January-February 1930

Plenty of predictions were made about television when it was still “around the corner” (pretty much for the two decades before 1948), but perhaps one of the more outrageous ones was blurted out at the start of 1930.

A mouthpiece for a radio manufacturer declared to United Press that a TV station would be on the air in San Francisco within 10 days. Not only that, it would be part of a chain along the U.S. West Coast, each station 50 miles apart. The story played so well, three weeks later, the same guy made the same announcement to the another wire service, which reported it as if it were something that just happened. A month later, the same company repeated it all over again, except the station would be signing on “in a few weeks.” Again, it was treated like some brand-new development.

The whole thing was a preposterous bit of marketing. No television license had been issued for San Francisco, or even applied for. But the company was busy making and advertising radios, and had licensed a television set invented by Philo Farnsworth, so this was great P.R. (Not great enough. The company shut down around the end of 1931).

The Bay area did have television at the start of 1930. Kind of. A number of short wave stations were allowed by the Federal Radio Commission to broadcast video. One was W6XN, licensed to General Electric in Oakland. It mainly experimented or re-broadcast radio programmes of KGO but it did put out a television signal at least once—the night in February 1930 that G.E. sent a TV broadcast 20,000 miles to Sydney, Australia from Schenectady, New York. Maybe. A newspaper account of the event seems to contradict itself. Another experiment came two months later when W6XN transmitted the front page of the San Francisco Call Bulletin to Schenectady by fax.

In the East, W2XCR in Jersey City, W3XK outside Washington and W1XAV in Boston carried on with regular schedules, though the programming wasn’t much to speak of. We did find one newspaper story mentioning Bob Emery’s half-hour children’s radio show being simulcast on television. In Chicago, W9XAA (the Labor Federation) seems to have given up on TV and simulcast its A.M. radio programming.

Below are some of the more interesting developments, if they can be called that, in television in the first two months of 1930. Poor Brooklyn never did get a station. The Jenkins-related companies eventually expanded but money troubles (and a fire) a few years later shut them down. Radio Pictures on Long Island eventually morphed into a successful F.M. radio operation. CBS wasn`t in the game yet and NBC was content with a Felix the Cat doll twirling around in front of a camera, though early stirrings about building Radio City were reported.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 1930
[D]own at the very bottom of your dial—187 meters to be exact—there is a new station. W2XCD, soon to be used to transmit sound accompaniments for the Jenkins radio-vision pictures transmitted from W2XCR. Both stations are on the air every day except Sunday from 8 to 10 p. m. Many standard radio receivers will tune low enough to pick up this newcomer which is located at Passaic. (Jersey Journal, Jan. 2)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1930
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 4 (UP) — Following closely on the heels of the talking motion picture comes the perfected television, that will-o’-the-wisp that science has, for the past decade, been trailing with but little success.
Within 10 days a television broadcasting station, first of a nation wide network, will be operating in San Francisco, Edgar M. Peak, Kemper Radio Corp. official, has announced.
The Kemper Corp., Peak said, has secured exclusive control of the Philo Farnsworth television unit.
Designed expressly for synchronized hook-up to any type of alternating current radio receiving set, this unit will be placed on the market shortly before completion of the broadcasting station here. The cost of the unit, ready for attachment to the receiver, will be less than $100, company officials said.
It will be equipped with a projection screen or vision field approximately 12 by 14 inches in dimension. Peak expressed the hope, however, that the size of this projection field would be materially increased with future development of the unit.
The screen, embodied in a wooden panel, is designed to stand on top of the radio cabinet, and a hook-up is effected as easily as inserting a loud speaker plug.
At the outset the station here will confine its motion picture broadcasting to educational, feature, musical and skit films. The company anticipates, however, including in its daily program within a short time first run talking pictures, news weeklies, and practically every type of motion picture now showing in theaters.
Range Limited
The television in its present state, Peak assured, shows an exceedingly clear picture and the synchronization of sound, voice and music is perfect.
Following completion of the San Francisco station, other stations will be established along the entire Pacific Coast at intervals of 50 miles, this distance being the broadcast limitation of equipment in its present state of perfection. Rapidly, then, the network that is to stretch from coast to coast, will get under way. In 90 days it is anticipated that a station will be broadcasting in New York city. (George E. Powers, United Press)

SUNDAY, JANUARY 5, 1930
A Newark, N. J. firm already has a television broadcast station and a display studio where the general public is able to see how it is done.
By way of showing their earnest faith in success of the “radio talkie” the company has made Miss Irma Lembke the first television program director. She will plan programs for W2XCR in Jersey City and W3XK just outside of Washington. (Lincoln Star, Jan. 5)

TUESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1930
Within three months, Minneapolis will have a television broadcasting station, and perfected television sets will be available to northwest residents at a small cost, it was reported today.
Radio Corporation of America has perfected the new and cheap system of television broadcast and reception. R.C.A. will start construction on the west coast on the first of a nationwide series of television broadcast stations within 30 to 60 days, it was stated. The stations will possibly be operated in conjunction with R.K.O. Orpheum theaters, it was said, and a rumor was heard here to the effect that such a sight-broadcasting station might possibly be constructed in either the present R.K.O. Orpheum theater or the R.K.O. Seventh Street.
Receiving sets for television, which can be attached to any electrically-operated radio set, already are on sale in the west and soon will be introduced here. Their total cost, it is said, is about $75. Broadcasting already has a radius of about 75 miles from the station and engineers hope to extend the distance greatly within a short time.
Set Found Practical
The new receiving set has been thoroughly tested and has been found to be entirely practicable, it was said. R.C.A. has not yet determined the method of distributing the new receiving sets, it is understood. At present the television broadcasting station has a range limit of 50 to 75 miles. It is possible that receiving sets would be distributed in northwest homes on a rental basis, as the telephone is now used. It is also possible that the sets would be constructed on the "coin-in-the-slot" system, so that the radio owner could drop a dime in the slot of his home television unit and see and hear artists.
Secrecy Maintained
The new unit is equipped with a projecting screen 12 by 14 Inches in dimension. The unit shows an exceedingly clear picture, and the effect is similar to that of talking pictures, as seen in the motion picture houses at present. R.C.A. officers have made no official announcement of this new outfit as yet, and still maintain strictest secrecy on the matter. (Minneapolis Star, Jan. 7)

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 1930
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 8 (AP)—William Gibbs McAdoo, former Secretary of the Treasury, and five members of the United Artists studios of Los Angeles were here today inspecting television apparatus that is expected to revolutionize motion pictures.
The instrument, which is said to produce pictures in sound and color by means of radio, was invented by Philo T. Farnsworth, of Provo, Utah. It was perfected in local laboratories.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1930
The Everett Mills property in Lawrence, Mass., said to be one of the largest factories in the world, has been purchased by Isidor Goldberg, president of the Pilot Radio and Tube corporation[...]
Lawrence will now have the largest radio tube plant and largest electric decorating lighting plant in the United States. [...]
The Pilot Radio corporation has an extensive expansion program under way. A great deal of the company’s airplane radio experimental work will be done at Lawrence where a suitable aviation field has already been purchased by Mr. Goldberg.
The Pilot company has made application to the federal radio commission for the removal of its experimental television broadcasting station known as W2XCL from its Brooklyn plant to its Lawrence plant, where it expects to immediately proceed with the production of television apparatus. (Paterson, N.J. Morning Call, Jan. 10)

Authority to build television transmitting stations is requested of the Federal Radio Commission in two applications.
Radio Pictures, Inc., of New York, and Voice of Brooklyn, Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y., filed the applications. The former requests a construction permit for a 500-watt station to operate on the television channel 2,100 to 2,200 kilocycles, or 2,850 kilocycles. The Brooklyn applicant asks for a permit to build a 5000-watt visual broadcasting transmitter to operate on the 2,800 kilocycle channel.
General Electric Company seeks renewal of its experimental television license for Station W2XCW at Schenectady, N. Y. The station now operates on the band 2,100 to 2,200 kilocycles with 20,000 watts power.
(Hamilton Evening Journal, Jan. 10)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1930
Radio talkies, or combined and synchronized sight and sound programs are available every week-day night at 8:15 and again at 9 o'clock over stations W2XCD the DeForest Radio Company at Passaic, N. J. and W2XCR of the Jenkins Television Corporation at Jersey City. Station W2XCD at Passaic, operates on a frequency of 1604 kilocycles, or 187 meters. Its signals may be tuned in at the lower end of the dial of the average broadcast receiver.
Station W2XCR operates on a frequency of 2800 kilocycles, or 107 meters, and may be tuned in by means of a short-wave receiver, for television purports. The Jenkins radio talkies consist of half-tone pictures, scanned in 48 lines at a speed of 15 pictures per second. The radiovision pick-up is by means of special film in the Jenkins studio at Jersey City, while the synchronized sound pick-up is by means of disk recordings mechanically coupled with the film pick-up. The sound signals are amplified and transmitting over direct wire to the transmitter at Passaic. (Hartford Courant, Jan. 11)

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1930
Washington, D. C. (AP)—Radio "lookers" who expect to receive in 1930 pictures or images in the broadcast band during the regular evening program hours apparently are doomed to disappointment.
Engineers of the Federal Radio Commission believe television and picture broadcasting have not yet reached a stage of public entertainment value to warrant their transmission on the wavelength now used for sound.
The commission a year ago announced that radio vision would not be permitted in the broadcast band from 200 to 550 meters except between 1:00 a. m. and 6:00 a. m. for experimental purposes. Commission engineers say that while progress has been made the last year in improving television, even the best transmissions are comparatively crude.
A year ago it was consensus of engineering opinion that a channel 100 kilocycles wide was necessary for good television results. In the meantime several experimenters have reported successful transmission on ten kilocycles. The radio commission, however, is not convinced that television in the broadcast ban will not seriously interfere with the reception of other programs. (Wausau Daily Record-Herald, Jan. 14)

THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1930
What is declared to be the first public demonstration of television by radio synchronized with the voice, will take place today, tomorrow and Saturday, Jan. 16, 17 and 18, in the auditorium of the Lauter Company, 53 Broad street, Newark. The demonstrations will be from 2:30 to 4 o’clock in the afternoon. The evening hours will be from 7:30 to 9.
D. W. May, Inc., radio distributors, the Jenkins Television Corp. of Jersey City, the DeForest Radio Corp. of Passaic and the Lauter Company of this city are uniting in the demonstration. Four of the Jenkins televisors will be in operation on raised platforms, and one Philco receiving set. (Plainfield Courier-News, Jan. 16)

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1930
NEWARK, Jan. 17 (AP)—Home radio talkies or synchronized sight and sound broadcasting, were shown here yesterday [16] to the radio trade and public for the first time.
The demonstration was not so much a technical advance as it was a practical exhibition, the Jenkins Television Corporation emphasized. Heretofore, it was said, radio talkies had been confined to costly laboratory demonstrations, without immediate applicability to average home use.
The programs for the demonstration were broadcast simultaneously through radio television Station W2XCR at Jersey City, and radio telephone Station W2XCD at Passaic. The film pickup method was employed, the subjects being recorded on film which was placed on a special pickup projector. Some subjects were in the form of sound films, with synchronized sound accompaniment, and others were plain films with vocal announcements.
At the receiving ends, two distinct radio sets were employed. One was a standard broadcast receiver to tune in on the radio telephone signals. The other was a short wave receiver, covering the 100-150-meter band employed for television, which was used to receive the radio vision signals. These signals were amplified and passed on to the radio visor which translated them into animated images.
Two home radio visors were shown. One is intended for those interested solely in radio vision programs and not in the experimental side of the new art. This device is in the form of a cabinet, with recessed opening of shadow box, unique form of Faraday-Eddy current by a magnifying glass, are viewed. The control panel, below the shadow box, has one switch to throw on the usual loud speaker for tuning in the radio vision signal lines more conveniently and then to change over to the television lamp. A second switch serves to start and stop the motor which drives a compact scanning drum, used instead of the usual scanning disc md a selector disc. The latter serves to mask 3/4, or 36 holes, of the drum during each revolution, so that only 12 boles are exposed. The drum makes 4 revolutions to a single revolution of the selector disc, in weaving the 48 lines for one compete image. The speed of operation is 15 pictures, of 48 lines each per second, or 900 per minute, the accepted standard radio vision signal.
The synchronized motor, operated at a constant speed established by the 60 cycle frequency of the power supply system, maintains perfect step with a similar motor employed on the same power supply system at the transmitter.
The radio visor shown is a device intended for those desiring to start out with definite results, yet anxious to engage in experiments. It has provisions for changing scanning discs and rotors, adding another form of synchronizing device, and employs an unique form of Faraday Eddy current motor.

As Western Electric stole a march on sound pictures, so General Electric is preparing for leadership of the television era. That the show world is not cognizant of the nearness of television is pointed out by Radio executives who are sitting in on tests and experiments being conducted from one of their smaller stations to a reception room at RCA.
Tests have become so important a part of the Photophone executives and scientists activities, that for the past few days entire mornings have been devoted to television. A decided improvement over televised pictures shown as recently as just before Christmas is reported of the demonstration given last Thursday morning [16].
Manifestations, however, that the film industry realizes television is on its way are beginning to reflect in the house organs of various chains, particularly Fox. West Coast paper, “Now,” warns exhibitors to prepare for air pictures in the theatre. (Variety, Jan. 22)

New York, Jan. 16 (AP)—Seeing in the dark with the aid of television was given its first public demonstration in America late today.
Without the aid of visible light, persons standing before the television camera could be dearly seen. In another part of the darkened studio in a receiver connected to the transmitter by wire. The system, described as “noctovision,” is a development of John L. Baird, Scottish inventor, and was demonstrated in the Baird television laboratories here.
Infra-red rays, which are invisible to the eye, are used. Special photoelectric cells, sensitive to this ray, are requíred. Otherwise the apparatus is similar to that for television in visible light.
While the demonstration was intended to show that it is possible to see in pitch black darkness, numerous other practical applications have been forecast for the development. These include navigation in the air or on see in dense fog and its use in railroad signal systems under similar weather conditions. (C.E. Butterfield column)

David Schwartz of Plainfield, well known in this city, will participate in a special television test over WRNY January 21. He will appear in a ukulele number at 7:45 p.m. Other stations on which he has had experience are WHN, WKAP and WMCA. (Daily Home News, New Brunswick, N.J., Jan. 17)

TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1930
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 21 (INS)— Scientists and radio engineers today foresaw a big advance in the development of television following the demonstration here of a new device for the radio transmission of light.
The new apparatus, producing what is described as “electrovision,” is the invention of Philo Farnsworth, 23, graduate of the University of Utah. It is designed to operate through impulses broadcast through the ordinary short-wave transmitters used by radio stations everywhere, and to be capable of functioning in connection with present radio receivers.
Double Transmission
Farnsworth says he has been able to transmit light and sound simultaneously with the device and he plans to produce it in quantities within the reach of anyone who can purchase a radio set.
“The apparatus will be simply constructed so that anyone can operate it,” Farnsworth said today. “The image to be broadcast whether still or moving, is focused on to a sensitive photo-electric plate in a dissector tube.
“This plate is located midway in the vacuum tube and, as the image passes the plate, it is converted into an electric image, composed of countless electrons. The electric image is identical to the picture received.
“An electrical det1ecting system, wound within the end of the tube, exposes a sensitized electrode in the end of the tube to the entire picture.
“The television signal from the tube is then run through an amplifier to gain desired strength, and is then sent out through use of the ordinary short-wave broadcasting transmitter.
“The receiving apparatus is very simple, as the television signals can be received in the regular type of radio.
To Make Pictures
“Above the radio will be placed a small box which contains the oscillate or special cathode ray tube, which I developed for the transition of television signals into optical pictures.
“The oscillite receives the television signals when connected into the radio set by means of the same cord-and-jack system now employed for loud-speakers. The electrons pass through the oscillite, and reach a circular screen, made of fluorescent material, within the tube, which returns the image to an optical state.”
A feature of Farnsworth’s invention la the elimination of the “scanning disc” previously used in transmitting pictures through the air.

New York.—Television has required a brand new art of makeup. And it is a strange one.
In order that lips may appear as lips should, they are coated with chocolate brown. The face is covered with a deep ivory. Grease paint and dark shades are used to bring out high lights around the nose. In the case of men, the entire face is covered with a paint almost dark enough to be called brown.
Extraordinary makeup methods are required in television, in order to preserve such important features as the nose, which has an unpleasant way of disappearing when the usual paints and creams are used. (Stockton Journal, Jan. 21)

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1930
First commercial television broadcast of a vaudeville and picture program for home reception will be sent from the Palace theatre, Cleveland, in either June or September. The city’s telephone wires have already been adapted to transmission of television.
It is reported Cleveland was selected for the initial broadcast because of the close banking connection between North American Public Utility, controlling Cleveland’s telephone system, and Goldman Sachs, bankers for the utility organization. (Variety, Jan. 22)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 1930
PATERSON, N. J., Jan. 25.—Vice-Chancellor Vivian M. Lewis signed an order today calling upon owners of De Forest Radio Corporation to show cause before him on February 4 why the company should not be placed in the hands of a receiver. The order was obtained by H. C. Von Korff, of Staten Island, New York, who is the holder or 1,300 shares of common stock in the corporation.
This is the second bankruptcy petition against New Jersey radio companies filed within the last two weeks before Vice-Chancellor Lewis. On January 14 David Schiffman, of Passiac, asked that a receiver by appointed for the Kolster Radio Corporation, which operates a plant in Newark. [Note: one was appointed Jan. 21]
Charges False Statement
Mr. Von. Korff’s petition states that the De Forest company issued a “fictitious and untrue” financial statement on September 20, 1929, showing a net profit of $261,000 for the year ending on that date, whereas the company actually operated at a loss.
In this statement, Mr. Von Korff charges, advertising expenses were capitalized at more than $100,000 and, that the statement failed to depreciate the value of patent rights listed as worth more than $2,000,000. This depreciation is a proper charge to income, Mr. Von Korff states, and should be shown so that the real earnings of the Corporation can be ascertained the stockholders.
Mr. Von Korff’s petition also states that officers of the De Forest company also are officers of the Jenkins Television Corporation, and that on October 21, last year, when stock in the Jenkins corporation was worth 50 cents a share, these officers “caused to be exchange about 345,680 shares of stock of the De Forest Corporation for 604,940 shares of Jenkins Television, which exchange worked a fraud upon your complainant and stockholders of the defendant corporation.” The petition says that patent rights were carried upon the books of the Jenkins corporation at a fictitious figure.
Says Firm Has No Visible Income
The Jenkins Corporation, the complaint states, has no visible income and controls some patents of doubtful value, it has carried on its business at a loss since its incorporation, the petition charges, and is spending its capital investment in experimental work.
On June 7, 1929, the complaint says, stockholders of record in the DeForest Company were given the right to subscribe to additional stock at $7 a share. At this time, 164,109 shares were sold at that figure. According to a statement filed by the company, Mr. Von Korff’s petition says, $1,005,519 was received, whereas the sum of $1,148,763 should have been received, leaving $143,244 unaccounted for.
The Deforest company manufactures radio tubes and other accessories. Its plant at Jersey City has been closed down, Mr. Von Korff says in his petition, and the company has paid no dividends. This is the second receivership action against the company. The first ended when the company was taken over by creditors about four years ago. J. W. Garside is president of the DeForest company and of the Jenkins Television Corporation. (Herald Tribune, Jan. 26)

More than 400 high schools in some 20 states already have adopted as standard test for physics classes the correspondence course in radio and television provided free through the courtesy of organised Iabor. This unusual good will project is conducted in connection with labor's only radio station WCFL, Chicago, one of the first radio stations to experiment extensively with television.
In response to Insistent demand special high school radio programs are now broadcast at 3:30 p. m., each Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon over stations WCFL and W9XAA, the latter being labor’s shortwave assignment. The aural broadcast is on 970 kilocycles and the simultaneous short-wave broadcast on 6080 kilocycles. A popular feature of these programs is 15 minutes of code practice.
While labor's free course in radio and television is proving unusually popular with high school faculties and students, it is by no means limited to them—the average age of those enrolled is considerably above 25 years. The course has been in operation only a few months, yet nearly 50,000 applications for it have been received and the demand is increasing daily. WCFL is now making arrangements to take care of a million applicants for the first lesson.
A card addressed to WCFL, 623 South Wabash Ave., Chicago, Ill., will bring labor’s free radio and television course to anyone interested. The entire course is furnished absolutely free. (Klamath Falls Evening Herald, Jan. 25)

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1930
HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Feb. 1—Tiffany Productions, Inc., is incorporating television clauses in all its contracts, according to H. William Fitelson, counsel for the film company.
“We retain television and other rights pertaining to future improvements in talking pictures, for improvements in pictures, and their projection is going to surge ahead so fast in the next few years that there is no telling what rights we will have to be purchasing soon if we do not include these things in the present contracts. Television is already here, so nearly perfected that it would astonish most of the world right now, and what is coming out of this perfection of television can only be guessed at at [sic]present, and then only in wonder at the future it opens up.” (Billboard, Feb. 8)

The Chicago Federation of Labor has started to broadcast on the short waves again. The short-wave station is W9XAA on 6,080 kilocycles. They are only broadcasting [radio] test programs at present, but expect to be on a regular-schedule soon. They will broadcast the regular evening broadcasts of WCFL. (Radio Craft magazine, Feb. 1930)

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1930
Here are the stations broadcasting on regular schedules ay present: W2XAD, General Electric Company, Schenectady, N. Y., Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 12:30 to 1:30 p. m. (central standard time) on 21.96 meters, using a twenty-four hole scanning disc revolving 1200 times per second; W2XAF, Schenectady, Tuesdays from 10:30 p. m. to 1 p. m. [sic] , on 31.4 meters with the same disc ad speed; W2XAD may also be tuned in on Sundays on television signals from 10:10 to 10:30.
W3XK, the Jenkins Television Laboratories in Washington, D. C., may be tuned in on a forty-eight-hole disc at 900 revolutions on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 7 p. m. to 8 p. m., on 46.7 meters broadcasting silhouettes. ...
W2XAL, a New York City shortwave station, is carrying on experiments with a forty-four-hold disc traveling at the slower speed of 450 revolutions per minute. It broadcasts every Monday from 2 to 7:15 p. m., Wednesday from 1:45 to 2 p. m., Thursday from 11:45 a. m. to 12 midnight, and Fridays from 2 p. m. to 2:15 p. m.
Chicago Station on the Air Irregularly
Among the stations which may be heard, who have announced their experiments frequencies, are WCFL “Voice of Labor,” Chicago, on 61.5 metres, with a forty-eight-hold-disc at 900 revolutions per minute; KDKA, Westinghouse Electric Company, East Pittsburgh, Pa., on experimental motion-picture transmission on 62.5 meters, with a sixty-hole scanning disc, revolving 1000 times per second; W9XAA of Chicago, using a forty-eight-hole disc on 66.7 meters at 900 revolutions, is transmitting at irregular morning hours.
WLEX of Lexington, Mass., is building new apparatus to operate a forty-eight-hole disc on a wave length of 62 meters.
In addition to the above the radio division of the Department of Commerce has licensed the following for television broadcasting in New York and the East:
W2XBT—Frank Carter, 3978 Bliss street, Long Island City, N. Y., 33.5 meters.
W1XAY—J. Smith Dodge, Lexington, Mass., 62.5 meters.
W2XAL—Hotel Roosevelt, Forty-fifth and Madison avenue, New York City, 37 and 91 meters.
W2XBU—Harold Smith, Beacon, N. Y., 62 and 64 meters.
W8XAV—Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing Company, East Pittsburgh, Pa., 20 and 63 meters.
In Chicago: W9XAG, Aero Products, Inc.1788 Wilson avenue. 64 meters.
Stations which are authorized in the West are: W6XAM, Ben S, McGlashan, Los Angles, Cal., 70 and 150 meters; W6XC, Robert B. Parish, 5155 Grammercy place, Los Angeles, Cal., 67.7 meters; W6XN, General Electric Company, 66 and 140 meters; W6XBW, P. S. Lucas, 422 Holland avenue, Cal., 70 and 140.5 meters. (Hal La Mertha, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Feb. 3)
[Note: this list had to be outdated. The Radio Service Bulletin for Jan. 31, 1929 wrote next to W6XBW "Strike out all particulars."]

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1930
The application of H. C. Von Korff, of Staten Island, and Thomas Gray, of Paterson, for the appointment of a receiver for the DeForest Radio company, of Jersey City and Passaic, on the ground that the officers of the corporation had perpetrated a fraud on the stockholders in the purchase of 638,967 shares of Jenkins television stock, was denied by Vice-Chancellor Vivian M. Lewis in chancery court yesterday [5].
In support of the application, Lawyer Emanuel Shavick, representing Von Korff and Gray, holders, respectively, of 1,200 and 240 shares of stock in the defendant corporation, read from the DeForest concern’s own financial statement as of last Dec. 31, which placed a value of $10 per share on its 638,967 shares of Jenkins television stock, which the concern had set up in its assets.
Declaring this valuation to be fictitious, Lawyer Shavick said that “the market value of Jenkins television on Dec. 31 was $3 a share and today it is about $1,” adding that the officers and offices of the DeForest and Jenkins companies are the same.
Representing the DeForest company, Lawyer Frederic J. Faulks characterized the application as little short of an outrage.
He said that the petitioners had failed to present a proper case and that as far as he could ascertain Von Korff is not a registered stockholder and has no claim on the company.
Counsel added that Von Korff has never communicated with the company for information and that the day the receivership proceedings were brought he disappeared from his home. He said that there was no verification of Von Korff’s allegations as to the financial condition of the company.
Faulk went into a brief history of the company from the time of the receivership settlement in June, 1928. New capital to the extent of $900,000 was put into the company and the business had been so successful that the books show a net profit of $626,000 over the eighteen months period.
“We don’t owe one dollar matured indebtedness, there are no suits pending against us and there are no real stockholders dissatisfied,” said Lawyer Faulk. Despite depression in the radio business De Forest, he said, showed an increase in business during January of twenty-four per cent over the previous month. He explained the closing Of the Jersey City plant by stating that the company moved to Passaic where manufacturing operations were more economical.
At the beginning of the hearing this morning Vice-Chancellor Lewis read a letter which be received from Robert H. McNeill, an attorney of Washington who said he represented the Radio Service corporation, of New York. His client, be said, would lose between $300,000 and $1,000,000 by reason of the Jenkins Television stock deal. (Paterson Morning Call, Feb. 6)

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1930
The walls of a cellar in the Elks Country Club in Columbus do not permit a very great scope of vision, and for the last 18 months Lawrence Huber has not seen much of the outside world during the several hours each day that he has been working industriously in the basement.
Now, however, Mr. Huber whose sister, Mrs. H. B. Tavenner, resides at 584 E. Cecil st., is able to see as well as hear things happening more than 100 miles away without leaving the cellar. Efforts of a year and a half finally have met with success, and the greens keeper at the Country Club has a homemade television outfit which will pick up moving pictures broadcast from Washington, D. C., and Chicago. Furthermore, his set cost him less than $100, and he believe he could erect another one for much leas cost, and certainly with much less labor.
Last week he changed some small adjustment in the instrument, and for the first time was able to look at a revolving disc and see the shadow of a girl advancing towards him bouncing rubber ball [likely W3XK, Washington]. Since then he has picked up television programs from the ether each night. Perhaps some of his Springfield friends, for he has visited in this city many times, will have an opportunity to see his homemade set in operation in the near future.
A television set in operation looks simple, but an explanation of it workings is another matter entirely. It consists of a short wave radio receiving set, a neon tube in which the screen for the picture is set, and a metal disc rotated by a small electric motor. The set picks up impulses from the broadcasting station and carries them to the neon tube, where they appear to the naked eye as merely a flicker. The disc, which contains many holes around the outside circumference, revolves 900 times a minute, and the flickers in the tube, viewed through the revolving disc, bring the pictures into clarity. (Springfield, Ohio, Daily News, Feb. 6)

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1930
Television Broadcasts are being received regularly by the Derr brothers at their home laboratory on a farm near Marshall. Cyril T. and Alvin Derr, who built and operate the receiver, operate an electrical service, and constructed the set in spare hours.
"We receive approximately an hour and a half of clear pictures each night except Sunday," they said, "from WCXK [W6XK], Washington. D. C. They are picked up from films for transmission.
"Only silhouettes are broadcast by the station, however. There are enough difficulties to be overcome in the transmission of these images without attempting to send other classes of broadcasts."
The broadcasts are received between 7 and 9 p. m. on six days a week.
"Television isn't yet ready for the general public," these experimenters assert "Synchronization of transmitter and receiver is too difficult at present to permit widespread adoption of television.
"Many problems must be solved before these radio pictures are available to everybody." (Wisconsin State Journal, Feb. 9)

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1930
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11. (NANA)—New eyes have been found for television in the form of photosensitive cells of infinitesimal size, which can act as retinas in scanning actual or filmed images for radio. The cell is the invention of Russell Hart of Los Angeles, who discovered it in the course of experiments on improved talking motion-picture systems.
Patents covering it have been required and further, researches into its possibilities have been undertaken by the General Research Corporation of Long Island City, N. Y., subsidiary of the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co., of Chicago.
So tiny that it requires a microscope to view it, the Hart cell’s effective area is only two by four millimeters and its thickness about one-sixteenth of an inch. It actually looks thinner than a single human hair.
It was described to the Federal Radio Commission, when applications for television wave lengths were made today by engineers working with it, as an improved type of selenium cell which overcomes difficulties generally experienced with gas, vacuum and liquid cells and the older forms of selenium cells. Selenium is a metallic element which acts as a light-operated valve in an electric circuit, but which, it was said, has been generally discarded by other television workers because of certain unfavorable characteristics.
Dr. Arthur W. Carpenter, motion picture engineer and a former photographer for various Harvard expeditions, told the commission that the cell’s chief advantage is that it can be used to prepare new and simplified scanning devices which do not “stop to think too long.” Lag and inertia, preventing the necessary instant translation of light into electrical impulses, are among the chief problems in television.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1930
Radio television, or radiovision for short, will follow in the footsteps of sound broadcasting, is confirmed by the appearance of the first sponsored television program according to D. W. May of Jersey City. The “lookers-in” following the rapid progress of radio television are being treated to a talk on the present and future of the young art by Dr. Lee DeForest, who appears before them as speaks. The program is a presentation of the DeForest Radio Company of Passaic, N. J., and goes down in history as the first sponsored television program.
The technical means employed for broadcasting this sponsored sight and sound program of Dr. DeForest, inventor of the audion or present day vacuum tube, and a pioneer worker in the broadcasting field, is highly ingenious. The subject has been recorded on film and disk record. The picture values taken from the film by means of a special pick-up machine in the Jenkins Television Corporation’s studio in Jersey City, N. J., are broadcast by the nearby Jenkins television station, W2XCR, on 139 meters. (Bayonne Evening News, Feb. 13)

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1930
New York. Feb. 14.—[Special].—A theater to exploit television, radio, talking pictures, and plays in one immense building has been proposed for the site that was obtained by John D. Rockefeller Jr. for the new opera house. The location, 45th to 51st streets, between 5th and 6th avenues, was rejected by the Metropolitan Opera company, but is held by the Metropolitan Square corporation, controlled by Mr. Rockefeller.
Plans, still in the stage of preliminary negotiation, involve a project whereby the National Broadcasting company, General Electric, Radio-Keith-Orpheum, and other allied groups would unite for a new type of amusement and theatrical center.

W. J. Barkley, assistant to the president of the De Forest Radio Company, announced today [14] that his company had applied to the Federal Radio Commission to increase the power of the experimental broadcasting station in the old Brighton Mills, Passaic, to put it a par with WOR in Newark.
The stlation, the call letters of which are W2XCD, and which has been heard by many Passaic radio fans, has been operating on a power of 5,000 watts. Permission has been asked for an increase of power to 50,000 watts, which will make it one of tire most powerful broadcasting centers in the State.
Officials of the company made it clear today that at present the Increase in power is only for experimental purposes in broadcasting television in conjunction with the company’s Jersey City station.
During the past week regular television programs have been broadcasted by the two stations and have been received by sets at the Hudson County Radio Show in Jersey City. The programs have been the air from 3 to 5 o’clock in the afternoon and from 8 to 10 o'clock at night.
In explaining the broadcasting of television programs, Mr. Barkley stated that the voice is sent from the Passaic station, while the action is broadcast from Jersey City. The two must be synchronized. This difficulty has been overcome by engineers of the company.
By government regulation, television broadcasting is restricted to between 100 and 150 metres to prevent interference with voice programs, which are sent on a higher wave length, Mr. Barkley said. This, he continued, makes it necessary to send the two harmonizing units of a television program from different stations.
According to Mr. Barkley, this regulation will also prevent sets used at present from suddenly becoming out of date and useless. Persons now owning sets, he said, will probably always be able to hear programs as they are now being broadcasted.
Mr. Barkley predicted that television receiving sets will be on the retail market next week at a price not much in excess of that of electric radio sets. (Passaic Daily Herald, Feb. 14)

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1930
Attracting what is said to be a record attendance for a district radio exposition, the Hudson County Radio Show, held all last week in the Armory Radio Salon in Jersey City, will close Wednesday night. Attendance figures up until late last night [15] indicate that more than 100,000 radio listeners will visit the exhibition to view the latest models in radio receivers.
Although the normal time for radio set manufacturers to announce new models is at the June trade show, several have disclosed midwinter developments. These sets attracted wide attention, but perhaps most interest was shown in a public demonstration or television given by the Jenkins Television Corporation, of Jersey City.
Television images were received with good definition on receivers designed for public consumption. Both music and speech were transmitted from the Jenkins television station W2XCR, and received on apparatus installed at the show. An expert in charge of the apparatus explained that signals were being picked up by radio on a wave length of 139 meters from the station, which is on the air daily between 2:30 and 5 p. m. and 7 to 11 o’clock.
Because of difficulties encountered in receiving synchronized sounds with the television pictures over a separate radio channel, voices were transmitted from the television studio by wire for the demonstration, it was said. The Jersey City television station was recently licensed by the Federal Radio Commission and has a power rating of five kilowatts, although only one is used for the actual transmissions. This station operates jointly with a transmitter operated by Dr. Lee De Forest at Passaic, N. J., which normally transmits the synchronized sounds on a wave length of 187 meters.
Receivers used for the demonstration are made by the television company. The apparatus consists of a scanning disk, neon tube, adjustment apparatus and reflector contained in a rectangular-shaped box. The television set operates in conjunction with a receiver tuned to the wave length of the transmitter. An orange-colored image is reflected on a glass screen four inches square. Below the aperture are switches for controlling the disk motor and synchronizing. Reception was of sound films projected before the televisor at the transmitting station. The image was converted into electrical impulses by means of a forty-eight hole scanning disk photo-electric cell. The receiving disks at the demonstration were synchronized with the transmitting disk as to simultaneously reflect the recorded image. Sound was transmitted over telephone wire.
Station WAAT had at the exposition a glass inclosed studio and conducted all broadcasting throughout the week from that point, in this way listeners visiting the show were able to favorite artists of this station perform before the microphone.
Another exhibit which attracted attention was apparatus similar to that used for the transmission of fac-simile pictures across the Atlantic by the Radio Corporation of America. (Herald Tribune, Feb. 16)

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1930
NEW YORK, Feb. 17.—With the Radio Corporation of America, General Electric and Jenkins experimenting with television comes the news that the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company has been and is now doing vast experimental work along similar lines.
Television is evidently the next move in talking pictures. How soon they will be established is a matter of time. However, the big corporations evidently believe that they are thoroly practical and the various organizations are working in a most secretive manner towards the end of perfection.
The Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company has made application to the Federal Radio Commission for a license to operate an experimental television station on Long Island.
Dr. Arthur W. Carpenter, of the United Research Corporation, subsidiary of Brunswick, appeared before the commission in Washington and stated that the Hart silenium [sic] cell used by it is superior to any cell heretofore made. The commission was also told that up to the present time it has been used in the development of talking pictures and has a direct bearing on television and that the organization wants to continue its development along those lines. (Billboard, Feb. 22)

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1930
Schenectady, Feb. 18—(AP)—For the first time in history, according to officials of the General Electric Company here, a television signal was transmitted over a distance of 20,000 miles, today.
The experiment was conducted by Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson, staff scientist of the General Electric, who transmitted the signal from W2XAF, the company’s experimental short wave station, to VK2MF at Sydney, Australia. The signal was received in Australia and rebroadcast, being picked up again at Schenectady.
A rectangular pattern, about one foot square, was the figure transmitted. The original pattern had very sharp outlines but the image received after traveling 20,000 miles was said to be “fuzzy” in outline, Dr. Alexanderson declared, however, that reception of the Image at all was significant of intimating further possibilities in the transmission of pictures.

Oakland today occupied the center of the stage as more radio history was written. The short wave station of the General Electric company at Schenectady early this morning, in an experimental television broadcast, sent out the picture of a rectangle into the ether.
In faraway Sydney the image was received, and for the first time was rebroadcast.
The broadcast was picked up in Schenectady, and the image, slightly distorted, was recorded in wax.
PICKED UP HERE
The development station of the General Electric here, W6XN, also picked up the television signals and rebroadcast them.
Results of the experiment were made known soon after the rebroadcasting attempt was made.
ln a radio interview with J. E. Doyle, radio editor of The Oakland Post-Enquirer, W. T. Meenam, head of the public relations department of the General Electric company, declared: “The picture we received in Schenectady, the point of origin, from Sydney, where the rebroadcasting took place, was readily recognizable, the only difference being that the lines were ‘rippled’ or ‘shaky.’
ENTHUSIASTIC
Engineers in both Oakland and Schenectady were enthusiastic about the tests.
Conversation between A. B. Hitt in Schenectady and P. M. Farmer, manager of station VK2ME, heard without difficulty in the Oakland studios, was also recorded in the east.
No attempt was made here to reproduce the television, either from the east or Australia. Oakland was tuned in on the Sydney station, however, for rebroadcasting. The television signals sounded much like a huge band saw.
The Post-Enquirer writer in Oakland, talked several minutes with Meenam, Martin P. Rice, director of broadcasting for General Electric, and W. J. Purcell, broadcast engineering chief for the company.
CONVERSATION4 CLEAR
The eastern officials of General Electric, speaking from Schenectady, of course, also conversed with Walter Kellogg, head KGO engineer, and Jack Maxwell of W6XN. Working on a wavelength hitherto unused for such work, the two-way transcontinental conversation was as clear as if the speakers were in the same room.
Engineers here and in east are seeking to determine the ideal short-wave for each hour of the day, hoping to make possible reliable broadcasting of conversation at any time. (Oakland Post-Enquirer, Feb. 18)

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1930
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 22 (UP).—Plans for the erection of a low wave, sound-picture broadcasting station here within the next few weeks are under way. This announcement was made today by representatives of the Kemper Radio Corporation, holder of exclusive rights to the Philo-Farnsworth Television receiving unit.
With the opening of the proposed station, television units, Kemper officials say, will be available for the home at a cost of less than $100.
The Farnsworth unit, declared engineers and radio experts who witnessed a demonstration in the young San Francisco Inventor's laboratories, has passed from the experimental to the stage of reality.
Noise Eliminated
All noise and hum, the principal fault in television, the inventor has successfully eliminated. This was accomplished by using a funnel-shaped receiving tube instead of the usual motor and disc mechanism. The tube is slightly concave at the broad base. This base, heavily frosted, forms the screen on which television subjects are projected, and is the only part of the tune disclosed in the wooden cabinet, which stands on top of the ordinary radio receiving set.
It is planned at the outset to provide receiving tubes with a round base five inches in diameter. Subsequently tubes of larger dimension will be introduced.
Movies Transmitted
At the demonstration given here recently motion pictures transmitted on Farnsworth's receiving unit, reappeared unusually distinct and clear, despite the limited size of the tube screen.
No attempt was made at the demonstration to synchronize sound and picture, but the Kemper corporation declares this feature of the project already has been proved by previous tests.
When the broadcasting station is erected here, and the television unit placed on the market in the near future, officials says, hooking up the unit to radio receiving sets for sound-picture synchronization will be a simple matter.
The broadcasting station, which will have a sending radius of approximately 50 miles, is but one of a chain that planned for the Pacific coast, and later will be extended across the continent.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1930
“Nook” and “Chilkoot”—sons of Chinook—made their radio and television debut last night [26] at the Big Brother Club meeting of Station WEEI, broadcast from the Television Laboratory on Brookline av. Asked to say a few words, they “woof-woofed” in a manner that “Bob” Emery afterward described as “very eloquent.”
The radio appearance of the sons of the famous sled dog who went with the Byrd expedition with his owner, Arthur Walden, ended a busy day. Soon after their arrival in Boston yesterday morning they went out to the Peabody Home for Crippled Children in Newton to entertain the children.
Accompanying the dogs were Mrs. J. Milton Seeley of the Chinook Kennels at Wonalancet, N. H. and Big Brother “Bob” Emery. From the Peabody Home the dogs went to the Hotel Stat1er, where they dined in the kennels in the basement of the hotel after “peeking” into the Palm Room. In the afternoon, the dogs and Mrs. Seeley went with “Bob” Emery to the Children’s Hospital. (Boston Globe, Feb. 27)

(This short film starring Andy Clyde was released later in 1930).