGTON, Aug. 4.—The secret mission of tracking down three "pirate" broadcasting stations, operating without federal licenses, is one of the primary reasons for the current "inspection" of radio activities west of the Mississippi being made by Commissioner Harold A. La Fount. This writer learned authoritatively today [4] that the commissioner is investigating reports of pirate stations in the cities of Laramie, and Las Vegas and Albuquerque, N. M. [...]
After preliminary investigations the commission has turned over some 25 cases of alleged pirate stations to the justice department. Included in this number are three stations said to be bootlegging television programs on regular schedule. Before turning the cases over to the department, the commission assures itself that the stations are really illegally operated. (Robert Mack, Consolidated News Association, Aug. 4)
WHITE PLAINS, N. Y., Aug. 4.—(AP)—The $900,000 Westchester County Jail, for which contracts are being awarded today, is to be wired for eventual installation of both radio and television sets in the cells.
George W. Burton, chairman of the jail committee, said today that this was done because some of the persons held in the county jails were material witnesses confined through no fault of their own and it was felt that they were entitled to such entertainment as could be given them.
The Budget and Appropriation Committee of the Board of Supervisors considered the final plans for the jail, in which the matter of installing the outlets for radio and television was brought up this morning, and it is expected that the contract for the jail will be let at the August meeting of the Board this afternoon.
The radio and television outlets will be installed in each of the 160 cells of the jail, according to present plans.
The. Supervtoors today stressed the importance of television more than radio. Supervisor Burton, of Mamaroneck said in talking of the matter:
“Who knows what television may develop into the future? Maybe we will want to broadcast the picture of an escaped prisoner throughout the country or it may be that we can broadcast the resemblance of a prison held in a County Jail and who may be wanted in other parts of the country.”
The cost of the requisite outlets for the radio and television is estimated at $400.
(Cartoon from the Mamaroneck Daily Times, Aug. 14, 1930)
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1930
WASHINGTON, Aug. 13.—The Columbia Broadcasting System filed application today for an experimental television station to be located in New York. The application was presented by the Federal Radio Commission by the Atlantic Broadcasting Corporation, a Columbia subsidiary, which operates Station WABC. It asked for a construction permit to build a 500-watt visual broadcasting station to operate on a channel of 2,778 kilocycles.
The National Broadcasting Company recently received assignment of a series of licenses for television experiments held by the Radio Corporation of America, its parent company, and these constituted the first visual broadcasting licenses to be held by that network.
Columbia also filed an application today through the Atlantic Broadcasting Corporation for an experimental portable station to operate with 15 watts power on the 4,795 kilocycle channel. The station is desired for rebroadcasting of special events. (New York Times, Aug. 14)
MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters.
3:00 to 5:00—Jenkins Radio Movies.
8:00—Radio Talkie hour; Half Tone Talkies; Silhouette Movies Verbal Description.
9:00—Radio Movie hour.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters.
8:00— Synchronised Television hour; Radio Talkies; Television Talk, Harold Higginbottom.
9:00—Radio Movie hour.
Authorization for the construction of a television station [W9XG] at Purdue university has been received by Prof. C. Francis Harding, head of the school of electrical engineering, from the Federal Radio Commission, at Washington. The new station, which will be the first ever constructed for long distance transmission, will operate upon a wave length of 2100 kilocycles and will have a power of 1500 watts.
In the television research, Purdue is cooperating with the Grigsby-Grunow company, of Chicago. The transmitting station will be constructed at Lafayette, Ind. and a receiving station at Chicago. Experimental work has been done at the university for some time, involving the use of the newly developed cathode ray tube. Laboratory experiments were so successful that transmission over long distances became necessary for the progress of the investigations.
The station will be built during the summer and broadcasting will start next fall. (Mansfield News, Aug. 19)
TORONTO, Ont. — Television pictures of the day’s news at your leisure the same evening are foreseen as the first practical use of television by O. B. Hanson, of the National Broadcasting Company, speaking before the Institute of Radio Engineers in conference at the King Edward Hotel here Aug. 19.
Television at its present stage of development is not very effective in repeating action taking place in front of its “eye,” but it can reproduce motion pictures with considerable facility and accuracy. Therefore, motion picture films are the logical first step in television, stated Mr. Hanson.
The film in this case is an aid to television inasmuch as the news is happening through the day when the man is busy as his office and the woman busy around the house.
Hour for News Pictures
In the evening the day’s events can have been photographed and the films developed, ready to be run off in the television transmitting studio. Thus a definite hour on the air will be given over to the news pictures, even as verbal news bulletins are now given. The family will sit around the screen and see and hear the day’s happenings. (Volney D. Hurd, Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 20)
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters.
3:00 to 5:00—Jenkins Radio Movies.
8:00-Radio Talkies hour; Half Tone Talkies; Silhouette Radio Movies.
9:00—Radio Movie hour; Half Tones of Prominent Persons.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters.
8:00—Synchronised Television; Television Talk, Don W. Short; Radio Talkies.
9:00—Half Tone and Silhouette Radio Movies.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 20.—An application for renewal of its experimental television license for a 5,000-watt portable station at Bound Brook, N. J., was filed with the Federal Radio Commission today by the National Broadcasting Company. With the call letters W3XAK, the station operates on the short-wave television channel ranging from 2,000 to 2,100 kilocycles. (NY Times, Aug. 20)
FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters.
3:00 to 5:00—Jenkins Radio Movies.
8:00—Radio Talkie hour; Half Tone Talkies; Television Club.
9:00—Variety program; Radio Movies.
MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters.
3:00 to 5:00—Jenkins Radio Movies.
8:00—Radio talkie hour. Half-tone radio talkies. Silhouette radio movies with verbal description.
9:00—Radio movie hour.
Broadway had its introduction to synchronized radio and television last night [25], when a televisor and radio set in a window at the Ansonia Hotel, Seventy-third Street and Broadway, picked up a program broadcast from Jersey City and presented it to the crowd assembled on the sidewalk in front of the hotel.
The American Radio News Corporation and the Jenkins Television Corporation, sponsors of the program, announced it as the “first serious effort to put high-class visual broadcasting into the home.” It also was available to several thousand amateurs who are experimenting with television in conjunction with their ordinary radio sets.
The orange and black image presented on a four inch square behind a powerful magnifying glass wavered, and often was distorted by static, but was unmistakably the image of the speaker or singer who was standing before the microphone and the television broadcasting equipment. At present, observers must stand close to the televisor and peer into the magnifying glass, but the engineers are working on equipment which will project the image on a large screen.
At the Ansonia, and at an apartment at 98 Riverside Drive where guests of the American Radio News Corporation witnessed the demonstration, spectators first saw a presentation of D. E. Replogle, chief engineer of the Jenkins Television Company, explaining the equipment This presentation was from a standard motion picture film and a phonograph record.
Harry Hershfield, comic artist, then took his place before the apparatus at the Jenkins sending station, talking into a microphone, from which his voice was broadcast by Radio Station W2XCD, the DeForest experimental station in Jersey City.
Hershfield’s voice and image, broadcast directly, were received perfectly, except for the flickering of the image. Arthur (“Bugs”) Baer was introduced for a few remarks. George Jessel, comedian, solemnly announced the perfection of a machine that would not only broadcast sight and sound, but also would press trousers and serve hot waffles, and Billy de Beck drew a picture of his comic character, Spark Plug, explaining it by way of the radio broadcast. Another speaker was Dr. Shirley W. Wynne, who gave a health talk.
Weekly programs will be broadcast hereafter. It was said, and the plans of the company include the distribution of talking motion pictures by way of television and radio. (Herald Tribune, Aug. 26)
Ladies and gentlemen! Witness the first apparatus of its kind in Southtown!
The Hartman Furniture store at 62nd and Halsted sts. is now demonstrating a new television outfit which enables the performers of the radio broadcasting station WIBO to be seen as well as heard by the audience during the broadcasting of programs.
This new apparatus is one of the first to be shown in Chicago and the Hartman concern claims the distinction of being the first store in Southtown to demonstrate the set.
Use Short Wave Length
The new apparatus consists of a special short wave length radio set surmounted bv a televisor. The special receiving set is for the purpose of picking up [W]9XAO which is the call letters used by station WIBO when broadcasting television programs. These television performances are broadcast by WIBO over a wave length of 146 ½ meters, which is too short for the ordinary receiving set to pick up.
On the televisor itself is a circular glass magnifying lens which enlarges the pictures received to a size approximately eight inches square. The interior of the televisor consists of neon gass [sic] tube and a synchronous motor which runs a three-spiral revolving disc perforated with 45 holes and turning at a rate of 900 revolutions per minute.
When the television program is picked up by the receiving set, the gas tube is flooded with an orange light. The revolving disc acts on the motion picture principle by breaking up the light from the tube into black and orange images, causing an optical illusion whereby the radio performer is seen as a moving object.
Without the disc, the image shown in the gas of the tube would be too small and indistinct to be seen by the naked eye.
For the purpose of hearing the performer, an ordinary radio receiving set is used. The sound programs of WIBO are broadcast over a wave of 525 meters and it is necessary for the ordinary receiving set to use this wave length while at the same time the television wave length of 146 ½ meters must be used by the television receiving set.
In order to get clear and brilliant pictures the televisor equipped with a focusing dial which tunes up the motor to synchronize with the broadcasting station.
The station WIBO has been broadcasting special test programs for nearly a year. Each day except Saturday and Sunday the station broadcasts television programs from 1:45 p. m. to 2:15 p. m., and from 7 to 8 p. m. Other special performances of this king [kind] are broadcast by this station at various hours. The Hartman concern gave its first television demonstration yesterday [25] from 1:45 to 2:15 p. m. and will continue to give them at this time each broadcast day. (Southtown Economist, Aug. 26)
TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters.
8:00—Television hour. Television talk, Harold Higginbottom. Radio talkies.
9:00—Half-tone and silhouette radio movies.
When the redecorated Fox State Theatre, at Journal Square, throws open its doors Friday morning [29] at 11 o'clock, patrons who visit the mezzanine floor will discover science's newest gift to the entertainment world—a television receiver—with which radio engineers hope to put on afternoon and evening radio vision broadcasts from Stations W2XCR, Jersey City, and W2XCD at Passaic.
Installation of the radiomovie equipment was completed with preliminary tests at a private demonstration yesterday afternoon [26] and engineers of the Jenkins Television Corporation of 340 Claremont avenue, Jersey City, expressed themselves as thoroughly satisfied with visual signals sent from W2XCR, the Jenkins studio. A model 200 Jenkins radiovisor is being utilized.
Studio program will be put on the air in the afternoon at 3 o’clock and evenings at 8 and will be of about an hour's duration. The radioviser screen will be seven inches square, the standard one which met with a tremendously successful public demonstration Monday night when television screens were placed at key spots in New York City.
The opening screen attraction at the State will be “Common Clay," the sensationally successful adaptation of Steve Kinkead's Harvard prize play of a girl’s fight against society conventions. Constance Bennett, Lew Ayres, Tully Marshall and a cast of favorites are featured.
The State Theatre will reopen after a two month’s period of extensive modernization. (Bayonne Times, Aug. 27)
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters.
3:00 to 5:00—Jenkins Radio Movies.
8:00—Synchronized television hour. Radio talkies. Radio movie.
9:00—Radio movies.
CHICAGO, Aug. 28.—Although television still is in the experimental stage it was taken out of the laboratory Wednesday night [27] when W9XAP, the experimental television station of the Chicago Daily “News,” went on the air with a half-hour program of pictures synchronized with voice broadcast through station WMAQ.
More than 300 television receivers placed in the hands of dealers throughout Chicago and its suburbs demonstrated to thousands of curious spectators that there is something to these talking pictures of the air.
Unfortunately the program did not go through as planned, due to failure of a filter condenser in the transmitter, and there as a break in the continuity as engineers placed the transmitter in service again. Still radio tans were shown the possibilities of this new addition to the air family.
Most obviously, the experiment showed, it remains for the layman to “get the hang” of his television receiver before he can be assured of good reception. The situation might he compared to the early days of radio when the owner of a crystal set would search for the “hot spot” or his crystal in order that he might hear the low strains of music coming from a station miles distant. Today the owner of a television receiver must, not only accurately tune his receiver so that he receives a good sharp signal, but he must watch the framing of the picture so that it is centered within the square of light made by the neon lamp that corresponds to the loud speaker connected to the radio voice received.
This fact was forcibly demonstrated when some of the dealers, having their first television receivers, found a lack of familiarity to their disadvantage. Not realizing that there was station trouble when the picture first faded, they turned the dials and framing control on the receiver with the result that when the station returned to the air they did not get the signal.
Subsequent to the regular program with Bill Hay announcing, another half hour of pictures was transmitted without voice accompaniment as further demonstration of the possibilities of television. At this time a cartoonist worked before the microvisor to show that the lines of his drawing could clearly be defined on the receiver screens. (Kenneth Hathaway, Consolidated Press, Aug. 28)
CHICAGO, Aug. 28.— A good many thousand Chicago radio enthusiasts are ready to testify today that television—the broadcasting of motion pictures through the air by radio—is an accomplished fact and a commercially profitable form of amusement of the future. For last night [27], for half an hour, the new television radio station of the Chicago Daily News sent out action pictures which were, more or less successfully, picked up by 200 picture receiving sets in various parts of the city. To be sure the pictures flickered, as did the old-time movies, and there were times when the receiving sets failed altogether but some of the 200 stations caught the entire program and all of them caught parts of it. Without question the complete broadcasting of news events and the showing of motion picture plays is just around the corner.
These first television receiving sets, the product of an independent Chicago corporation, are not equipped to transmit sound. They are operated from a station using much shorter wave lengths than are usually employed in broadcasting spoken words. In the demonstration last night, however, the Daily News broadcast the sound, accompanying the pictures, over its regular station WMAQ, synchronizing perfectly with the views being shown. To both see and hear the broadcasting it was necessary for the receiving stations to use two sets—a television receiver and an ordinary radio. This was done in many instances.
Transmitted 100 Miles.
The Chicago station has been experimenting with the sending of movies for many months and a few weeks ago succeeded in transmitting a motion picture which was picked up by a set in Milwaukee, nearly 100 miles away. Last night's demonstration was the first public city-wide broadcasting and daily and nightly station W9XAP will carry on regular television programs. The present receiving sets, which are now on sale in Chicago, are not so far perfected that they could be used in St. Louis to catch programs broadcast from Chicago. Sending moving pictures that distance is still a matter for the electrical engineers to battle with.
That pictures will be sent across the country before long is most likely, however, and within the next year, perhaps, entire plays, such as are now seen in the cinema theaters, may be seen, and heard, in homes throughout the land. Television experts are confident that the new form of broadcasting will revolutionize the entertainment field and many of them predict that the use of films, except for making pictures as a matter of record for future use, will be tremendously reduced.
Be that as it may, television is here now and the varied program of conversation, singing, instrumental music and even a lightning fast boxing match which I saw sent out last night proves that the possibilities are almost boundless.
Boxing Match Shown.
Singers, speakers and musicians were seen on receiving sets throughout Chicago last night. The boxing bout, lasting just one minute, was the least attractively transmitted event of the evening because the boxers failed to keep within the limited range of the present broadcasting equipment. But the action, when caught at all, was transmitted faithfully and showed that there was probably no action which could not be sent through the air successfully. None of the present receiving sets is equipped to show the pictures on a large motion picture screen although the makers say that such form of transmission is exceedingly simple and can be arranged at any time. Last night's large and scattered audience saw the pictures through a 5 inch glass lens in the front of the receiving outfit—a box about two feet square and six inches deep. It was not necessary to stand close to the box and peer into the covered hole. Eight or 10 persons, seated in a semi-circle 10 feet away could view the picture although a better idea of what was going on could be had at close range. In many of the Chicago stores showing the program last night—none of the machines was installed in a private home so far as was known—five or six of the receiving sets were used so that it was possible to display the pictures to a greater number of people.
The picture, as it was seen in the box was about five inches square and appeared to be tinted a pale red. As said before, it flickered considerably and one got the impression of watching a movie through a screen door, for the surface of the image was covered with a succession of fine lines, but, nevertheless, the pictures were transmitted in a way to show that television is actually here. (H.H. Niemeyer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Aug. 28)
Television, experts said yesterday [27] the sight-and-sound broadcasting of a vaudeville program from Jersey City Thursday [sic] night, which was received at three points in New York city, was the longest transmission completed in this country.The broadcast was transmitted by synchronization of the Jenkins television station, W2XCR, in Jersey City, and the De Forest station, W2XAC [sic], at Passaic. The program was picked up on small screens at the Hotel Ansonia, Seventy-second street and Broadway; in a store at Eighth avenue and Fifty-seventh street, and at 98 Riverside drive—a distance of about six miles.
Images of the performers were cast on the screens only about four inches square, and the performers were visible only from the waist up. Vision, however, was excellent, it was reported, and the sound transmission synchronized perfectly.
The program lasted for half an hour. Harry Hershfield, cartoonist, as master of ceremonies, introduced George Jessel, Arthur (Bugs) Baer, Health Commissioner Shirley W. Wynne, Benny Rubin, Diana Seaby and other entertainers.
More such programs will be given soon, it was said, by officials of the Jenkins Television corporation, which is specializing in the development of home television sets. (Morning Call, Paterson, N.J., Aug. 28)
"News releases received at the farm advisors’ office in Visalia indicate that the first television receiving station to be built, so far as is known, at any place in the west, is just being completed at 807 Westbore drive, Los Angeles. The station is the property of a television club organized by members of a class in “Television, Telephotography and picture broadcasting,” conducted by Dyonis M. Morandini and organized through the cooperation of the Extention Division of the University of California.
There are no television stations yet in operation, according to Morandini, but it is expected that one or two will be opened in the east late this year. (Tulare Advance-Register, Aug. 27)
THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters.
8:00—Television hour. Television talk, Benjamin W. Woodward. Half-tone talkies.
9:00—Variety program.
New radio receivers, radio entertainers, and the newest experiment in the radio world—television—attracted a large crowd to the 119th Field Artillery armory Thursday night [28] where the Second Annual Radio show is now in progress.
Those who attended the exposition on the second night saw the Ipana Troubadours and Baby Rose Marie in several pleasing presentations. They saw the leading 1931 lines of radio receivers and in addition they got a glimpse of radio pictures.
Thursday night, for the first time in the history of Lansing, television was demonstrated to the public. Radio pictures were received from the Jenkins Television laboratories in Washington, D. C., and despite the great distances over which they impulses which formed the pictures traveled, several good demonstrations were accomplished. In demonstrating pictures here the local show accomplished something attempted by neither the Chicago nor New York expositions.
Much Interest in Test
The television apparatus is being displayed at the show in the reception room at the right of the main entrance. It is being operated by Leason Parmater, well-known local radio engineer, who, with Lawrence Wells, also a prominent engineer, made the equipment. Mr. Parmater said that he was surprised at the interest shown in the experiment by the public. He said all seemed eager to learn how the crude "crystal set" of radio vision operates, and in most cases patiently waited for favorable signals that they might see one of the tiny shadows take the form of a person.
Many left the exhibit with their eyes red from looking through the flying holes of the scanning disc. Many said in a true Andy style as they left the display, “that's sumpin'," and others simply said, "guess we won’t wait for television."
New difficulties, in addition to the fading of the Washington station, were encountered some time before the station signed off at 10 o'clock when a bad heterodyne from another transmitter formed ugly diagonal patterns across the pictures.
On both Friday and Saturday nights Mr. Parmater will again attempt to show the audience radio pictures. (State Journal, Lansing, Aug. 29)
LAMESA, Tex., Aug. 28.—R. E. Renfrow has constructed a radio television machine here which has proved successful. He has been receiving television broadcast[s] from WGZ at Schenectdy [sic] during the last few weeks. During the first part of the week he said his apparatus revealed a girl dancing with a ball, the scene being broadcast from the northern station. (Amarillo Globe-Times, Aug. 28)
FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 1930
W2XCR (Jenkins), Jersey City, visuals on 107.1 meters/2,800 kcs.; sound on W2XCD, 187 meters.
3:00 to 5:00—Jenkins Radio Movies.
8:00—Radio talkie hour. Television club. Radio talkies.
9:00—Radio movie hour.
