February 1939

Amos ‘n’ Andy weren’t as big on the radio in the late ‘30s as they were in the early ‘30s, but they still had a large fan base, and survived on network radio until 1960.

Still, despite all the stars on NBC at the time, the two were picked to part on the network’s test broadcasts as it got closer to regular TV programming. They and announcer Bill Hay flew from California to the New York’s World Fair site, even though NBC had prime-time stars already broadcasting from New York.

They appeared on W2XBS on February 27, 1939.

NBC’s parent company, RCA, had finished what columnist Martin Codel called “television’s first road show” in Washington, D.C. on February 2, showing off the latest in TV technology. Philco went on the road as well, putting on a closed-circuit show for conventioneers in Florida. And television was demonstrated at the International Expo in San Francisco, which didn’t get a station until the end of 1948.

Other news that month saw WLW apply for a TV license in Cincinnati, and the university station at Manhattan, Kansas, asked to stay on the air, despite outdated equipment. The university station in Iowa City carried on with its twice-a-week, quarter-hour schedule.

Wednesday, February 1
Television Shots Of Own Daughter Surprise Brown
Special to THE CONSTITUTION.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1.—Representative Paul Brown, of Elberton, Ga., got the surprise of his life yesterday when he walked into the National Press Club to witness the first Washington demonstration of the RCA system of electronic television, and saw his 11-year-old daughter, Rosalind, being interviewed on the screen.
Along with other congressmen and Washington newswriters, Mr. Brown visited the club to see a now recognized wonder of the present age. He had no sooner taken his seat in the auditorium than his young daughter began gesticulating and talking before him on the screen. Nearly a mile and one-half away from the Press Club, she was being interviewed and screened near the Department of Agriculture by technicians of the Radio Corporation of America.
"Where did you go last night?" the father heard them ask Rosalind.
"Oh! I went to one of President Roosevelt's birthday parties and saw three of my favorite movie stars," replied the child.
"Who are you, and where do you live?" asked her interrogator.
"My name is Rosalind Brown. I live in Georgia, and my father is a congressman," the little miss answered. She then curtsied, waved to her unseen audience and introduced Miss Hazel Hardin, of Forsyth, Ga. (Atlanta Constitution, Feb. 2)

Thursday, February 2
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.

Television at N. Y. World’s Fair
RESPONDING to the rapidly mounting interest in the advent of public television, which is expected to coincide with the opening April 30 of the New York World's Fair 1939, the Radio Corporation of America has announced a decision to almost completely revise its exhibition plans at the Fair in order to increase the scope and effectiveness of the television presentation.
Original plans for the RCA exhibit building at the Fair, drawn up more than a year ago, provided six ground-floor rooms where television was to be viewed under conditions simulating these of the home. Because these accommodations are now looked upon as inadequate, it has been decided to redesign the ground floor arrangement to greatly enhance the utility of the available space. With architects working in collaboration with radio engineers, a style of television presentation wholly different from and far more comprehensive than the one at first contemplated is expected to evolve.
While detailed information about the new plans will not be available for several weeks, it is known now that two of the original viewing rooms will be retained for the purpose of presenting the Television Living Room of Today and the Radio Living Room of Tomorrow. The television living room will feature the type of home furnishing in common use today, but centering around a television receiver of the kind that will be available this Spring. The Radio Living Room of Tomorrow, decorated with the most advanced styles in modern furniture, will present in one cabinet means for receiving sound broadcasting, television, facsimile broadcasting, and for phonographic recording and phonographic record playing. This idea is from five to ten years in advance of present-day practicalities.
The RCA exhibit building, which has just been completed, is shaped like a huge radio tube affixed to a base and the whole lying on its side. Surrounding three sides of the building are beautifully landscaped gardens, where mobile television units, a motor yacht equipped with radio devices for communication and safety at sea, and a 250-foot radio antenna tower will be exhibited. (syndicated, various papers)

Saturday, February 4
Short Wave Listener
By EARNEST H. ROY
A television transmitter, more powerful than any now in this country and designed for broadcasting pictures with much improved picture definition, will be put into operation within the next three months by General Electric at Indian Ladder in the Helderberg hills, 12 miles from Schenectady, N. Y.
This announcement was made by Chester H. Long, manager of broadcasting for General Electric, upon receipt of word from Washington that the Federal Communications commission had granted the company's license to construct the experimental station.
Built on top of a 1500 foot hill with an antenna strung on 100-foot towers, the new station will be at least 250 feet higher than the one atop the Empire State building in New York. To the south are higher hills which, with a directional antenna, will tend to prevent the signals from causing any possible interference with stations in New York city. With a power output of 10,000 watts, its coverage will be the area comprising Schenectady, Albany, Troy, Amsterdam and Saratoga.
Television images will be relayed from the studio at Schenectady by an ultra wave transmitter operating on 1.4 meters over the 12-mile gap to the main transmitter in the Helderbergs, where they will be broadcast on a wavelength in the 66-72 megacyle [sic] band or on about 4 ½ meters.
The voice accompaning [sic] the pictures will also be broadcast on the same band, on a frequency immediately adjoining the picture, assuring reception with less interference from static than experienced on the regular broadcast channels.
It is interesting to note that more than 250 vacuum tubes will be used in the complete television transmission equipment. This is about five times as many now used for voice broadcasting.
Although the new G. E. television station will be located only several hundred miles from Buffalo, Western New York listeners will not be able to tune in the station. Characteristics of ultra short wave stations are such that signals only travel about 50 miles. Television for Western New York is still far in the future. (Buffalo News, Feb. 4)

PLAN TELEVISION DEMONSTRATIONS
Farm and Home Week Visitors and Service Clubs To see it In Action
Demonstrations of television using the latest equipment will be shown to visitors to the farm and home week next week. In addition, special demonstrations are being scheduled for members of the civic clubs and their wives and friends during the coming week with the following schedule:
Tuesday, Feb. 7, 4 p. m., Lions club.
Wednesday, February 8, 4 p. m., Kiwanis club.
Thursday, February 9, 1:30 p. m., Rotary club.
Friday, February 10, 1:30 p. m., Co-Op club.
The new equipment at the college has been developed under the direction of M. W. Horrell, instructor in electrical engineering. Mr. Horrell will be present to explain the equipment and demonstrate it next week.
The art of television has advanced by several steps within recent years. Television is to be featured at the coming world’s fair in New York City and short broadcasts of television will be given from two broadcasting stations in New York City during the coming summer.
The new equipment at the college [station W9XAK], uses the latest 441-line high-definition type of picture. Scenes on the campus will be picked up by a camera outdoors and shown on the sceen [sic] in the laboratory, room 22, engineering building. This new television equipment has been in the process of development for several months and has been completed recently. (Manhattan, Ks., Mercury)

Sunday, February 5
Roosevelt Likely to Appear On First Television Program
Start of Regular Television Service Set for April 30
THE WORLD'S FAIR OPENS SAME DATE
By WILL BALTIN
History will be written in more ways than one on April 30. Opening of New York’s gigantic World's Fair has been set for that date, but more important is the launching of public television in the United States the same day.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt has received the invitation of World's Fair officials to deliver the opening address at the fair grounds in New York. It is therefore logical to conclude that the President's address will be televised throughout the metropolitan area in the first official television transmission. Much secrecy surrounds the RCA's plans for the initial television show, but it seems reasonable to assume that televising President Roosevelt at the fair grounds is about the best, and undoubtedly the most interesting telecast for the start of a tele service in this country.
The President's face has been transmitted via television waves on numerous occasions during RCA's experimental period — but each time the countenance has been on film. The chief executive makes an excellent television subject, his lined features and broad grin appearing almost lifelike on the television screens.
Tests have already been carried on by RCA with its experimental remote control equipment from the World's Fair grounds, and these tests are said to have been highly successful.
Last week RCA sent its equipment to Washington, D. C. when senators, congressmen and members of the President's official family were treated to a demonstration of television operation. Press reports state that the legislators were amazed at the clarity of images.
It was during the Washington demonstration that RCA officially announced it would television the next inauguration of a president in 1941. (New Brunswick, N.J., Sunday Times)
Tuesday, February 7
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.

Thursday, February 9
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.

First Television Commercial Set
HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 9.—The first commercial television program in the history of radio will be broadcast by Amos ‘n’ Andy from the New York World Fair Grounds Feb. 28. The program will be transmitted by NBC in the Manhattan area through its transmitter on top of the Empire State Building. (Cincinnati Post)

Tuesday, February 14
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.

Wednesday, February 15
Max Gordon Believes Television Will Increase Interest In Drama
By Frank Young
NEW YORK, Feb. 15 (UP)—Max Gordon, first top-ranking Broadway producer selected to advise and assist in presenting television programs, said today that this new amusement will not hurt the theater but will increase the public's interest in drama.
The National Broadcasting company, which will launch its regular television programs this Spring, announced his appointment Tuesday [13]. Gordon said that he agreed to assist because he believes that "television offers the theater and everyone in it wonderful possibilities for development of that medium. The future of television is enormous."
Gordon's theatrical experience covers everything from vaudeville to musical comedies, from Shakespeare to farces. At present he is co-producer with Sam H. Harris of "The American Way," which followed his long- run hit, "The Women." Other Gordon shows have been "Roberta," “Design For Living," “Dodsworth" and “Three's A Crowd."
"By furthering and developing television right from the start I hope to prove to theatrical people that television be the greatest supplementary medium for their abilities," he said. “It can't hurt the theater, in fact it will help."
Television, he said, approaches the theater more than any other form of entertainment and will demand greater acting ability as compared to radio broadcasting.
“Vocal expression alone will not be sufficient and like the theater, the personality of the actor will count,” he said.
One of the biggest problems, Gordon pointed out, will be the lack of "try-outs."
"On the stage we can try out our performances for weeks in the smaller towns where we can improve and revise them," he said. “In television we will not have that opportunity. Before we put a show on the air we must be sure that it will be a success without any try-out performance whatsoever. The show may be broadcast only once, but it must click instantly if television is going to succeed.”
Gordon also said that television producers have to be more acute and more sensitive to public tastes than in any other form of entertainment.
As far as affecting theatrical attendance, he said that television “will arouse an increased interest in the theater everywhere and will serve to whet the appetite of the public for drama. This increased demand for drama will be reflected in greater attendance at theaters because stage productions are more closely allied to television in form than anything else.”
Gordon, who is a native New Yorker, ran away from home when he was 17 to become an agent for a burlesque show. After several years as a vaudeville producer he joined with Harris and Al Lewis to product "Rain," in which Jeanne Eagles was starred. Other Gordon productions have been “Six Cylinder Love" and “The Jazz Singer."

Thursday, February 16
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.

Friday, February 17
Television Receiving Sets Go on Sale in May
PALM BEACH, Fla., Feb. 17.—(AP)—A limited number of television receiving sets will be offered for public sale in May, a convention of radio dealers was told today by James M. Skinner, president of the Philadelphia Storage Battery Co.
Philco Radio and Television Corp. will make the sets and time their sale with the start of commercial television, Skinner said.
Two New York stations will begin television operations by summer. Another is now broadcasting in Philadelphia and others are to be started in Schenectady, N. Y., Los Angeles and Milwaukee, the official informed the delegates.

HOME TELEVISION SOON TO APPEAR
'Few Weeks Away,' President of Phila. Company Informs Public
Television in the American home is only a few weeks away, James M. Skinner, president of the Philadelphia Storage Battery Co., declared at Palm Beach, Fla., yesterday [17].
Skinner's announcement followed one by the RCA here that it plans to place its television sets on the market starting April 30. General Electric Co. also plans to introduce its model about that time.
Because television can be picked up only within a radius of 30 miles around a broadcasting station, television is at hand for only a limited number of listeners, Skinner said.
Skinner told Philco dealers that it was his belief television never would replace radio. Philco, he said, was planning a huge program in radio this year with the largest newspaper advertising campaign it has attempted.
The owner of a television set in this section will be able to see programs broadcast by four experimental stations. RCA operates two here, W3XEP and W3XAD. Philco operates W3XE in Philadelphia and the fourth station, W3XPF, is operated by Farnsworth Television, Inc., of Pennsylvania in Springfield township above Chestnut Hill. (Camden Courier-Post, Feb. 18)

Saturday, February 18
TELEVISION STATION SOUGHT AT CINCINNATI
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 (U.P.) —A request for authority to construct a television station at Cincinnati by the Crosley Corporation was taken under advisement today by the Federal Communications Commission.
The station would be the Cincinnati link in a New York-Cincinnati-Chicago television hookup planned to begin operations in the spring, a commission official said.
Authority was asked for permission to operate on 50,000-58,000 kilocycles, with 1,000 watts.

MULTI-MESSAGE CABLE PERFECTED
FCC Says Bell Laboratory Device Can Transmit Television Signals.
Washington, Feb. 18. (U.P.)— The Federal Communications Commission tonight announced perfection of a coaxial cable capable of transmitting 480 simultaneous telephone conversations and predicted its development will make possible simultaneous transmission of 5,000 telegraph messages.
The cable, about as thick as a broom handle, was developed by the Bell Telephone Laboratories in a year's experiment with a 94.5- mile cable between New York and Philadelphia, Pa.
FCC engineers said that by combining several telephone channels technicians will be able to transmit sharply-defined television signals on the cable.
Used for Experiments.
The cable, used only for experimental purposes, consists of a pair of tubes about the size of a lead pencil. Running through the center of each is a wire about the size of the lead in a pencil. The American Telephone & Telegraph and the Wisconsin Telephone Company have asked the FCC for permission to install another cable for commercial use between Stevens Point, Wis., and Minneapolis, Minn. It would be more than twice as long as the experimental cable. Length, however, would have little effect on operation of the cable, the FCC said. Commission engineers pointed out that Bell laboratories had received strong signals after looping together various channels in the experimental cable and transmitting a conversation over 3,800 miles of channels—enough to reach from coast to coast.

Portable Television Device Demonstrated in Palm Beach
First Public Display In U. S. Made; Beauty Contest Shown
PALM BEACH, Feb. 18. (UP)—The first public demonstration in the United States of television by a portable transmitter was presented today in Palm Beach.
Representatives of the Philco Radio & Television Corp. gave the exhibition in connection with a convention of the company's distributors and officials here, picking up a street scene from the social resort's famous Worth ave. and conducting a television beauty contest at the Sun and Surf club.
In the beauty contest, a portable television transmitter was set by the edge of the swimming pool and models paraded by. Judges were seated inside the club, where they watched the reproduced contestants on the television screen. Peggy Knapp was selected as the television beauty queen, with Nina MacDougald, glamor girl, backed by the Artists' and Writers' club, taking second.
Sayre M. Ramsdell, Philco vice president, said commercial television will start in a few months and a limited number of television receiving sets would be offered in May.
Portable Philco Television Goes Outdoor; Picks Beauties
TELEVISION moved closer to realization for public use when Philco’s portable television transmitter, the first mobile unit of its kind ever built, was put into service recently in an experimental display of its facility for depicting daily happenings at Palm Beach. Fla. There this remarkable instrument, which though only five feet high and about two and one-half feet wide carries equipment which usually fills an entire studio, was carried about the city, photographed interesting happenings, was rolled out to the Sun and Surf Club and used to determine the winner in the first television beauty pageant ever staged and then out to the Palm Beach Golf Club to record the play of the golf stars.
The illustrations above show the First Television Beauty Pageant. Upper right is Miss Peggy Knapp, of New York City, winner of first place as the most beautiful girl in Palm Beach, posing before the Philco Television Transmitter. Below is the Board of Judges, composed of famous artists, photographers, theatrical and radio leaders. The judges did not see the competing beauties parading beside the swimming pool, but sat before a Philco television receiver and from the moving images and the voices made their selection of Miss Knapp. Left to right the judges are: Samuel Harris, theatrical producer; Victor Keppler, photographer; Floyd Davis, artist; Ray Prohaska, artist; Al Doorn, artist; I. Levy, Columbia Broadcasting System executive.
Upper left is Cobina Wright, Jr., Manhattan cafe society songstress, seventeen-year old society girl who was chosen as "Glamor Girl of Palm Beach," and is shown singing before the television transmitter, while hundreds passed before the receiving sets in the clubhouse to see and hear the demonstration.
Lower left is A. L. Murray, Chief Television Engineer of Philco, who devised the portable transmitter for television. He is shown demonstrating the heart of the television receiver, the tube which plays such an important part, and on whose bulbous whitened end the television images appear in the receiving set. (syndicated to various papers)

Monday, February 20
TELEVISION LICENSE HEARING IS ORDERED
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20.—(AP)—The communications commission ordered today a hearing on the application of Kansas State college of agriculture and applied science for renewal of a television experimental license [W9XAK].
The commission granted a temporary license but said the hearing was ordered because "the applicant appears to be using equipment behind the present state of the art. No hearing date was set.

Tuesday, February 21
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.

TELEVISION NOT TO BE GENERALLY IN OPERATION FOR AT LEAST FIVE YEARS
GREAT STRIDES IN TELEVISION HAVE BEEN MADE IN ENGLAND
New York.—Commercial television is still at least five years away, according to Major Lenox Lohr, president of the National Broadcasting Company, who added this week that it would be logical to raise this figure to 50 years by basing the estimate on the experience of the British Broadcasting Corporation.
The latter induced the public to buy television receivers at the rate of 2,000 a year during the first two years the sets were offered. If it be assumed that Americans would buy at a ten times greater rate, that would mean only 20,000 sets per year. If sponsored television depends upon the sale of 1,000,000 receiving sets, it might take 50 years for television to become an advertising medium.
Lower Costs Sought
Major Lehr placed the figure at five years despite these figures because he expects abnormally rapid development in this country. He emphasized, however, that excessive production costs will hold back television several years. With respect to the cost of televising broadcasts, the NBC president revealed that the network is planning to approach the American Federation of Musicians, the American Federation of Radio Artists, and similar organizations with a separate and lower scale than that now prevailing for regular radio broadcasting.
Major Lehr branded as false the rumor that either NBC or Radio Corporation of America might set up a separate television corporation. Such a move would be for too expensive at the present time, he said. NBC will continue to handle television, but steps are being taken to make possible a shift to a separate television unit when and if the need arises. (Union City Evening Times, Feb. 21)

Thursday, February 23
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.

Friday, February 24
RCA TELEVISION EXHIBIT DRAWS BIG FAIR CROWDS
The RCA Manufacturing Company announced yesterday [24] that more than 12,000 men, women and children attended the company's television exhibit the opening day of San Francisco's Golden Gate International Exposition.
Of the visitors witnessing the first public demonstration during the two-day celebration which marked the opening of the exposition, approximately 10,000 were televised. It was estimated that one out of every 12 in the crowd of 150,000 visitors the first day, saw the exhibit.
Fifteen persons filed before the lens of the television camera every minute for 12 hours. In the reception room, four television receivers showed the results of the broadcasts.
The RCA exhibit has 5000 square feet of floor space and there Is a complete staff to direct tours of the displays. (Camden Courier-Post, Feb. 25)

Saturday, February 25
Movies of London Television Are Snapped in United States
By C. E. BUTTERFIELD.
(Associated Press Radio Editor)
NEW YORK, Feb. 25.—Movies of television from London are being snapped on this side of the Atlantic.
Nothing to brag about as to quality or entertainment, nevertheless they provide a record for scientific study and demonstrate that the pictures do get over here after traveling something like 3,000 miles.
While there's a vague possibility that some day transatlantic television might be a practicability, nothing is yet certain that this will develop. Anyway, that would require special apparatus at both ends.
Right now, though, at London there has been no special effort to reach this country. The pictures are those of the regular daily television broadcasts from Alexandria palace of the programs put on by the British Broadcasting company.
Research Engineer.
The American camera man is the research engineer, D. R. Goddard, of Riverhead laboratory staff of the Radio Corporation of America. He has been investigating the possibilities of transatlantic tele-reception for more than two years, but only recently has he tried copying the images on a movie film.
He believes the reception is due to a freak condition brought about by the prevalence of sun spots, now beginning to recede from the height of an 11-year cycle. The signals can be picked up only during it half-hour period daily, around 11 a. m., E. S. T.
Goddard uses a specially designed receiver. It has at least 40 tubes; he doesn't keep a close count. Then there's a special directional antenna pointed at England.
Equipment. Used.
Part of the receiver is a regular television cabinet with kinescope reproducing tube. The rest is in racks much the same as a broadcast transmitter. The camera is set up before the tube, photographing whatever appears thereon. Goddard is quite enthusiastic over his accomplishment, and has made a lengthy study of reception on the ultra short waves which are used for television, particularly on frequencies above 40 megacycles.
The images he has brought in wouldn't give anyone a thrill. It’s nothing like a movie show. Only at flashes do the images resolve themselves into a recognizable signal. At times they go to pieces, that is out of synchronization; at others they appear as if an artist with a shaky hand were at work. As many as four images at a time, each overlapped, often impress themselves on the kinescope.
Describes Pictures.
Goddard expresses the opinion that this multiple image is due to the varying paths the signals take from London. While the pictures never hold themselves steady, unusually good reception of the sound part of the transmission has been effected.
Images he has photographed—he tried a still camera before he shifted to a movie machine—are good enough at times to differentiate between men and women, to spot the moving lips of a singer and the like.
Goddard is going right ahead with his research. It is giving him valuable data on the behavior of television signals from the long-distance standpoint. Besides London, he also has picked up Berlin and Rome.

Monday, April 27
Amos and Andy Appear on Television Program
New York. Feb. 28 (AP)—Amos and Andy now are television as well as radio artists. They went before the electric camera in a special demonstration at the New York World's fairgrounds Monday afternoon [27].
The test, first planned for Sunday but postponed because of rain, was their first experience in visual broadcasting. It was separate from their regular program at night which also came from the fairgrounds.
Amos and Andy, who are Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, appeared before the camera with Grover A. Whalen, president of the fair. The pickup was made by the N. B. C. mobile television transmitter, relayed by air to the Empire State building and thence sent by special cable to receivers in the Radio City studio.

Television
It was announced on a recent Amos 'n' Andy broadcast out of New York that Bill Hay had made the first private commercial experiment with a "television sales bulletin." Mr. Hay opened and ate a can of beans. The announcement leads to some interesting speculation.
First, of course, will a television audience sit and watch Mr. Hay consume a can of beans, scour his teeth or chase dandruff from his hair?
In the matter of televised foods, will the sponsors keep Emily Posts around to see to it that foods are consumed with proper etiquette? It would be disastrous, I should say, if Mr. Hay was caught eating beans with his knife. Will the television executives frown, do you suppose, on my bathtub scenes which might reveal for the television audience such a peek-a-boo scene as a beautiful blond lathering herself with her favorite soap?
Just how far will the potential television sponsor be able to go in depleting commercial scenes in the home?
My own notion is the television executives will have to concoct much more attractive methods of selling by picture than are now employed in selling by sound. If they don't, television may not become as popular as expected. Certainly there is nothing very romantic in watching an announcer devouring a fork full of beans. (Robert S. Stephan, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Mar. 5)

Tuesday, February 28
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.

January 1939

1939 was an historic year for television, as NBC went ahead with plans to begin TV programming on a regular basis.

That wouldn’t happen until April. In the meantime, there were more tests. And other would-be TV moguls in New York continued hurrying to get on the air. It took a while for CBS to get there, even longer for DuMont.

Below is a look at television news from the start of the month. A piece in Variety gives a good summary of the situation as it stood at the start of the year. W6XAO in Los Angeles was on the air regularly, and we can get a bit of an idea about its programming. The University of Iowa station was on a maximum of twice a week for 15 minutes.

The FCC decided to investigate transmission standards. This eventually resulted in a decision to ban commercial television until July 1, 1941.

There was talk of CBS television on the West Coast; the company didn’t have any stations on the air at the time. I’ve found nothing to show the experimental station ever transmitted anything. As it turned out, it was moved to a different frequency band which the FCC eliminated for television use in 1941.

Paramount and DuMont got together in a deal that was ultimately a bomb that went off as the FCC limited the number of stations a network could own and treated the two companies as one.

We will have posts taking us through April 1939. Elsewhere, this blog has highlights from May 1939 through to the end of 1947.

Monday, January 2
TRANSATLANTIC TELEVISION
Seen in New York
PROGRAMME FROM LONDON
A "Freak" Occasion?
From our Wireless Correspondent
LONDON, MONDAY.
The B.B.C. has been officially notified that television transmissions from Alexandra Palace have been picked up in New York.
This is, of course, easily a record in long-distance reception of television. The pictures were seen on one of the television sets of the United States Radio Corporation, at the Riverhead Receiving Station, New York, 3,000 miles away from their source.
The feat was made possible only by extraordinarily favourable atmosphere conditions and must at present be regarded as freakish.
A B.B.C. official explained that the uncertainty of transatlantic reception may be illustrated by the fact that on the day these pictures were seen the accompanying sound, which is broadcast on a different wavelength, could not be heard, whereas six days later sound came over well but the pictures did not appear at all. The sound part of television broadcasts has also been known to reach South Africa, but not the vision.
PREVIOUS RECORDS
The official range of the Alexandra Palace television programmes is put at thirty miles, but there have been many instances of good reception over much greater distances, though not approaching the latest figure.
One of the best was reported in June, when pictures transmitted from Alexandra Palace were perfectly recorded on the screen of a £100 set at Ormesby, near Middlesbrough. Success was said to be due principally to the erection of the apparatus on the Cleveland moors, 700 feet above sea level.
Last month the television from Alexandra Palace was seen clearly in Guernsey, 180 miles away, and this was described as “one of the few occasions on which television has been well received across the sea." A B.B.C. official said at the time, "We consider such reception as startling and certainly very significant."
INCREASING RANGE
These figures show that the range of television broadcasting is steadily, if slowly, increasing, and there are hopes that this fact may hasten the day when it will be possible to send out programmes from other centres besides London.
Post Office experts are experimenting with a scheme submitted by Electric and Musical Industries, Ltd., to feed various centres by radio link from Alexandra Palace. The theory is that this would be cheaper than relays by the Post Office co-axial cable, though would entail the erection of a number of receiving and broadcasting stations a certain distance apart. Meanwhile recent weeks have seen an increase in the sale of television sets, and a trade campaign to stimulate public interest still farther will open in a week or two. (Manchester Guardian, Jan. 3)

Tuesday, January 3
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.

Milwaukee Seeking Television License
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3. (AP) —The communications commission designated Commissioner T. A. M. Craven, Thad H. Brown and Norman Case today to study television transmission standards.
Proposed standards were recommended to the commission recently by the Radio Manufacturers' association, but no action has been taken.
The Milwaukee Journal company has filed the first application for permission to inaugurate public television service. Licenses issued so far have been for technical experimentation.

Radio Industry Records Gains In All Fields
Sarnoff Says Television Start Here in April Will Launch New U. S. Trade
Although progress in the first six months of 1938 was impeded by the business slump which began in the previous year, general business conditions began to pick up and the second six months witnessed substantial improvement in all branches of the radio industry, according to David Sarnoff, president of the Radio Corp. of America.
Mr. Sarnoff said that the broadcasting service of Radio Corp. of America, National Broadcasting Co., once again surpassed its best previous record, with sales of network time which were the largest in the company's history. The number of affiliated [radio] stations, he said, was increased to 165. The experimental short-wave program services to Europe and Latin America were greatly expanded, he declared, and would soon be augmented further by two additional frequencies.
RCA Communications, Inc., said Mr. Sarnoff, received more programs and radio photos from abroad than ever before in its history. During 1939 several new and important radio products would be introduced, including those related to television, declared Mr. Sarnoff.
Introduction of Television
"Field tests in television conducted by RCA research engineers during the past two and a half years," he continued, "have resulted in development of the new art to a point where its introduction to the public in the areas served by television stations has become practicable. Therefore, RCA announced on October 20 that NBC would begin regular program service, and the RCA Manufacturing Co. would place television receiving sets on the market in April, 1939, coincident with the opening of the New York World's Fair.
New Industry to Start
"Thus, after many years of laboratory development, a modest beginning will be made to launch a new American industry. The RCA television transmitter, at the top of the Empire State Building, will be operated in a limited service to the public by the National Broadcasting Co. Programs telecast by television transmitters can be viewed on home receivers in the metropolitan New York area within a radius of approximately forty to fifty miles from Radio City." (New York Herald Tribune)

Philco Head Looks Forward To Television Debut This Year
Larry E. Gubb, president, Philco Radio & Television Corp., in a year-end statement says that 1939 assumes added importance because of the "long awaited debut of television on a very, very limited scale, in the late spring."
Reviewing what he described as the tremendous obstacles of coverage, financing and engineering research which must be hurdled before television can achieve the general scale of excellence expected and demanded from radio entertainment today. Mr. Gubb declared that television will be in "its swaddling clothes" for years to come.
"Philco is as ready for television as anyone. Years of successful research have seen to that. But we do believe that during 1939, and even 1940 and 1941, people should not, for television's own sake, be led to expect too much." (Wall Street Journal)

CBS SETTING UP TELEVISION EQUIPMENT FOR WEST COAST
Experiments Start At Square Shortly
CBS will open the avenues for its entrance into television broadcasting on this coast early this year. Indicating the mover will be the installation and placing in operation of an ultra-high-frequency transmitter at Columbia Square this month.
The Columbia move is seen as a natural outgrowth of its television activity on the east coast and extension here to meet the announced intention of NBC to telecast daily at the San Francisco world exposition. CBS spokesmen here, however, insisted that the new station will not be involved in television experimentation.
Notwithstanding, those technically informed construe the ultra-high-frequency broadcasting move as one tied undeniably with television activity and expansion.
According to Donald W. Thornburgh, CBS vice-president in charge here, the new transmitter will operate on a 40-hour weekly experimental schedule beginning this month. The transmitter, of 100-watt power, will be designated as W6XDA and operate on a 35.6 megacycle band. This is identified in the ultra-high slice indicated for television.
The new transmitter will be installed at Columbia Square and will be surmounted by a concentric antenna rising 40 feet above the plant. (Hollywood Reporter)

Wednesday, January 4
Television's Future—and When
By Bob Landry
There has been lots of television during 1938—if publicity statements, press showings and headlines are the measure. Separated from this battle of mimeograph the story is one of cautious stepping and obscure progress, if any. A reddish discoloring of the outer electronic epidermis during the year was pronounced a press agent's rash, but the threatened appearance of television receivers in New York department stores prompted a curtailment of RCA's regular schedule of programs which had been in progress for some months and which was obviously the one development encouraging indie set-makers to rush into the market with television receivers.
In a nutshell these are the broad facts about television:
1. Not only does the FCC still classify all television as 'experimental,' but in New York there is no television broadcasting whatever at the moment.
2. Only television activity in New York (latterly in 1938) has been some outside events by the NBC's tele-mobile unit which were monitored and studied by engineers but not put on the air. Indoor activity confined to improving equipment, etc.
3. Sometime in January or February, 1939, the NBC-RC transmitter in the Empire State Bldg. (where a new antenna is being installed) and the CBS transmitter atop the Chrysler Bldg., will begin operating intermittently. Each transmitter will be powered with 7,500 watts. CBS studios will be in Grand Central Terminal, RCA in Radio City and each transmitter will be linked to its studio by A. T. & T. coaxial cable.
4. According to his own announcement, Allen B. DuMont will launch a 50-watt television station in New Jersey sometime during 1939. Paramount Pictures has a 50% stock interest in this enterprise.
5. By April, 1939, when the New York World's Fair opens it is expected that NBC and CBS will have two hours a week of te1evision programs and that television receivers, of several brands, will probably be placed on the market. How good they will be, how much they will cost, whether the public will buy them in any great numbers, are open questions.
Costs
6. Size of image will determine the price of sets. It is probable that sets selling for $150 or thereabouts will throw an image of not over 3 x 4 inches. This is a 'chair-side' set. Around $350 is the estimated cost of sets with an 8 x 10-inch frame which is called 'comfortable' for 3-6 feet scrutiny by small groups.
7. Meanwhile Scophony of Great Britain has set out to invade America. It is now engaged in promoting American capital and to make arrangements for the manufacture of its sets over here. Scophony sets throwing an image 18 x 24 are retailed in England for around $1,200. They are described as producing 'good-looking images' from a mechanical type of television (RCA is electronic in principle).
8. First to apply for RCA television equipment is WTMJ, Milwaukee (owned by the Milwaukee Journal) and the prospective outlay of about $100,000 suggests the costliness of going into television in even a small way. WTMJ envisages a 1,000-watt transmitter. Studios, cameras, coaxial cable, channels, lighting, properties, sound equip-ment, etc., add up the initial investment. (Lubke-Don Lee visio in California is off-standard for America, using a 375-line image instead of the 441-line approved at present by the Radio Manufacturers Assn.) (Variety, Jan. 4)

Thursday, January 5
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.

Television Program to War on Accidents
In a novel accident prevention appeal, scientists of the University of California and officials of the Department of Motor Vehicles will don black lip stick, blue and green eye shade and bronze grease paint to appear in a television program broadcast at 7:15 tonight over W6XAO. Coordination of the eyes and feet will be tested by Dr. Ned D. Warren of U.S.C. who will demonstrate a reaction machine on the program. The ability of subjects to react to traffic perils will be shown. Sam Bagby of the State Division of Drivers' Licenses states that it requires 45/100 of a second for persons to see danger and apply the brakes, which means that a person driving 60 miles an hour would travel 45 feet before he even began to stop. (Hollywood Citizen-Reporter)

Tuesday, January 10
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.

Capital District to Have Powerful Television Plant
General Electric to Place Transmitter On Hill in Helderbergs in 30 Days
SCHENECTADY—The General Electric Company will operate a television transmitter in upstate New York more powerful than any now in use in this country, it was announced today.
Final arrangements for installation "within thirty days" for use in the Spring, was made after the Federal Communications Commission yesterday [9] authorized the company to construct two experimental television stations at Schenectady, one at Albany and one at Bridgeport, Conn.
The television transmitters will be designed to broadcast pictures with much improved "picture definition." One transmitter will be installed at Indian Ladder, in the Helderberg hills, twelve miles from Albany.
Built atop a 1,500-foot hill, with antennae on 100 foot towers, the Indian Ladder station will be at least 270 feet higher than one on the Empire State building in New York, with a power output of ten killo-watts [sic].
Its coverage will embrace the area of Albany, Schenectady, Troy and Saratoga known as the capital district with a combined population of 500,000.
The television studio will be located in Schenectady and programs will be sent by a directional transmitter to Indian Ladder. At such times as studio programs are not available, motion picture programs will be sent.
The second Schenectady station will be for experimental purposes only. The Bridgeport, Conn., station will also be for experimental purposes. It was explained that the Bridgeport plant manufacturers television receivers and the station there will be used to test the receivers. (Middletown Times Herald)

Paramount Buys Into Dumont As First Step Into Television
New York.—Wall street traders see Paramount's entrance into television through the Dumont Television Corp., in which Para has dumped $50,000, and stands ready to kick in with $200,000 more on a ten-year note. Since Paramount showed its hand in the deal, Class A stock has bounced from $12 to $27 a share in over the counter trading. The street regards as the tipoff the corporation's report that it is contemplating piping local news events and film features direct from local transmitters to theatres. Paramount's hand in the deal will be the production of film, using studio talent, and televising it into theatres with plenty of ballyhoo angles stressed for the exhibitor. Dumont's transmitter is located at Passaic, N. J., and goes on the air in ten days, sharing time with NBC's Empire State transmitter. Experimentation will be carried on, with Paramount execs being advised of all angles in order to mesh studio activity when the time is ready to spring out into the open on the deal.
Paramount's original investment was $50,000 for which it received a $36,000 ten-year note bearing three percent interest and $14,000, or all outstanding shares of B stock. In addition, Paramount has options to buy the remaining 42,000 shares of B stock at par value, which is $1 a share. In return for the option, Paramount has agreed to lend Dumont all, or any part, of $200,000 for ten years.
Dumont's capitalization consists of 2000 shares of $25 par value preferred 6 percent stock, of which 1200 shares are outstanding. 56,000 shares of Class A stock of $1 par value, all outstanding, and 56,000 Class B $1 par value of which 14,000 shares are outstanding. The funded debt consists of $16,000 in 6 percent debentures due 1945, a $17,000 secured 6 per-cent note payable in 1942, and the $36,000 Paramount note.
Class A and B stock shares alike in the company dividends, and each class elects three directors. Wall Street reports that the company is breaking even this year, which makes it probably the only television company able to show such results. (Hollywood Reporter)

FCC Skeptical on Television; Fingers Also Crossed on High Frequencies Despite Their Use
Washington, Jan. 10.
Rapid increase of interest in the medium and ultra high frequencies was cited last week in the annual report of the FCC but the government authorities kept their fingers crossed while discussing the prospect for early development of television into a mature commercial enterprise. Services other than those accommodated in the standard 550-1600 kc band—such as relay, international, visual, educational, et al—have grown materially, with a sharp increase during the 12 months ended June 30, 1938. During this period, new rules were promulgated blocking off the spectrum up to 300,000 kc to provide room for expansion and experimentation.
Inclination of newcomers to try out the shorter waves, due largely' to crowded situation in the regular frequency sector, was shown clearly in the statistical review of 1938 accomplishments. Experimenters in radio's upper story were more than half as numerous as the regular operators. From 418 on June 30, 1937, the number of experimental stations mounted to 510 at the end of fiscal 1938. Broken down as follows:
High-frequency broadcast, 48: experimental broadcast, 14; television, 19; international, 13; facsimile, 6; low-frequency relay, 143; high-frequency relay, 266; non-commercial educational, 1.
International
Reception conditions in the international broadcast field did not improve materially during the fiscal year, the report said, adding that experience supports other evidence that higher wattage and directional antennas are required to give reliable service to some foreign areas.
In discussing television, the Commish pointed to evidence that technical phases of visual operation are progressing satisfactorily but still was skeptical about the possibility of providing regular service to the Public. (Report was limited to last fiscal year, consequently not covering announced NBC plans to institute routine transmission this coming spring.)
Television
“Television has developed to the state where complete transmitting equipment is available on the mar-ket,” the report explained, “but such equipment is costly and, because of the experimental status of the art, may become obsolete at any time due to new developments.”
Possibility that new type of synchronized operation will help remedy present shortage of service in some areas was suggested in the discussion of technical progress. Research connected with operation of stations not linked by land lines was successfully completed, report mid, with evidence that theory is practicable. System may be utilized to improve coverage, regulators agreed, remarking that minimum-signal zones were comparatively small and not particularly objectionable.
Research into the high-frequency broadcast field, while encouraging, has not reached the point where certain important conclusions can be drawn. Data turned in by 37 experimenters is not sufficiently comprehensive to permit a conclusive determination of the propagation characteristics of the channels, but present studies give ground for hoping that enough info will be available to allow allocation of frequencies above 30 megacycles. Use of frequency-modulation suggests way to overcome static, particularly from thunderstorms, and holds out hope of good reception at relatively great distances from transmitters. (Variety, Jan. 11)

Thursday, January 12
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.

L. A. Television Broadcast Future Eyed
Radio Executive Unable To Say When Service Here Will Be Available
Los Angeles—Hollywood will become one of the nation's principal television broadcasting centers when the growing see-hear medium emerges from its adolescence, Niles Trammell, executive vice-president of the National Broadcasting Co., predicted today.
But Trammell, no rose-colored glasses-wearing prophet, could not say whether that time would be a year or two or three years from now. In the coming year N.B.C. will spend $1,000,000 on television, which the radio executive said is out of the scientific laboratory stage, but is still a commercial experiment.
"It's an experiment and we're going to sink a lot of money in it," said Trammel, visiting at Radio City in Hollywood from New York.
N. Y. Plans Related
The company's television operations will be confined for the present to New York where two hours a week programs will be broadcast from atop the Empire State Building, beginning in April. Concurrently Radio Corporation of America will place on the market television receiving sets, retailing at from $250 to $500 each, Trammell said. The home-receiving sets will have a 9 by 11-inch screen.
Trammell does not gloss over the technical and commercial problems confronting telecasting. He observed:
"It cost 10 to 15 times more to produce television than it did radio in the latter's early days.
"To produce television programs one hour day will cost an estimated $1,000,000 a year.
"The broadcasting range at present is limited to the horizon—about 40 or 50 miles, it is figured—in the New York operations."
Big Problem Cited
Trammel also cited the as-yet-unsolved problem of nation-wide transmission of television broadcasting. He said an estimate of $5000-a-mile cost had been made for the laying of a coaxial cable across the continent for hooking up television stations. Experiments are under way on short-wave transmission, but are still inconclusive.
Because television now is limited to big cities, commercial sponsorship, requiring mass audiences, has not been developed.
The radio company official does not believe television is pointed toward competition with either motion pictures or radio.
"Equipment has not been developed to make theater television practical," he said, citing the necessity of a large-sized reception screen.
"It is my firm conviction that in the years to come television will only supplement radio. Sound broadcasting programs are on the air 18 hours a day. We don't visualize anything like that basis for television programs." (Hollywood Citizen-News)

Saturday, January 14
People Misunderstand Television Prospects
Only Three Cities In Nation Have The Facilities
By JOHN LEAR
NEW YORK, Jan. 14 (AP)—President Roosevelt doesn't have a television set, which makes more difference to you than you may think.
He could have one.
One was offered to him, free.
Arrangements were made, in fact, to install the set in the White House not so long ago. A little ceremony was prepared, and publicity on it was sent to the newspapers in advance by the manufacturer who offered the gilt. But everything was called off at the last minute.
The reason was that somebody explained to the White House that if the President did have a television set, he couldn't get any programs on it.
Misunderstanding Seen
That incident in the busy life of the first household in the nation is illustrative of the misunderstanding most of the nation has of television People have been told that television is here" and they expect to see pictures-by-radio any day.
But chances are that if you bought a television set now you couldn't get any programs on it, either.
The president couldn't receive any programs because there is television broadcasting station in Washington. Unless you live in New York or Los Angeles, your home town is in the same fix.
Television, like radio, has as yet no practical method of network broadcasting. Each station is "on its own," and the range of any station is the distance from the top of the transmitter to the horizon line at that point. This is true became television waves are like light waves and travel in straight lines.
The extent to which this limits the size of the television audience at the present time is indicated by the fact that the greatest range of any station now is a radius of 50 miles. The transmitter of that station is on top of the Empire State building in New York, the tallest structure in the world. Lower transmitters will cover smaller distances.
Only Three Cities
Add to that the fact that only three cities have broadcasting facilities. They are New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Only two of them are ready for anything comparable to the programs of radio. Philadelphia's output being limited to commercial testing.
In Los Angeles, Don Lee’s station now broadcasts programs regularly one hour a night six nights a week with two and a quarter hours Wednesday and Friday nights and an added midday hour on Wednesdays.
The National Broadcasting company station, which has been sending experimental pictures from the Empire State building for the last three years, will begin one-hour programs twice a week in April.
The Columbia Broadcasting company [sic] will start broadcasting from the Chrysler building in New York City "sometime in the spring.
Also “in the spring" the General Electric company will broadcast from a mountain top near Schenectady, N. Y., at least 250 feet higher than the top of the Empire state building. Its area will embrace Schenectady, Troy, Albany, Amsterdam and Saratoga—a total population of 500,000 persons.
First Short Wave.
This effect will mark the first experience at relaying pictures by short-wave radio—in this case from the studio at Schenectady to the main transmitter in the Helderberg hills 14 miles away. If the experiment works and can be applied to long distances, network broadcasting will have been achieved.
To date, the only network connection that has seemed possible to television engineers generally is the coaxial cable, a complex arrangement of telephone wires, Such a cable has been laid from Philadelphia to New York, but its use over long distances is at the present stage of development impractical because of expense. Engineers estimate its cost at $5,000 a wire.
The technicians expect to solve the network problem in time, but not before sales of receiving sets which are now being manufactured are well under way. Although some receivers are now on the market, the beginning of sales on any extensive scale can be expected to be delayed to coincide with the beginning of NBC program broadcasting, for NBC's parent company, the Radio Corporation of America, holds or controls most of the vital patents involved.
Build Your Own
If you like to tinker, you don't need to wait for the readymade sets. You can build one yourself with a kit of parts, which now sells for about $80.00. Otherwise you probably will pay from $125 up for sets which receive pictures without sound; $200 and up for sets which receive pictures and sound together. The better sets will show a picture 7 1/2 by 10 inches in size, reflected into a mirror so you don't need to stand up and peer into the apparatus. After the sale of sets is on, the growth of the television baby will depend on the enthusiasm the programs invoke among those who live in areas where they can "tune in."
From the standpoint spreading interest, the most important part of this initial audience will be at the world's fair in Flushing. Here thousands of visitors from all parts of the country will see a constant stream of special broadcasts. If they like what they see and go back home and talk about it, they may persuade hometown investors that a television station would be a good business proposition.
Some such investors already have made bids to the federal communications commission for licenses. The list of those now under license, under construction or in definite prospect if a license is granted includes New York city, Camden and Passaic, N. J., Albany and Schenectady, N. Y., Bridgeport, Conn., Boston, Philadelphia, Springfield (near Philadelphia), Milwaukee, Kansas City, Iowa City, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Transmitters Costly
For them and for others like them, transmitters are on sale or $60,000 and up. This does not cover the cost of a station site, the construction of studios or of installation of the apparatus.
Prospective broadcasters face other problems than money and licenses. They face the statement of television experts that because of the costs involved, about 20 rehearsals will be required for one actual performance in television, compared to 7 rehearsals to a performance in radio; television requires 10 times more engineers than radio; for every hour of picture broadcasting, 20 people are needed, not counting the entertainers, all of which adds up to a total cost of $2,750 an hour (in England) a station must reach an audience of 100,000 persons. Since the average height of a transmitter in other than major cities has been estimated at 400 feet, this audience must be encompassed within a radius of 25 to 30 miles from the transmitter. And there are only 96 of these 25-to-30 mile circles with that much population in the whole United States.
Even if transmitters were set up in each of the available 25-to-30 mile circles, all residents of those areas who happened to own television receivers might not be able to tune in the broadcasts.
Bouncing Pictures
If a tall building of concrete or steel intervenes between the transmitter and the receiver, the pictures will not penetrate in New York, for example. President Roosevelt's mother cannot receive pictures because skyscrapers stand between her home and the Empire State building. The pictures may also bounce off these buildings and enter receivers on the rebound. That happened here; an engineer picked up seven different images of the same picture at one time — each one bounced off a different building.
Trees do not interfere with the waves, however. No do sand or gravel. Pictures transmitted on the side of a hill made up of such material have been received in the other side. This leads some engineers to hope that the pictures will pass through the top layers of the earth's surface after they hit the horizon, and thus lengthen the broadcasting range.
Another hope of increased range lies in a study of the sun's rays. They can be seen after the sun is over the horizon. Since television rays are light rays, maybe they will do the same.

Sunday, January 15
First Television Broadcast From Night Club Takes Place in New York Sunday
NEW YORK. Jan. 16. (U.P.)—The first television broadcast from a night club took place Sunday [15] but more people saw the performers in the flesh than viewed them on the screen.
The broadcast, demonstrating the mobility of the National Broadcasting Co.'s television equipment, marked the first time in the United States that an entertainment bill was transmitted from a building other than one occupied by experimental studios, according to NBC officials.
They are investigating the feasibility of television broadcasts of entertainment in the city's night spots when the company begins its regular broadcasting service in the spring.
An iconoscope camera was rolled into the Cafe Francais, adjoining the Rockefeller Plaza skating pond, and a half hour variety program was broadcast. Then the camera was moved outside to pick up a figure skater swirling around the pond.
There are "several hundred" television receiving sets in the metropolitan area, officials said, but even if they were all turned on, more people saw the pickup being made than received the actual broadcast. Several thousand Sunday strollers surrounded the ice rink and nearly 100 crowded into the small cafe.
The broadcast got under way shortly after 3 o'clock when Phyllis Welsh, blonde actress known as the "Television Hostess," stepped in front of a microphone, and, as the camera whirled, announced the first act.
A tap dancing team beat out time on chairs and on the floor with a pair of drum sticks, and they finished the act with the man beating a cymbal on his girl partner's head.
Then Frank Gaby, a ventriloquist, exchanged banter with his wooden-headed dummy. Fats Waller sang and played the piano, and the show closed with Sheila Barrett reciting the misfortunes of the "Southern Girl."
The camera and the lights, two clusters of "birdseye" facusing lamps and a kleig, were rolled outside to pick up Vivi-Anne Hui-ten, youthful swedish figure-skating champion.
The program was produced by Warren Wade, who sat out of range of the camera, and listened to the program by telephone as it was received in the RCA building.

Tuesday, January 17
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.

Thursday, January 19
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.

Invented Television at 14, 'Farm Boy' Tells Probers
WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 (AP)—The stranger-than-fiction story of how a 14-year-old high school boy invented the basis for modern television went into the records of the monopoly investigating committee today.
The narrator was Philo T. Farnsworth of Philadelphia, who conceived and patented the first means of television broadcasting without use of moving parts.
Now in his early 30's, the farm boy who had his idea "fairly well developed" when he was 13 told the committee that television service would be available "to the American home before very long" and would be superior to that now provided in England and Germany.
Mr. Farnsworth told how he obtained his first technical training at 12, when he was placed in charge of a farm lighting system in Idaho.
Within a year, he said, the rough idea for "electronic" television had taken shape in his mind. In 1922, with only a "modest high school library" and a static machine in the high school physique laboratory to work with, Mr. Farnsworth continued, his "day dream" first took shape as an actual invention.
A year later, the slight mild-mannered witness said, the Farnsworth family moved to Provo, Utah, where additional laboratory facilities enabled the inventor to complete what has become the present system of television.
In 1926 Mr. Farnsworth's father died and he was faced with the necessity of supporting his widowed mother and a newly-acquired bride. He found two California business men who "agreed to put up $8,000 to see if the invention was worth anything."
Within 18 months he had spent $60,000 advanced by other hackers. Total development cost today, Mr. Farnsworth testified, has been in excess of $1,000,000, and inventors have not yet received any returns.
In 1927 Mr. Farnsworth was able to give his first successful demonstration of transmitting an electronic image.
The first image sent, he told the committee with a smile, was a dollar sign, which "seemed to climax the work when we could see the sign of real money."

Saturday, January 21
Don Lee Web Seeks Regular Tele Sked
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 21.—Deal to aid television on the Coast was set this week by Lewis Allen Weiss, head of the Don Lee network. Only hitch in current plans is whether manufacturing plant contacted can turn out receivers to retail for $175. Don Lee net has reportedly made a deal with the American Television Corp. Present plans call for the manufacturing plant to have its engineers here in 30 days or less to study conditions.
If tests conducted at that time are satisfactory to Weiss and Harry Lubcke, televish engineer for the web, new service will be started and sets put on sale.
If deal goes thru as anticipated. American Television is to turn out 1,000 sets a month. There are now approximately 100 televish sets in this locality receiving regular Don Lee hear and see programs. Don Lee web will have to change its facilities for handling 441-line pictures. Station is now using 330-line images. Lubcke and his staff have been working converting the present equipment so that it will synchronize with the Videor sets.
It is reported that a Coast theater chain is interested in Don Lee television for its houses. Name of the chain was not disclosed. (Billboard, Jan. 28)

Junior Group Falcon Plan
The Falcon Junior Workshop, latest expansion of the Falcon School and the Edith Jane School of Dancing, will open its Spring term intensive theatrical training for children Monday [23]. The course will run daily until July 1. This Children's theater will be conducted in conformity with the Falcon policy of fine training by masters, with first regard to the best mental, moral and physical benefit to the child.
Regular dramatic and musical plays will be produced on the school's large stage and over the air, both by radio and television [W6XAO]. Franklin Bingham of the Television and Educational department at KHJ will personally conduct the television unit, and will collaborate with Lowell Cartwright, authority at the mime station. Diction, fencing, voice, piano and all forms of dancing are available.
The Falcon faculty includes Adolph Balm, Edith Jane, Ralph Faulkner, C. Montague Shaw, Madge Cleveland, Talbot Pearson, Wilda Williams, Betty Powers, Marshall Feimster, Monica Dunn and Paul Ballard. In addition to the stuff, celebrities of screen. radio and stage will give talks at various times. (Hollywood Citizen-News)

Sunday, January 22
Capital to Get Its First Glimpse of Television From Mobile Set
The most extensive demonstration of television with a mobile station ever undertaken, and the first to be conducted outside of New York City, yesterday [22] was promised Washington by Frank M. Russell, vice president of the National Broadcasting Co.
After preliminary test transmissions were successfully concluded here yesterday, Russell, on behalf of N. B. C. and the Radio Corporation of America, invited the press, Government officials, Diplomatic Corps and other groups to witness the demonstration.
The showing of high-definition pictures with associated sound will begin Friday and extend over five days. R. C. A. experimental receivers, installed at the National Press Club will reproduce the sight-and-sound programs.
The transmitting station, the N. B. C. mobile television units which arrived here last week, will be installed at the Agricultural Building, more than half a mile distant. The images will be sent over a radio beam by the units' ultra-high-frequency transmitter; sound will be relayed over a separate radio channel.
No elaborate programming is planned, because technical facilities adequate for such an attempt are not available in Washington, although N. B. C. will launch regular television service for the New York metropolitan area in April. R. C. A. plans to market its first commercial receivers at the same time.
“This showing of television," Russell warned, "should not be interpreted as an indication that a public program service in Washington is close at hand. The National Broadcasting Co. is only just now on the eve of regular television broadcasting from Radio City.
"Present indications are that reception will be limited to a service area extending not more than 55 miles from the Empire State tower transmitter. Washington will probably not have television until the problem of networking is solved. As yet, the engineering and economic problems involved in television networking lie beyond our powers of solution."
Tests Satsfactory [sic]
Decision to hold the television demonstrations was reached only after the N. B. C. television field group was satisfied that a satisfactory image could be transmitted by radio to the receiver location. The telemobile station, licensed as Station W2XBT, was not designed for broadcasting directly to the home receiver.
As used in New York City it constitutes a low power wireless extension of N. B. C.'s permanent television facilities at Radio City and the Empire Spite Building. Its function is to pick up and relay outside programs, such as parades, sports events, night-club shows and the like, over a narrow radio beam for broadcast by the main transmitter in the Empire State Tower.
The television methods and apparatus to be demonstrated here will be those developed by R. C. A. The system produces images in 441 scanning lines at the rate of 30 complete pictures a second. The moving image is bright and entirely free of flicker, which was eliminated by a complicated scanning method known as interlacing.
The system, built without a single moving mechanical part, is based primarily on two ingenious vacuum tubes. The iconoscope, an amazing "electric eye" invented by Dr. Vladimir K. Zworykin, director of R. C. A.'s electronics research laboratory, registers and analyzes the image of a person or scene. Dr. Zworykin's reproducing device, a large funnel-shaped tube called the kinescope, converts received electrical impulses into light values and distributes these in their correct order on a fluorescent screen at the end of the tube. This synthetic process reproduces an exact, moving image of the televised person or scene. Action of the two tubes is synchronized to within one-millionth of a second. (Washington Post, Jan. 23)

‘Gunga Din’ Being Prepared For Television Broadcast
For the first time in motion picture history, a special film is being prepared expressly for television broadcast use through co-operation between RKO-Radio and the National Broadcasting company.
A special television version is being made of “Gunga Din,” starring Cary Grant, Victor McLeglan [sic] and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., directed by George Stevens, with Pandro S. Berman in charge of production.
The television condensation of “Gunga Din” will be approximately 1,000 in length, running about nine or ten minutes. It will be composed of close-ups and medium close-up scenes, and gaps in the action will be bridged by subtitles, and sound. The entire film will be dubbed with special sound to give a smooth-flowing continuity.
After conferring with National Broadcasting company television experts, plans were made to adapt “Gunga Din” as a vehicle perfectly suited to the new medium because of its preponderance of outdoor scenes. In addition to the high contrast of scenes photographed in sunlight, a special acid solution and optical printer is expected to give the print extreme clarity and fidelity.
The “Gunga Din” synoposis was specially edited by Henry Berman, who handled the picture itself, and will include only scenes specially suitable for television methods.
A special effort will be made to finish the picture this month for shipment to NBC television engineers in New York, where it will be put through exhaustive tests. It will be televised general when the NBC telecast schedule opens. (Santa Barbara News-Press)

Monday, January 23
Don Lee Telecasts Get School Outlets
Don Lee Broadcasting will expand its television activity beginning next Wednesday [25] with a special series of educational programs which it will release in four Southern California schools through the cooperation of the L. A. Board of Education. Television receivers will be installed at USC, Pomona College and the Poly-technic high schools at Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Thomas S. Lee, president, has authorized a series of both live and film programs to be telecast over W6XAO in the new program group. Hollywood Television Society is also associated with the educational series. (Hollywood Reporter)

Tuesday, January 24
Television Corner
NBC announces the appointment of television’s first woman program director. She is Miss Thelma A. Prescott, who will represent the feminine interest in this new art. She will look after fashion shows and other programs [that] will appeal primarily to women (Jo Ransom, Brooklyn Eagle)

Wednesday, January 25
Television Is Demonstrated at Poly High
The first public school demonstration of television was given last night [25] with radio and television classes in Hollywood, Los Angeles and Long Beach participating to receive the program broadcast by the Don Lee station W6XAO.
A member of the W6XAO staff was present for the local reception which was held at Polytechnic High School through co-operation of Roger Howell, local television research exponent, and Charles Farrand, instructor of the Poly High radio class. The local reception was declared to be superior in all ways to that at the television station W6XAO.
Five-inch tubes were used by the Hollywood and Los Angeles groups while Howell used his 9-inch tube, his personnal property, for the occasion. The program last night included a sport talk by Frank commentator, a reading, an address and a skit by the Vine Street Theater Players.
Another honor tame to Long Roth Wit night with the presentation of a citation and membership in the Hollywood Television Society to Roger Howell and A L. Lubke [sic] of the Don Lee station, for their research and development of television equipment. George Seward is the president of the Hollywood Television Society.
Station WIXAO is received on 45 megacycles and broadcasts its television programs daily at 7:30 to 8:30 P. M. on regular broadcast periods of fifteen minutes.
Mr. Farrand, radio instructor, announced that the radio club at Polytechnic High School will build its own television receiving equipment some time this year in readiness for next school year activities. (Long Beach Morning Sun, Jan. 26)

Friday, January 27
Television Is Shown Here For First Time
Speaker Bankhead Talks of Weather and Press Club Feels Cold
Washington yesterday [27] saw its first demonstration of television.
Representative William Bankhead, speaker of the House, was standing in front of the Agriculture Building, chatting with Bill Crago, N. B. C. announcer, about the cold. And a crowd of newspapermen, business executives, Government officers, were gazing at the Speaker's face as it appeared on the glass screens of the half dozen receiving sets in the National Press Building, watching his lips move, hearing his voice, seeing him shiver under his upturned coat collar and feeling that they, too, were standing on that windy street corner.
Every detail in the picture was clear. No blur, no confusion, no flicker, no distortion. The camera moved from one member of the little group to another; "panned" down the line of Government buildings along the Mall.
No sound was made by the spectators in the Press Club; the room was filled with the sounds of that street corner on the Mall. With all eyes glued to the screen, the spectators felt that they, too, were standing beside Representative Bankhead.
Representative Bankhead expressed his pleasure at being the first "guinea pig" of the demonstration. Asked if he thought the introduction of television cameras in Congress would have any effect on the government, he said, "it might make some of the members take their feet off the chairs, but I don't think it will have any appreciable effect on the patriotic work they are doing there."
Edith Rogers Speaks
Representative Edith Nourse Rogers, the next to be interviewed, congratulated N. B. C. and the Radio Corporation of America, and promised that Congress would do what it could about the weather. Representative Rayburn (Democrat), of Texas, and Minority Leader Joseph W. Martin, jr., added their congratulations. Representative Martin declared he "couldn't conceive what it would mean to the world." But Congress, he thought, "will readjust itself" if it has to deliberate under the eyes of televiewers.
The sight-and-sound broadcasts, which will take place at 10-minute intervals from 11 a. m. to 3:30 p. m. daily through Tuesday, are sent from the "telemobile station," designated as Station W2XBT, which consists of two specially built motor trucks containing a complete telecasting unit. Pictures and sounds are sent through the ether by special directional beam to the receiving sets in the National Press Building in the same manner as standard television broadcasts.
The telemobile unit, the first of its kind ever to be made, was designed for field work in connection with the N. B. C. television studio in Radio City, New York. Its original purpose was to relay outdoor scenes to the studio for rebroadcast, and it is now making its first appearance outside New York. (Washington Post, Jan. 28)

Tuesday, January 31
W9XK, University of Iowa
7:15 to 7:30 p.m.—Television Program with WSUI, 880 kcs.

A Snapshot of Television, 1931, Part 2

The technology wasn’t there yet.

Television was around in the late 1920s. By mid-1931, a number of stations were on the air but they were hampered by all kinds of things. One was lighting. An incredible amount of light was needed to make something visual. Even then, anyone appearing on the small screen required large amounts of ugly make-up to be seen.

Much of the programming being offered by the handful of stations, in the U.S. East and Midwest, was on film, or were photographs and silhouettes. NBC pointed its camera at a figurine of Felix the cat on a record turntable, and it spun around and around and around. Not very exciting programming.

CBS decided it was going to put its radio stars on the tube in live programming. However, cameras were very limited in picking up anything, even in a brightly lit studio, and they could pick up little more than head shots.

Still, for hobbyists, this was a world of marvels.

What’s on the Air magazine published a two-part feature on television. Part two appeared in the June 1931 issue and we reprint it below.

Television Peeps Around the Corner
By Don Davis
STATIC is not going to bother television much. A recent demonstration of television reception in New York during an electrical storm proved this point. Excepting for slight white streaks flashing across the screen coincident with the lightning, no harm was done and the pictures flicked on unmolested.
During the past few weeks there have been a number of interesting developments along the television front.
The Columbia Broadcasting System has definitely announced that it will be on the air throughout the summer with an experimental television program daily for six hours.
Some, months ago CBS selected Natalie Towers, a young and very beautiful actress, as its television girl. Last week NBC announced that it had signed Dorothy Knapp to fill a similar role there.
Meanwhile WGBS and W2XCR are continuing their sight-and-sound broadcasts with very encouraging results.
Chicago and Boston likewise are continuing television programs, although nothing startling has been reported from either of these cities in the way of new developments. Boston will be on sixty-line scanning after June 1, as will Station W3XK in Washington. All New York stations have adopted this standard.

Make-up on the faces of artists who appear before the television camera is considered of utmost importance. Such make-up is neither like that of the stage nor screen. It is more vivid and of the most grotesque color combinations.
Charles E. Butterfield, radio editor of the Associated Press, who has been making an exhaustive study of this phase of the new industry, told this writer that red-headed girls are the best for television, with the brown heads a close second. Blondes are not so good, because there is not sufficient contrast.
Noses are dangerous to beauty when it comes to the television camera. If not properly powdered and colored by grease paint, they look unnaturally large and very, very red.
During its summer experiments the Columbia System plans to employ a number of its sustaining acts. "Those who have had motion-picture experience," Edwin K. Cohan says in a recent statement, "will be televised from time to time. Morton Downey and the Dodge Twins are foremost in this group."
Other reports from the large broadcasting stations show that a tremendous army of theatrical people are seeking to establish themselves for television. At the present there is little hope for them, especially since the networks are going into the new field only in an experimental manner for the time being.
As the technique of television is improved, so will a new art be born — an art entirely different from the motion-picture world and the sound-broadcasting studios, an art which will be individually and wholly adapted to the new science.

Reactions of the general public to television are sometimes very amusing. For example, some average radio listeners are of the belief that television has been perfected to the point that pictures with the clarity of present-day movies are obtainable with simple equipment.
True enough, pictures are available from quite simple equipment, but they are not anywhere nearly so clear as movies of even ten years ago.
For example, television reception is such that only the head and shoulders of the subject can be seen with any great clarity. Two people in the picture are the limit for the televisor of to-day. Background detail is missing. However, television has progressed. It is marvelous — even miraculous — that pictures of any kind can be transmitted hundreds of miles through nothing more substantial than air!
Television to-day is sending you pictures of old film, wooden cats, dolls and pictures of orchestra leaders, and the like. Of them all, the silhouettes (black and white action pictures) are the most interesting. Why? Because they have action, and plenty of it.
To this writer's way of thinking, television will be given its first real impetus when the two nationwide radio networks begin to conduct experimental programs.
Then, there's the high cost of equipment. Is there any reason why television receivers should cost so much?
If you possess a short-wave receiver, one which will tune from 100 to 200 meters and one that should possess wide band tuning and resistance-coupled audio, you need only the televisor. Yet this televisor, employing a synchronous motor, a scanning-disk, a neon tube and a magnifying-glass, will cost you (completely assembled) somewhere in the neighborhood of $100.
With all these so-called drawbacks television is here and it is going to stay with us for some time to come. Prices will be cut. They've got to be cut. Programs will improve, and sight and sound will be successfully synchronized.

By 1933, most of these stations went off the air for good. CBS and NBC went into hibernation. Only W6XAO in Los Angeles continued with regular programming through the 1930s after signing on in December 1931. During that time, NBC worked to develop a modern, electronic system, which was unveiled at the New York World's Fair in 1939 after a number of test broadcasts. Whether people knew it or not, television may have still been "around the corner," but it was also here to stay.