The Forgotten TV Station

In the 1940s, New York’s newspapers eventually and dutifully provided listings for the city’s television stations—WNBT, WCBS-TV, WABD, and others as they came along after 1947.

But there was one that was forgotten. W2XJT.

The station in Jamaica could have been ground-breaking. It had the potential to address issues of the day in New York’s black community. It could have presented great jazz musicians and singers from the Apollo and other clubs (lip-synching as Petrillo banned live music on television in the ‘40s). But owner William B. Still wasn’t that ambitious. He was interested in tinkering instead of airing a regular schedule of programming, and selling his hand-made TV sets.

The media, and not just the black press, knew Still and his station were out there. The New York Times published a feature article about him on November 25, 1945. You can read it at the excellent Early Television site.

William Bundy Still was born in Danville, Kentucky on November 1, 1916. His father, William Grant Still, was a music arranger for Paul Whiteman; his mother was born Grace Bundy. He was the oldest son. The family was living in Queens by 1925.

Still operated amateur radio station W2CJR and ran into a bit of trouble because of it in 1938. He pleaded guilty in Flatbush Court because his car had a shortwave set that could pick up police calls. That was against a city ordinance. The judge gave him probation, noting he had no record and was no criminal.

He opened a radio shop in Queens at 148th St. and Jamaica Ave. and decided to get into television. An article in the New York Amsterdam Star-News of Jan. 2, 1942 that he had designed and built his own television set in 1939. On January 5, 1944, Still’s Jamaica Radio & Television company applied for a construction permit for an experimental station on 66000 to 72000 kilocycles with 250 watts. It was granted on August 1 for Channel 13 at 400 watts aural and 100 watts visual. Now Still had to build a TV station. And he did. By hand.

Billboard magazine looked in on his efforts, and published a feature story on April 14, 1945.

Small-Town Tele in Jamaica, N. Y.
Bill Still Tries With 20G Nut
Big manufacturers' station costs run high as $225,000—none as small as W2XJT
NEW YORK, April 7.—New York's fourth video station, W2XJT, will go on the air June 1 and when it begins perking will have cost under $20,000. It will operate with a power of 150 watts video, 150 watts audio, according to its owner and builder, William B. Still. The station, an experimental job to be located on Channel 13, is said to be a fair sample, geographically, facilities-wise and power-wise, of what small-town tele will be after the war. But Still's estimated price, in the opinion of manufacturers who are planning to market comparable units, is about one fifth what such an outlet should cost, and doesn't include a great many cost factors. Nearest is a "think" unit of GE's at 30G and 1 kw. power.
The Allen B. DuMont Laboratories say that a similar but more powerful station should run close to $114,600 complete, and General Electric believes its installation will cost $141,000. GE's price is based on pre-war costs, which may be reduced because of the economy of production-line methods. But that mass-production saving, GE sales department feels, may be negated by increased labor costs. DuMont thinks its price is a realistic one, based on studies of future operational prices.
Must Air by June 1
Still, whose FCC construction permit requires that be be on the air June 1 (originally April 1 but extended two months to permit time for delivery of a transmitter tower and to obtain permission to erect the tower within city limits) has all his equipment in the shop. Most of it, tho, has yet to be wired into place. He plans to have two cameras in a studio 25 by 17 feet with a 14-foot ceiling. He has one lemur. film projector and, of course, an Ike for film pick-up. Still's control room will have complete sound equipment, an intercom, three monitors, one for each of the cameras and one for the films. His transmitter, covering an estimated 30 miles radius, has five racks. The antenna will be mounted on a 200-foot tower now under construction by the Harco Steel Company.
"Ham" Job.
There are a few points in Still's story which must be clarified. The first is the fact that he has put together 90 per cent of his stuff himself, and thus has not figured labor costs in his estimate. Secondly, most of his materials were in the shop and were salvaged from existing equipment. Some observers point out that if Still had had to start from scratch, his costs would have gone up considerably. They also note the fact that few station owners have the personal technical skill and talent to put things together themselves as he has.
Jamaica—Small Town
Nevertheless, even with the above factors taken into consideration, Still has the lowest-priced station in the country. Were his costs doubled, they would still be less than half what others think prices will be after the war. His is not a satellite unit and therefore actually is not comparable with GE's "think" 300 unit. His experiment, say reliable trade sources, is worth watching, not only for its low cost, but because of the area in which it is being constructed. The station is located close to the heart of the shopping center of Jamaica, largest community in Queens, one of the four “residential boroughs” ringing Manhattan and with it make up the City of New York. Despite its proximity to Manhattan (about 40 minutes by subway, and an hour and a half by elevated line and an hour by bus), and despite the fact that it has no heavy or even light industry, Jamaica is comparable to the average city of 50 to 100,000 population. It is a shopping center for the farmers of Long Island, it has a small, exclusive residential area and a large middle-class population. It has a working-class district, supports one reasonably high-priced department store, Gertz (part of the allied chain), and a Montgomery-Ward unit. The majority of its shops and services cater to medium-sized purses.
New York Coverage
Still claims that he win be able to cover most of the areas reached by existing Manhattan tele stations, but his signal will be strongest in Queens. If his station works out there, say reliable observers, small-town video operation will be a proven fact.
If he does it, the cost of his outlet is its biggest selling point. If the figure is right, Still may be able to peddle equipment to other station managers as he plans, However, execs of the big concerns shake their heads. A breakdown of the DuMont estimate, no matter how it's sliced, still puts Still nearly $100,000 below DuMont's. DuMont figures that a complete camera and control room installation will cost $23,000; lighting and sound, $10,000; a 35mm. projector, $6,000; film pick-up camera, $3,000; master control board, $35,000, and a 5 kw. transmitter (considerably higher than Still's 600 Watts), $36,000. On top of that is an estimate of $1,500 for a tower. Total: $114,500.
GE figures that a 4kw. station will cost $141,000. This would have two studio cameras, two pix cameras (18 and 35mm.), the transmitter and antenna minus a tower and no lights. Lights should cost an extra six to 10G. In addition, if the transmitter is removed from the studio, a two-channel relay system would run around $15,000. GE figures a low-power satellite station, which could pick up and transmit web shows and broadcast films, would run around $66,150. DuMont has no figure for the satellite, but it's rumoured to be close to GE's estimate. Still in the "think" stage at GE is the one kw. satellite costing around 30G.General Electric's master station, with the sense equipment as the 4kw. job but using 40 kw., is figured at around $255,000. A complete, self-contained portable unit, mounted on a truck, will cost about $45,000. This alone is twice Still's figures.
Because of the press of war work, RCA has not yet arrived at any estimates which it considers accurate enough to release for publication. it is understood that the company will not even try to figure the cost of small-station units at least until the end of the war in Europe and perhaps longer.
Altho the bigger concerns are thinking tip in the hundreds of thousands, it is quite possible that Bill Still has something in his back room that will make a major change in the future of the industry. If he can, they add, it will probably be the biggest thing to hit video since the invention of the iconoscope.
Henry Ford did it in a garage. Maybe Still can do it in the back of a radio store in Jamaica, L. I.

Variety and other publications reported the station signed on July 1. It ran into an early problem as the FCC rejigged all television frequencies (ending the existence of channel 1). On September 13, 1945, W2XJT was told to change from the old channel 13 (230-236 megacycles) to the new channel 13 (210-216 megacycles). Oh, and that meant applying for a new construction permit. It was granted December 26 “subject to changes in frequency assignment...and upon an experimental basis only” with “conditions” that Broadcasting magazine didn’t specify in its story.

Tele-Tech magazine of Nov. 1947 treated the station as if it were brand new.

W2XJT-TV Now Operating
The New York area has another television transmitter in operation on an experimental basis. W2XJT, owned and operated by William B. Still is operating on channel 13 Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evehings between 8 and 8:30. Station is located in Jamaica, Long Island, Plans soon to start daytime schedules.

Unfortunately for Bill Still, the experimental era in television was pretty much over. The airwaves were in demand for commercial broadcasters, no more so than New York. W2XJT had its channel taken away.

Billboard reported on March 6, 1948:

WATV, Newark, Begins Test, Forcing W2XJT To Close
NEW YORK, Feb 28.—With Bremer Broadcasting Company's Newark video outlet, WATV, trying out its test pattern transmission this week on Channel 13, the colorful career of William B. Still's experimental W2XJT, Jamaica, L. I., began to draw to a close. Still, the Negro engineer who put together an efficient homemade transmitting unit virtually on a shoestring, is expected to be notified to vacate the same channel shortly by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). WATV on Monday (1) will begin regular test pattern transmissions between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., and expects to begin programing within eight weeks.
Out of Still's operation has grown an inter-radial video package and production organization called the Telepax Company, formed by the personnel who have been handling the station's programing. The three leading members are Clay Yurdin, former legit actor and dialog director at Columbia Pictures, program director; Alex Courtney, now acting in the road company of the legit drama, Inspector Calls, executive director, and Les Tomlin, of Decca Records, executive producer. Some 30 other people associated with W2XJT productions since last August also are part of Telepax, including Leonard Blair, staff director at the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), and Terry Ross, also of ABC. The package outfit is completely staffed in all phases of video production, including scenic artists and musical consultants.
Most of the people making up Telepax are showbiz pros who entered television via the American Theater Wing's course for veterans.
They have already sold a number of shows which have been presented over the facilities of W2XJT, the time for which, naturally, was not paid for. One of these, a series of four local talent shows, was sponsored by a Jackson Heights Kaiser-Frazer dealer, and led directly to the current Original Amateur Hour sponsored by the auto firm's national office over the DuMont network. Other commercial shows include a series of sewing instructions sponsored by the local Singer sewing machine outlet, and a dramatic series for an acting school.
Currently, Telepax has developed six programs which are being offered for commercial sale. The shows all have been aired experimentally for some time over W2XJT. Telepax personnel have, since last August, handled all programing for the station, which had broadcast at least two hours, three nights a week until the end of last year, when it cut down to Tuesday nights only. It is their boast that total programing costs during the months from August thru November were only $62.40, since all labor was performed by Telepax members.

The Pittsburgh Courier gave an update on W2XJT in its edition of August 7, 1948. The picture below right is at Jamaica Avenue and 149th Street, built in 1931, where Still had his store.

W. B. Still Pioneers Channel Expansion For Color Video
By DICK SMYTHE
NEW YORK—With the approval and special paternal interest of the Federal Communications Commission, William B. Still, young Negro engineer, was given the "go ahead sign" last week to carry on his experiment designed to develop the use of the current television bands for color telecasts. At the same time Still's work will narrow the television wave bands down to the point where four stations can operate, where only one is able to broadcast.
The experiments will swing in to full action late in September on channel six (which is at 82-86 megacycles), which at present is not licensed to any television station in the New York area.
When questioned here in New York last week, Still was mum on the details, but certain persons in the know pointed out that considerable experimentation already has been under way. The results of these preliminary trials have met with definite success and point up a possible early success under broadcast test conditions.
OPERATES STATION
Still has for some time operated a highly efficient experimental station, W2XJT, on Channel 13, which he constructed entirely by himself. However, this station has been is rumored that he has been making renovations and preparations for his test experiments for color telecasts. Still is now constructing a new building which will house two television studios, a recording studio and an FM broadcast studio for a station which Still is also building himself.
The very fact that the Federal Communications Commission has granted him exclusive use of Channel 6 is verification of the validity and authenticity of his experiments. Tests, by Still, in Channel 6 would have to be on a considerably narrower band than those ordinarily used if there is to be no interference with signals from stations using the adjoining bands.
MORE STATIONS
It was further pointed out by engineers and technicians with experience in the telecasting field, that successful development of the narrow-band transmission would enable four to five times as many television stations to operate as are now envisioned by the FCC.
As for the color experiments, should they prove successful completely and bear fruit, it might mean an early switch over from black-and-white at comparatively little adjustment cost to the current home receivers as compared to the higher costs should color be restricted to the upper high-frequency channels, as previously planned by the broadcast engineers.

There is no evidence he operated on Channel 6; news stories continue to talk about closed circuit broadcasts.

Still continued to have his license renewed, with a change in call-letters to KE2XDO on Sept. 1, 1949, until March 1, 1950. And that’s when it all ended. It would appear the Telepax deal had something to do with it.

Broadcasting reported on Feb. 20, 1950:

RENEWAL DENIED
Renewal of experimental television license for KE2XDO Jamaica, N. Y., was denied by FCC last week to Jamaica Radio Television Co. for experimental operation on Channel 13 (210-216 mc). The Commission indicated that one of KE2XDO's principal activities has been to render program service independent of any technical research.
FCC said research proposed was on simplification of TV receivers and antennas for which experimental telecasting was not necessary. Station was first licensed in 1945.

What did Still do? He packed up his family and moved to Canada. He became a television engineer and TV tubes manufacturer with offices and a plant in Montreal and Toronto. Unfortunately, Still ran into financial trouble and in 1959, the courts ordered his personal effects be sold to pay off a debt from Still’s Papineau Electronics to the Canadian Electrical Supply Co.

He continued to live in Quebec and work as an electrical engineer. He died in hospital in Pointe Claire on December 28, 1993.