On the West Coast, the story was different. Television has been broadcasting continually since December 23, 1931, when W6XAO went on the air with an electronic system. Even during World War Two, the station remained on the air on Mondays every other week. Today, it is KCBS-TV.
Don Lee Broadcasting was granted another license for a station in a different frequency range. The few news reports about W6XS seem to use the call-letters interchangeably, and W6XS was eventually dropped.
In June 1933, the Los Angeles Times reported both Don Lee stations operated nightly from 7 to 9 and mornings on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 to 11. It was not the only station in California. W6XAH in Bakersville announced a live, one-hour programme for May 31st, though one of the local papers admitted few people besides engineers would have a set that could pick up the video portion.
The International Photographer magazine published several feature stories on W6XAO. Through its pre-commercial days, the station was under the care of engineer Harry R. Lubcke. The magazine interviewed him for its July 1933 issue. Below is a selection of some of his answers to give you an idea of the state of television at the time, and some of his predictions.
Q. What were the beginnings of television development on the West Coast?
Ans. Television Laboratory work was started in San Francisco in 1927 under the direction of Philo Farnsworth who, since 1931, has been associated with Philco in Philadelphia. This work was of purely a research nature and was not broadcast. The Don Lee Broadcasting System started television research in late 1930 and by late 1931 W6XAO, the ultra high frequency transmitter was broadcasting television images on a regular schedule.
Q. What has been your part in television evolution here in California?
Ans. The work of W6XAO continued, and by May, 1932, the first television image ever received in an airplane was transmitted from this station and received in a Western Air Express tri-motored Fokker plane, flying over the city of Los Angeles. A new cathode-ray type television receiver, developed by the Don Lee organization, was used, and made the reception possible, in that it would operate and remain synchronized when away from power mains common to the transmitter.
On the first anniversary of W6XAO's initial broadcast, the 1000 watt television transmitter W6XS was put into operation. This transmitter being of greater power was heard generally throughout the coast and Nation and by January, 1933, its images had been received across the continent in the state of Maine. Television pictures of the damage done in the recent earthquake were broadcast by W6XS and W6XAO as soon as films taken in the stricken area could be rushed to the television equipment, presaging handling of news events in the future when television becomes more common. W6XAO and W6XS have continued to transmit television images on a regular daily schedule since their initial broadcasts, sending out close-ups of movie stars, news reels, shorts, and other material. This continued service has aroused public interest in the reality of television which at the present time is being manifest in a demand for receiving equipment and the construction of same by those qualified.
Q. How far around the corner is commercial television?
Ans. This is, perhaps, one of the most embarrassing questions that can be asked to one closely connected with television. Many experts have already become false prophets and those that are left are wise enough not to give an answer. I believe, that television is not coming around a corner, but by a long gradual curve, and that some day it will be upon us without our having realized that it has arrived. I expect that the development will be gradual, and that although there will be landmarks and days on which the public talks more about television than others, its acceptance will be a gradual process. The Federal Radio Commission has, of course, ruled television experimental and until that ruling is changed, the transmission of sponsored programs is impossible. Just as radio broadcasting was changed from an experimental basis to a commercial basis and all the stations lost their number prefixes and took on Ks and Ws, as KHJ and WABC, so some day W6XS and W6XAO will become K this and K that.
Q. How long before a system of television can be evolved that will equal in a general way the present status of radio broadcasting?
Ans. About twice as long as it will take to come around the corner. After television receivers are available on the market, public acceptance and familiarity with them must be built up until they are willing to make the necessary expenditure to put one in their home.
Q. What will be the effects of commercial television upon the stage — the motion picture theatre and industry in general?
Ans. I believe television will find its sphere of activity as a home entertainment and as such will not directly compete with the stage or motion picture theatre. It will, undoubtedly, change the type of presentation that we will go to the legitimate and the motion picture theatre to see. Many people believed that the telephone would destroy the usefulness of the telegraph, but we all know that this was not the case. The telephone restricted the field of the telegraph because it handled certain situations in a better way, but they both enjoy a proper field of activity at the present time.
The attraction of a crowd will still cause the American public to go to the theatre and the attraction of the living presentation will cause the stage to survive for all time. Football stadiums are still filled by folks who want to be there, although they could probably find out more about what was happening by staying home and listening to the radio.
There is no doubt that television will help industry in general by creating, as it will, a new industry.
When television has reached its full stature it is entirely possible that, with radio, it will leave its present studios and emerge, full fledged, upon the stage. The radio-television performance of that day will be so nearly a vaudeville performance or play, that it will draw a paying house in its own right. Many will come to see their favorite stars perform in person.
At even a later date I look for a Renaissance to the legitimate stage, when, having reached the ultimate in mechanistic entertainment, we will return to an appreciation of the pure art of the stage. I believe that the stage has the strongest future position of any of our present day theatrical enterprises. Television and radio by that time will have become necessities of life as we will care to live it.
Q. Will television reception in the home ever equal the motion picture in smoothness of detail and beauty?
Ans. Yes. Motion pictures now give more detail than can be appreciated by the eye. When the psychological limit of appreciation of the eye is reached by television, it will be on a par with the motion picture. Just where this limit stands is open to some doubt, but a picture of 200 or 300 lines will probably come close enough to a perfect presentation to be taken as such.
Q. In television reception, are sound and vision simultaneous as in sound pictures in the theatres?
Ans. Yes, if facilities are provided for both. If a human subject is being televised, a microphone and its accompanying channel of communication, as well as television camera and its channel of communication, must be provided from the location of the scene to the viewer s home. This is generally provided by two special channels of communication, such as a broadcasting station carrying the sound and a television station carrying the sight, with separate sound and sight receivers in the viewer's home, or these two receivers combined in a single cabinet. For talking motion pictures, a sound head is provided on the projector in much the same way that it is used in the theatre.
Q. How will television affect the production department of motion pictures, such as directors, cameramen, etc. — if at all?
Ans. Television will affect each and every department of motion picture industry. If they choose to produce movies for television consumption they will be addressing a different audience than they now approach in the theatre. Their presentation must be more on the order of the present radio program than of the present motion picture. Also, television has limitations which must be catered to at the start. The sets must be simple and certain factors in photography taken into consideration.
If they continue to produce motion pictures, they must produce masterpieces that transcend their present efforts and the presentations that will be offered over television.
Q. How will television affect the newsreels?
Ans. Television will be one of their natural outlets in the future. Whether this will take them out of the theatre or not is open to question. The field will undoubtedly be split between actual television camera presentation of an event as it occurs, the transmission of special television news reels over the television, and more carefully edited and presented news items to be shown in the theatres.
Q. Will news television record the action and sound on film as well as direct broadcast to homes so that performance can be repeated in theatres for those who miss direct reception?
Ans. It can. At first, however, it will undoubtedly be best to have regular motion picture cameramen at the scene as well as television cameramen. The television cameraman will scurry hither and yon picking up the best scenes that he can while the event is taking place ; while several movie cameras will more adequately cover the occasion and produce a more complete and organized record for film showing over television at a later time, or for theatre presentation.
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