November 1928

U.S. government regulators tried to solve a problem with television at the end of 1928.

Radio stations were sending out TV shows, a few of them on a regular schedule. But there wasn’t enough bandwidth on medium wave frequencies (that is, today’s A.M. band) to accommodate pictures.

The Radio Commission decided to tell stations to get telecasts off A.M. by January 1, 1929, and erect short wave transmitters to broadcast television. Oh, they’d need a license to that.

This mainly affected WGY in Schenectady and WRNY near New York. The latter was drastically forced to curtail most of its telecasts to 15 minutes at 3 p.m. Mondays and Fridays, 2:45 p.m. Wednesdays and 12:45 a.m. Thursdays. It also wasn’t helped by radio frequencies being re-assigned on November 11, and WNYR being forced to share time with three other stations. The company filed for bankruptcy in February 1929.

Hugo Gernsback’s “Science Service” supplied newspapers with a list of television stations and their statuses. We have an image file of one for November 1928 below. It confirms W4XA in Memphis was on the air, at least occasionally, and W6XC in Los Angeles had a regular schedule. The latter was operated in tandem with KGFJ, the radio station credited with being the first to broadcast 24 hours a day. Jeff Falewicz has a found a link to the TV operations.

You’ll notice there is no mention at all of NBC’s W2XBS. RCA’s David Sarnoff also doesn’t mention the station in an interview published that month. Either the transmissions were super-secret, or the impression that W2XBS went on the air immediately after getting a license in July that year isn’t accurate.

TV stations were told to stay off the air on federal election night to allow radio stations to broadcast the returns without TV-caused interference. Nevertheless, WCFL did have a telecast, airing a photo of the President-Elect.

Highlights for the month are below.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1928
BROADCAST BAND FOR TELEVISION TO BE LIMITED
Rigid Regulation Seen Until New Process Is Perfected
BY ROBERT MACK
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2.—Television and picture broadcasting will be permitted on the broadcast band until January 1, at least, but under strict limitation and rigid regulation.
To permit visual broadcasting to remain within the reach of the general radio public, the federal radio commission has decided—and shortly will announce—that such broadcasting will be authorized to a limited extent within the broadcast spectrum. Whether it will eventually go into the short wave band, where special equipment requiring some technical knowledge is necessary, remains to be decided. However, the commission has broken the deadlock of some months standing as to what to do about television because of its questionable public interest to listeners on the broadcast band, and its nuisance possibilities at this stage of development.
With the commission’s action there will be an immediate demand of stations for authority to broadcast pictures and television, supplementing the ten or so already operating experimentally. The order, it is learned, will make mandatory that formal applications be filed and formal authority obtained before stations may operate. Visual broadcasting will be conditioned upon specifications designed to prevent interference to regular reception, with the band of frequencies occupied by any television station not to exceed ten kilocycles.
One Hour Allowed
One hour during daylight will be the maximum time for both television and picture broadcasting. It must cease at 6 p. m. standard time and not begin again until after 11 p. m.
After January 1 the commission again will take up the problem, better enabled to cope with it by virtue of the experiments of the two months of trial in the broadcast band. The interference caused and the popularity of visual transmission with the radio public will be taken into consideration, along with an interpretation of the obligations of the United States under the International Radio Telegraph convention of 1927, regarding the presence on the broadcast band of anything other than telephonic transmissions.
The commission's action is of much significance in the development of television. It is almost certain that television must go into the short-wave spectrum eventually, because of the severe space limitations in the broadcast band, but experiments with the new radio art insist that to do this now would seriously impede Its development, because it would be out of the reach of practically all listeners and little would be gleaned in the way of public reaction. The commission has met the issue by a compromise.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1928
McCULLA OPERATES TELEVISION DEVICE
Following Tuesday’s election [6], station WCFL, Chicago, transmitted Hoover’s picture by television and again on Wednesday.
As is well known to Waukegan radio fans, W. K. McCulla, of McCulla & Co., the Majestic dealers, has done considerable work with television and owns and operates an outfit which he designed and built at the McCulla store.
Wednesday afternoon while WCFL was broadcasting the picture of the president-elect, Mr. McCulla was receiving it on his machine at his place of business. (Waukegan Daily Sun, Nov. 10)

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1928
Television Broadcast
WMAK will continue its television transmissions in conjunction with Station WGY at Schenectady on Tuesday night at 11:30 o’clock, the program to run for one-half hour. (Buffalo Courier Express, Nov. 11)

TELEVISION NOW REALITY TO DETROITER
Pictures From WGY Plainly Seen on Home Made Set.
In another column on the radio page is an article on television by David Sarnoff, who looks forward to “radio sight” within “three to five years.” However the amateur experimenter is already at work and Arthur West, 5065 Beaconsfield avenue, reports that his home-built receiver is getting the transmissions from WGY, Schenectady.
Mr. West had as credentials a letter from WGY confirming his reception on the evening of November 11, when he saw an American flag waving its salute on his screen. WGY transmits on its regular wave length of 790 kilocycles on Tuesdays at 11:30 o’clock and Sundays at 10:15 o’clock.
The Free Press has asked Mr. West to describe his apparatus which he assembled himself, and his article will appear on the radio page next Sunday. (Detroit Free Press, Nov. 25)

Predicts Television in 3 to 5 Years For The Radio Fans.
NEW YORK. (NEA)—With some radio stations already announcing "television broadcasting," with radio amateurs longing for "televisor sets" and the listening public anxious to feast the eye as well as the ear—how close are we to practical television? NEA Service popped this question at David Sarnoff, vice president and general manager of the Radio Corporation of America. His answer may be summarized as follows:
Sight transmission by radio is inevitable. Progress made thus far points to a new system of telegraphic service, when messages and pictures will be transmitted and received photographically through the air; to radio motion pictures, when one transmission may serve a million homes; to television; and even to the transmission of scenes by radio in their natural colors.
We may expect to witness such developments in a period of from three to five years, Sarnoff adds.
Present Difficulties
For the present, however, the fact remains that:
1. Television is still in an experimental stage;
2. Many improvements and some new engineering solutions are required to advance the art; and
3. The broad highway in the ether required for the establishment of an organized television service is still to be located.
Vast Improvements Needed
"More sensitive and photo-electric cells, more brilliant and flexible lighting devices and more perfect synchronization of light elements are among the problems now being studied by radio scientists.
"The clearing of a road through space to accommodate visual transmission is another major problem. While a wave 'side band' of 5,000 cycles can be used for sound transmission, a wave band of 20,000 to 100,000 cycles or even more is needed to make visual broadcasting effective."
The problem of radio television, Sarnoff suggests, is best visualized in considering the vast differences between the ear and the eye.
"With all that science, discovery and engineering have accomplished in equipping man for the struggle of life, the eye still looks out naked upon the aided to a limited extent by pieces of curved polished glass. A sensitive photographic apparatus, the eye demands that every scene be contracted to its limited field of vision. It tolerates but little interference.
"Shake a feather before the eye and you blot out the view of a mountain. Project two views simultaneously and you create confusion before the sight.
Ear Is Less Susceptible
"Contrast this to the ear. The ear receives sounds from all directions. It is able to recognize and interpret the slightest tonal differences. By an act of concentration we can almost eliminate from consciousness the poise of a room full of people and conduct a conversation with a single auditor.
"Radio broadcasting found a pliable and sympathetic organ of reception in the ear.
"But in attempting to serve the eye the radio stands squarely before the fundamental problems of electro-magnetic wave propagation through space. Engineering solutions alone will not suffice to life the bandage that has limited human vision.
"A sudden blur of interference, hardly noticeable in sound broadcasting, may for an instant blot out a distant scene projected by visual transmission. Static, now overridden in the broadcasting of sound, may vitiate entirely the broadcasting of sight.
What We May Expect
"Within three to five years, however, I believe we shall be well launched into the dawning age of sight by radio, involving among others the following developments: "Radio Motion Pictures: The transmission in rapid succession of a series of still pictures otherwise motion pictures is a logical element in the development of sight transmission. Thus an educational or other event might be broadcast by a single radio operation to 100,000 or to 1,000,000 homes in the country.
"Radio Television: The instantaneous projection through space of light images produced directly from the object in the studio or the scene brought to the broadcasting station through remote control involves many further problems. Special types of distribution networks, new forms of stagecraft and a development of studio equipment and technique are required.
Can't Repeat Scenes
"New problems would rain in upon the broadcasting station. New forms of artistry would have to be encouraged and developed. Variety, and more variety, would be the cry of the day.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1928
Television Delivers
Silhouettes of Cecil B. DeMille, Will Hays and other notables were used as demonstrations of the television given by the radio station KGFJ last night [13] at the Roosevelt Hotel at the dinner meeting of the Wampas. The demonstration was arranged through Ben McGloshan [sic] KGFJ. Mr. De Mille, Al Rockett of First National, Wesley Ruggles, Robert North and other well known directors were honour guests at the dinner. Frank Murray and James Loughborough were joint chairmen. (Hollywood Daily Citizen, Nov. 14)

LOCAL MAN BUILDS TELEVISION SET
He may have done it in preparation for the days after January 1 when his work as city commissioner will require his supervision over city employees. On the other hand he may have done it just for the fun of it.
At any rate, George B. Patterson, 909 Lake Adair circle, has completed a home-made television instrument, with which he “tele-saw” an acrobatic act broadcast from Station WGY, Schenectady, N. Y., Tuesday night [13].
All of the instrument was made by Mr. Patterson, with the exception of the lamp used, he said, the construction of the machine requiring only a few weeks.
He hopes to improve his machine later. (Orlando Morning Sentinel, Nov. 15)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1928
BROADCASTERS ASK TO SEND PICTURES
Shepard of Boston One of Applicants
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17—Growing interest in television on the part of broadcasting companies is indicated by applications now pending with the Federal Radio Commission for construction permits for television stations.
Hearings have been held on a number of those applications, including those of the Shepard Norwell Company, Boston; Frank L. Carter, Long Island City, N. Y.; Aero Products Company, Chicago, Ill.; Great Lakes broadcasting Company, Chicago; Brooklyn Broadcasting Company, Brooklyn; and Walter J. Allen, Salina, Kan.
The commission has already issued a number of licenses for experimental television broadcasting and is permitting the use for not exceeding one hour a day of wave lengths in the broadcasting band for television experiments. General transmission of television, however, has been confined to the short wave lengths, and the use of the broadcast band during the next few weeks is permitted in order that it may be determined whether it will be possible to use broadcasting wave lengths for television transmission without interference with other services. (Boston Globe, Nov. 18)

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1929
“COOKOO” IS NOW TESTING TELEVISION
Tuinucu is tuning in on television, according to Grant Jones, the Cuban-American broadcaster, lyric writer and radio experimenter. Mr. Jones reported reception of WGY’s television transmission on the afternoon of November 20, and his report was confirmed by the log of the General Electric Company’s Schenectady station.
Mr. Jones began dabbling in radio several years ago. Within a few days after WGY went on the air in February 20, 1922, he reported by cable receiving dance music from the station. Not only did he hear the music, but he and his friends danced to the music. In 1922 that was a most unusual achievement.
Now Mr. Jones has outfitted himself television receiver and he is among the most distant to report reception of images from Schenectady. He was tuned to WGY’s short wave transmitter W2XAF. The image he saw was that of A. O. Coggeshall, one of the announcers of WGY. The voice of Mr. Coggeshall was very familiar to Tuinucu listeners and this was the first opportunity to view his face.
Mr. Jones interest in radio was not limited to reception. In the fall of 1922 he started his own broadcasting station 6KW on the sugar plantation and since that time he has received nearly half a million letters from listeners. A short-wave station, 6XJ, operating on 21.95 meters is also operated by Mr. Jones at Tuinucu, and if the experimenter is consistent, he will probably soon be sending images of himself and friends to the far corners of the United States. (Washington Herald, Jan. 5, 1929)

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1928
Daily Television Programs on Air From Station W1XAY
By JOHN B. KNOX
Associated Press Features Editor
LEXINGTON, Mass., Nov. 22—(AP)—Regular daily television broadcasts have become a reality at station W1XAY at Lexington.
Every afternoon between 2 and 3 o'clock this station, operated in conjunction with station WLEX, puts on a program of visual radio entertainment for such fans and experimenters as are equipped to pick up the broadcasts. The broadcasts are being developed under the supervision of Alfred J. Pote, engineer in chief, and Carl S. Wheeler, owner of the stations.
Studio In Somber Colors.
The studio is a study in somber colors, dominated by a black background. The subject, whose image is to be broadcast, is placed several feet away from a machine resembling a motion picture projector and employing a high intensity arc light.
Just in front of the outermost lense [sic] of the projector is the edge of a steel disc about two feet in diameter. In a spiral arrangement within a narrow band next to the edge of the disc are cut forty forty-eight tiny square holes, When the disc is set in motion and the arc turned on, sharp lines of white light pass in continuous stream across the subject to be televised. The disc turns 900 revolutions per minute.
Photo electric cells, sensitive to every variation in light and shadow, pick up the form of the subject and his every movement. The differences in light-intensity are translated into electric impulses just as the radio microphone changes sound energy into electrical energy.
These electrical impulses pass directly to amplifiers employing eight vacuum tubes which build up the signal before it is put on the air. A forty-foot aerial of high efficiency is employed to send out the signals on a wavelength of 61.5 meters with 500 watts power.
Every amplifier tube heavily sheathed with lead. Extraordinary precautions been taken to prevent the slightest vibrations from reaching the tubes. The cabinets containing the tubes are thickly padded with felt. An area ten feet square may be covered by the broadcasting equipment, but in practice such large broadcasts are not owing to various limitations.
Reports of receipt of the programs have come from New York state and Connecticut. St. Joseph Gazette)
Magazine-Street Home Has Television Receiver
George A. Thurling, Radio Experimenter, Among Pioneers in This City to Realize Dream of Bringing Photo Broadcasts Into His Apartment—Pictures Not as Clear as Popularly Believed. But Experiment is Impressive Even to Layman
Television experimenting is latest thing with local radio fans, particularly those with sufficient knowledge and experience to be able to fashion their picture receivers in whole or in part. While reception among those who have such sets is not yet all that it should be they are hopeful that the day is not far off when the when the rewards of pioneering will be theirs.
Among the first to equip himself with such a set is George A. Thurling of 27 Magazine street. He is an enthusiast on television and there are few night picture-broadcasts which he passes by without tuning in. His favorite station, however, is WGY, Schenectady and he reports fairly successful reception from this point.
Laymen Attend “Séance”
Last Tuesday [20], the press was called in to attend the “séance,” for, to the uninitiated, that is just what it suggests. There were five guests present when the lights were turned off at 11:30 in anticipation of the ghostly figures that come by air, not in silence, but attended by a drumming staccato somewhat like the intermittent roar of an airplane motor heard some distance away. The performance began.
The first presentation was what might be taken for a curtain with the letters WGY printed diagonally across it from top to bottom. Because of the fine adjustment of the dial controling the motor rotating the disc, in front of the television tube and just behind the inch-square screen on which the radioed image appears, the picture at times traveled to the right or left of the line of vision. There were at times what appeared to be sparks flying across the picture—these, it was explained, correspond to static in tonal radio. The phenomena of fading was distinctly noticeable several times during the broadcast, the image losing its sharpness of tone and then regaining it with corresponding dimunition or increase in the buzzing noise attendant upon the reception.
“Pictures” Indistinct
The clearest picture seen during the evening was that of a man, the outline of his head being very clear at times, and his movements noticeable to the extent that it could be easily distinguished whether he was facing the televisor head on, or whether only his profile was being broadcast. There was no such thing as simultaneous transmission of light and sound as is imagined by those who talk lightly of television, but the results of the experiment were impressive and convincing enough even for the lay-observer. Television, as a practical medium of communication, is not yet “here,” but it is on the way.
Mr. Thurling is an experimenter of considerable experience, having operated some years ago an amateur station under license of the Canadian government. He has been experimenting with television several months and the results he obtains are noteworthy, when one considers that his apartment is on the fourth floor of an apartment house, the roof of which is cluttered with alien antennas. Had he the sweep of the country from a hilltop vantage point, he claims, the clarity of the televised photos and subjects would be much greater.
He recently took his set to North Adams, where he says, the results were far better than he has been able to obtain locally. The reasons are less interference, and closer proximity to the point of origin of the broadcast. (Springfield, Mass., Union and Republican, Nov. 25)

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1928
Television Latest Fad For Screen Stars
Many Have Installed Apparatus In Their Homes Already
Television is the latest fad of the screen stars. With the new home television and projected general broadcasting of radio pictures, many screen celebrities are installing the apparatus in their homes.
Tod Browning, director; Lon Chaney and William Haines now have sets working. Buster Keaton is preparing to build his. So far broadcasting is hard to receive on the Pacific Coast, but when Western broadcasting stars many players plan to follow the new hobby. (Baltimore Sun)

Television Test Interferes With Radio Reception
Television tests from station WGY at Schenectady last night [25] caused no small trouble for Norfolk radio fans who believed WTAR was on the air or that some interference was being caused by the local broadcasting station.
Manager Jack Light of WTAR said that television tests are made every Sunday night from 11:15 to 11:30 o’clock, and that because the WGY frequency of 790 kilocycles is so near the 780 of WTAR, a good many persons thought the local station was causing the trouble. WTAR, however, went off the air at 9:10 p. m.
Television, said manager Light, causes a whining sound such as a low-flying airplane makes and that reception within certain channels virtually is impossible. (Virginia Pilot, Nov. 26)

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1928
HOOVER INAUGURATION MAY BE FIRST BIG TELEVISION ‘CAST
By ISRAEL KLEIN,
Science Editor, NEA Service.
When Herbert Hoover takes his oath of office next March 4 as president of the United States, he may be seen doing so as well as heard by radio!
For television may play an important part in his inaugural ceremonies.
Television is far from perfect. It is altogether experimental. It has its limitations in broadcasting. But considering what has been done with it heretofore, it is quite likely that a television transmitter will be working in front of the next president at his inauguration, alongside the battery of microphones which already has been, accepted as a public institution.
Broadcasting such an event by television will not be new by any means. It has already been done and found quite successful. When Governor Al Smith accepted the presidential nomination the party last August, he faced not only a battery of microphones but a set of television cameras which broadcast his movements as far off as Los Angeles.
Great Inventions on Job.
This was the work of E. F. W. Alexanderson and his staff of General Electric engineers at Schenectady. Alexanderson has since improved on his apparatus so that he can visualize a larger scene than a head and broadcast it with the aid of daylight.
In the Bell Telephone laboratories in New York, Dr. Herbert E. Ives, famous optical expert, has been developing a television apparatus that has broadcast scenes in daylight and transmitted them to large "screens" consisting of rows of neon tubes.
The receiver images, so far, have been rather vague and jumpy. But they show great promise toward perfection of as good reproduction as see today in the movies.
In Washington, C. Francis Jenkins, the inventor, comes forth with a more highly developed receiver for television. On the basis of the new principle he employs in transmitting and reception, he predicts that the coming inaugural ceremonies will be seen as well as heard by radio.
Jenkins' new apparatus demands the use of 2304 tiny lamps in the radio-vision receiving equipment whereby the light for producing the incoming picture is multiplied many thousand times.
In other words, that deception of the eye which makes for persistence of vision is displaced by the persistence of light in the novel radio-vision received which Jenkins is now building. Just as the illumination of the electric-llght bulb in our home or office lingers for moment after the switch has been snapped off, the exciting current employed in this radical principle of visual radio persists for an appreciable time—about one-tenth of a second.
At present, at least three methods of transmitting and receiving pictures by radio are in vogue—the scanning disk, first used in 1884; a lens-disk, in which tiny lenses are placed over the scanning, disk holes; and the so-called drum-scanner, recently developed by Jenkins.
The latter device, resembling the hub of a wheel with its tiny glass-rod spokes, is said to permit light to flow through these quartz rods like water rushing through a pipe. However, even with the use of this new drum-scanning device the elementary area of a picture being received by radio is illuminated only one 2304 part of the whole time—again calling for deception of the eye.
Reason for Dim Image.
"And let me remind you," asserts Jenkins, "that the apparent intensity of illumination of the whole picture is the intensity of the light coming to the eye from a single elementary area, divided by the elementary time fraction, which is also equal to the number of elementary areas, namely 2304. That is why the picture seems so dully lighted when the machine is running though the scanning spot is very bright when the machine stops.
"Multiplying this light reduction by the fractional inefficiency of the current, it will be seen that the total current-light efficiency on the eye in the scanning disk method is less than of one per cent."
Because of a similar light limitation in the drum-scanner, Jenkins is looking to a new principle for solving the immediate problem of television. At least seven other laboratories are attacking the problems of visual radio—each in their own way—and this would seem to justify the prediction that the inaugural ceremonies will be seen as well as heard by radio.
Broadcasters Interested.
The broadcasting stations now engaged in the experimental transmission of images are: WRNY, New York; WGY, Schenectady; KDKA, Pittsburgh; WOR, Newark, N. J.; WABC, New York; WLEX, Boston, and WCFL, Chicago.
It is rumored that at least 150 broadcasting stations are soon to install equipment for picture transmission—sending still photographs, sketches, telegrams, cartoons, motion pictures or other crude images.
Picture-receiving mechanism is now being manufactured on a large scale for introduction in the homes. This apparatus, however, is not to be confused with so-called television equipment—the sending and receiving by radio of animate objects or moving scenes from distant points—since television is in a crude, experimental stage.

PROFESSSOR BUILDS TELEVISION SET
A radio television set, in Physics laboratory at the Stephenson hall of Science, Lawrence college, was recently built by Dr. A. D. Power, professor of physics and Lloyd Root, Appleton, a senior in college. They have been conducting experiments dally in a darkened room and two weeks ago received pictures from WCFL, Chicago, as a clear as newspaper illustrations.
Because the broadcasting stations recently decreased their wave lengths, their receiving set is useless and the experimenters are building a short wave receiver to pick up some 40-meter wave length stations in the east, 3XK, WGY, 2XAD.
The experimental television set is based on the Nipkow scanning disk which dates back to 1883. It is a rotating plate with tiny holes placed in a spiral near the edge and its speed is determined by the number of images transmitted per second. The speed of the disk at the receiver must be the same as that of the transmitter. This is obtained by synchronization.
The present need of television is automatic synchronization instead of hand control, which was used by the Lawrence experimenters. The number of holes in the disk is equal to the number of lines in the image. There are 48 holes in the disk used in the experiment but the larger the number, the better the picture. (Appleton Post-Crescent)