Jack Benny first appeared on television in a place and time you wouldn’t think.
No, it was not when his show debuted in 1950. It wasn’t in some telecast from Los Angeles or in the mechanical TV days of the early ‘30s in New York.
It was in Minnesota in 1939.
Actually, the city didn’t have a station then. But a company had applied for a license and Benny happened to be there when some test telecasts were being transmitted, so he got stuck in front of the camera.
The station later became one of many to formally debut in 1948—KSTP in St. Paul.
First, some pre-history.
In the mechanical days, the owner of WDGY in Minneapolis, Dr. George W. Young, was granted a license for W9XAT. The station started its life on August 4, 1933 when a picture of WDGY personality Clellan Card and Minneapolis Mayor William F. Kunze shaking hands was transmitted to a receiver at the Minneapolis courthouse. (Media Tales: Stories of Minnesota TV, Radio, Publications, and Personalities by Sheri O'Meara). The Aug. 1938 issue of Radio-Craft magazine reported the station had an approximate schedule of 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, airing film with sound on WDGY. But it also said the license had been defaulted at a hearing called for May 13, 1938.
Enter the National Battery Co.’s KSTP radio in St. Paul. It applied to the FCC for a permit for a new station on December 20, 1938 after RCA announced it would make transmitters available for sale. A construction permit was granted on May 8 and a transmitted ordered from Camden, N.J.
But KSTP couldn’t wait. It arranged a closed-circuit demonstration. The Minneapolis Star-Journal reported on August 3, 1939:
LEGION PARADE TO BE MARKED BY TELEVISION A pre-convention parade of the American Legion will be "televised" Saturday afternoon [5]. Totton Heffelfinger, president of the convention corporation, announced today after arrangements with Stanley E. Hubbard, president and general manager of KSTP.
• • •
The parade sponsored by the Fifth District Commander Russell F. Bertelsen will start at Pioneer square at 3 p.m. Saturday and will go up Nicollet, then cross on Seventh street, where the television camera will be mounted in front of legion registration headquarters at Radisson hotel.
• • •
Receiving sets will he placed in the Flame Room of the hotel where the marching units will be heard and seen at the same time.
As a side-note, WCCO radio in Minneapolis staged “a tabloid show” (singer, magician, newscaster and comedian) in front of several hundred people in the station auditorium the previous May 4. This involved a portable system set up by Philco.
KSTP decided to try it again. The Star-Journal reported on August 22:
Television Demonstration To Be State Fair Feature
Equipment to Duplicate RCA Faculties in New York
A television demonstration, with equipment and complete production facilities identical to those in the RCA Studios in New York, will be on display as an added feature of the Minnesota State fair, opening Saturday [26]. The demonstration will make this one of only four cities in the United States where such exhibitions are being presented this season.
• • •
The equipment, augmented for state fair showing, will include the latest in television cameras and receivers, all in actual operation. Included in the exhibit will be a complete television show, including many of the fair's highlights.
• • •
At the same time, Raymond A. Lee, secretary, announced that, because of the record number of exhibits arriving for the exposition, judging in four divisions will get under way Wednesday.
• • •
The finest artist in Minnesota; the state's champion home-canners; the leading butter and cheese-maker and the outstanding work of school students will be selected.
The television show will he presented by station KSTP and Stanley R. Hubbard, president.
• • •
"Patrons will have an opportunity to see the finest television show in the nation, with the latest in RCA equipment," Mr. Hubbard said.
More from the paper’s Aug. 25 edition.
Minnesota Has First State Fair to Present Television
Only Two World's Fairs Have Had Radio Show
The Minnesota State fair will be the third fair in the United States to present television to visitors, Stanley E. Hubbard, president and general manager of KSTP, announced today. KSTP will install complete RCA equipment on the grounds in time for the opening of the Fair Saturday.
The New York World's fair was the first ever to be televised, he said, and television demonstrations likewise were held at the San Francisco fair.
Minnesota thus will be the first state fair ever to offer television to visitors, according to Mr. Hubbard.
The equipment will be set up in a special educational exhibit adjacent to the grandstand. Plans call for televising visitors through the long range lens of the huge television camera, just as radio stars, or entertainment features are being broadcast in New York.
• • •
Special events at the fair, distinguished visitors and others will be brought before the television camera and their images reflected on the silver screens.
• • •
In addition to the television camera and receivers, KSTP also will have a special radio exhibit showing the evolution of receiving equipment from the earliest sets down to the present day.
More from the paper’s Aug. 27 edition.
Television Shown at State Fair More than 25 broadcasts will be carried by KSTP this week as a part of its extensive coverage of the activities of the Minnesota State fair.
Many of them will originate from the station's sensational 'Television Tour" where visitors will be able to see as well as hear the broadcasts in special television receivers.
The KSTP television demonstration is a duplicate of the exhibit which is drawing thousands daily at the New York World's fair.
Visitors will see the television camera, the control room and the latest models of home receivers. Fifteen television experts from the KSTP engineering staff will be on hand to explain the operation.
The other broadcasts will come from all portions of the fair, from the noisy midway to the educational exhibits. The KSTP special event staff will carry the pack transmitter and mobile transmitter behind the scenes to give listeners an inside picture of the people behind the fair.
Experiments continued. On Sept. 10, the University of Minnesota Gophers scrimmage at Northrop Field was televised, apparently the first time football had been put on television. Radio stars Vic and Sade were part of a TV demonstration on to mark the Minneapolis Century celebration on Oct. 7. There was also talk about televising a performance of “What a Life” starring Jackie Coogan from the Alvin Theatre on either Nov. 10 or 11, but it’s unclear whether it happened.
Back at the FCC on Apr. 12, 1940:
KSTP REQUESTS RIGHT TO BUILD TELEVISION UNIT
KSTP has filed application with the federal communication commission at Washington for permission to build a television transmitter in the Twin Cities.
If the permit is granted, Kenneth Hance, vice president, said, a completely new transmitter will be erected at a probable cost of $350,000.
The communications commission has held up issuance of television licenses pending a hearing at Washington next week to determine its future policy, Hance said, and KSTP will make no plans until conclusion of this hearing and determination of policy. (Star-Journal, Apr. 13)
Nothing happened until June 1945, when KSTP requested 50 to 56 mc. (Channel 1) for a commercial TV station. in April 1946, it amended that to 76 to 82 mc. (Channel 5). Finally, the Commission made a decision. This is from the Minneapolis Morning Tribune, May 18, 1946.
KSTP TELEVISION PLEA APPROVED
Telecasting Awaits Equipment Arrival
Television broadcasts for the Twin Cities moved a step nearer Friday [17] with approval by the federal communications commission of radio station KSTP's television application.
Stanley E. Hubbard, president and general manager of KSTP, Inc., said, however, actual production of television broadcasts is dependent on receipt of equipment ordered before the war but still not delivered.
He hopes, he added, most of the equipment will be installed by August. Plans also call for erection of the 840-foot transmission tower at a site on Snelling avenue, St. Paul.
Hubbard said his station's television broadcasts will cover a 60-mile radius.
KSTP also expects to have its full frequency modulation facilities in operation by Sept. 1, Hubbard added.
The station’s next big event wasn’t until the following year. Here’s Bob Muprhy’s column in the Star-Journal of Jan. 18, 1947.
KSTP Television Sets to 'Scan' Carnival Parade
THE TECHNICIANS OVER AT KSTP have been having a lot of fun testing out a couple of brand new items of equipment which will be used to give the public a new look at television soon.
KSTP has acquired two $15,000 image-orthicon television cameras, the latest type of equipment, and will use them to televise the St. Paul Winter carnival parade Feb. 6. If no actual on-the-air broadcast is arranged, the cameras will be linked by coaxial cable to receivers to give the same effect.
They also will he used soon in a demonstration before the Advertising club, when the types of commercials possible with television will he shown. A coaxial cable link probably will be used there, too.
The camera tests have been revealing a wide latitude of versatility. Using a 25-inch lens—about the equal of a 100-inch lens on a Speed-Graphic camera—one of them, from St. Paul hotel, picked up clearly the images of people on the steps of the state capitol.
The cameras are of the type which can shoot in any light, obviating the huge banks of very hot lights necessary with ordinary television cameras. And they are adaptable to infra-red pickup, with the use of filters. When the St. Paul parade is shot in the arena, most of the light, naturally, will be concentrated on the parade. Interviews, however, will be conducted with spectators in illumination much below normal.
They will be specially lighted, but they won't know it. "Black light"—infra-red—will be focused on the interviewees and the camera's infra-red filter will pick them up.
Each camera is equipped with a four-lens turret permitting switching of lenses, for close-up or distant views, in a fraction of a second. The cameras are about the size of studio type motion picture cameras.
The new Items of equipment are a long advance over the cameras with which KSTP previously had experimented. The station for the last 10 years has been testing television setups getting ready for the inauguration of regular picture broadcasts next fall.
The next big event was the Aquacentennial on July 23. The big guests were Joan Blondell and her husband, Mike Todd. She took part in a TV demonstration. The next month, new property was purchased to house KSTP’s operations, with a 6,350-foot antenna for TV and FM. Later in the month, the FCC approved a coaxial cable between the Twin Cities and Des Moines, which had no television. Also in August, KSTP demonstrated television at the Minnesota State Fair.
Will Jones’ column in the Tribune of Sept. 3 had these anecdotes.
Television Finds a Boy
Tired of training his television camera on weary-looking state fairgoers, engineer John Klug started getting fancy.
From his perch atop the KSTP mobile unit beside the grandstand ramp, Klug began to look for human interest.
Across the street, he spotted a little boy, crying.
"Ah!" he said to himself. "This is it."
Klug slipped the telephoto lens into place on the camera, trained it on the howling lad. The little fellow's twisted features showed up big and clear on the demonstration television screens under the canopy.
From the midst of the crowd, there was a squeal. A woman shoved her way out of the gathering, raced across the street to the crying boy.
Her lost son had been found.
Television, until now largely experimental in the Twin Cities, got in its first lick at public service.
Strictly Bull
John Pricker, KSTP's head television engineer, tried to claim another first for his television unit.
He said they televised a champion bull, making it the first bull ever televised.
"There's been lots of bull on television, but this is the first time there's ever been a real one." he said.
He stuck with that story until he was reminded that bullfights had been televised in Mexico City.
“Oh well,” he retreated, “we televised the first non-fighting bull.”
Next, the RCA travelling road show pushed their wares in Minneapolis. The Tribune of Oct. 10 reported on it. A few years earlier, director Lou Sposa helped his brother get a job at Du Mont. His brother was Dennis James.
3-Year-Old Blond 'Actress' Gets Television Spotlight
Three-year-old Mary Ann Steffes joined the ranks of television pioneers at the demonstration of equipment by the RCA Victor television caravan in the L. S. Donaldson Co. store Thursday [9]. On a shopping trip to Minneapolis with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Rodney Steffes of Rochester, Minn., the little blond smiled politely for the cameras while her parents simultaneously watched her performance on the television screen.
A bag of candy was her reward for the team act with Irene Murphy of New York, one of the caravan actresses.
The staff of nine caravan technicians and actors will complete their three-day series of shows at Donaldson's today. Performances under the direction of Louis A. Sposa, New York, one of the country's leading television technicians, will begin at 11 a.m.
Highlight of today's shows will be the appearance of James Melton, Metropolitan Opera tenor, before the cameras at 2 p.m. Mellon is here for a concert at St. Paul auditorium Tuesday.
The shows, a combination of commercial demonstrations of new Donaldson store merchandise and a local talent tie-in with radio station KSTP, are typical of what Minneapolis will see on home television sets within a year or two, Sposa predicted.
He and the caravan have presented their RCA Victor demonstrations in 21 cities in the last 21 weeks before audiences totaling more than 1,500,000 persons. Their equipment is valued at $150,000.
Home television sets on today's market sell all the way from $169 to $2,495, with screens ranging in size from five to 20 inches wide.
Variety of Dec. 17, 1947 reported on the end of a dispute over a federal ruling permitting KSTP to build a 568-foot tower; it had been using a temporary 75-foot transmitter pole until this.
At this point, there wasn’t much of an audience for the station’s sporadic programming, as Bob Murphy in the Star revealed on Dec. 23.
Television to Sprout in Minneapolis Soon
AS OF TODAY, THERE ARE 16 television receiver sets in Minneapolis, four of them in private homes.
But after Jan. 1, look again.
The experts tell me the rush will be on. KSTP will begin broadcasting television shows from its new tower in April. Plans call for 30 hours a week of broadcasting. Up to now, it has been broadcasting experimentally.
By April, it is expected several hundred sets will be sold, installed and ready. Installing a television set is a bit more complex than moving a new radio into your living room.
You have to have an antenna, and an expert hooks it up. Dealers are now getting their sample sets. KSTP already has lined up first call on televising auditorium prize fights, but with a gimmick.
Television of fights is all right as long as it doesn't hurt attendance.
On January 15, 1948, Murphy quoted the station’s engineer as saying a test pattern would be broadcast starting March 1 with regular programming on April 27. But KSTP-TV’s mobile unit was put to use on January 28. Jack Horner called the play-by-play. The Tribune’s Jones reported on Jan. 29:
NOW WELL SEE IF IT'S TRUE
Television Comes to Twin Cities
In assorted sizes, and at prices ranging from $169.50 to $1,195, television made a shaky but promising bow in the Twin Cities last night [28].
Some 600 people—most of them radio dealers and their families—crowded into rooms in three hotels to watch a basketball game on television receivers.
In a handful of stores and private homes where private sets have been installed, smaller groups watched.
It was the fast telecast made to any kind of a large audience here. Station KSTP, which expects to start regular video broadcasts in April, set up a special transmitter in Minneapolis auditorium to broadcast the Minneapolis Lakers-Rochester Royals game.
TROUBLE REARS
Originally they planned to relay the images from the auditorium to the Rand tower, from there to the regular transmitter in Midway, and from there to receivers in this area. But engineers had trouble with the microwave relays. So the 500-watt transmitter was lugged from its Midway location to the auditorium and set up there. An 18-foot steel pipe was set up on the roof of the auditorium for a broadcasting tower.The whole affair was arranged for the benefit of distributors of television sets, who were showing off their models for dealers.
RCA-Victor distributors had five sets going in the ballroom of The Leamington. There were three Stewart-Warner models set up in a suite on the 12th floor of the Curtis. At the Radisson, two Admiral receivers were installed in a room on the 10th floor.
Even more dealers are expected to watch similar demonstrations when prizefights [Jackir Graves vs Eddie Dumzel; Horner calling the bout] are telecast from the auditorium tonight.
BATTLE SEEN
From the dealers' standpoint, it looked as though a "Battle of Television" was shaping up in the Twin Cities. At all the demonstrations there was more talk of prices, delivery dates, sales angles, production figures.
And if the number of generals in the field means anything, the RCA-Victor people seemed to have the edge in this battle. Before they turned on their television sets, eight gentlemen with fancy titles—including a couple of vice presidents—made talks.
They talked so long about television that the basketball game was half over before the curious visitors got to see what it looked like on a television screen.
On the 10 sets used for the hotel demonstrations, results ranged all the way from poor to excellent. How the sets were installed had a lot to do with it.
CHEAP SET SCORES
Strangely enough, the best images were on the cheapest set and the most expensive one. The $1,195 job had a large screen, which made it easier to distinguish players' numbers. But the cheap set, with its small screen, came up with better images than some of the more expensive models.
The test patterns began on schedule but Jones, in his column of March 3, 1948, noted they weren’t satisfactory.
KSTP has what it probably television’s first Miss Hush. Every day, the station sends out an experimental television signal. It's so dealers can tune up the television sets they're installing. At first the station telecast a slide that had a lot of geometric curleycues on it. That got to be kind of dull. So they rounded tip a brunet cutie. Every day at 3:55 they put her in front of the tele camera and have her smile for the customers.
People with television sets like the idea of having the same nice face show up on their screens each day. They're beginning to wonder who she is.
I'm saving you a couple hundred bucks today by reprinting the mystery girl's face here. You don't have to buy a television set to see it now.
But I can't reveal name or phone number. Reveal it? I can't even GET it.
The station was offering more than this by mid-month and was set to expand its test programming. Jones wrote in his March 18 column:
First Video Contract
Stan Hubbard, president of KSTP, yesterday [17] signed up KSTP-television as an affiliate of NBC-television. Then there was shaking of hands and popping of flash bulbs in NBC's New York offices. It was, they said, the first such contract in television history. Until now, television networks have either been owned entirely by the parent company, or independent stations have been linked with the network on an informal, no-contract basis.
NBC will service KSTP by air with news and feature films starting next week. A direct hook-up with the east coast network will have to wait until a coaxial connection can be made with Minneapolis.
• • •
KSTP this week moved its video transmitting equipment to a permanent University avenue location on the Minneapolis-St. Paul line.
Starting next week, two telecasts will be aired daily from the new location. One will be in mid-afternoon, one in the evening. About 100 feet of the projected 568-foot tower has been completed. So the daily broadcasts will be made via a temporary antenna atop the partially-completed tower. As the tower goes up, the antenna will be moved up.
Until regular broadcasts begin in April, programs will he devoted largely to Twin Cities sports events and the NBC films.
The Star published photos on March 23, saying the “first regularly scheduled television programs start tonight.” But Jones in the Tribune reported the next morning on a series of 12-minute packages:
Although T-Day—the day television makes its big bow—is officially April 27 in the Twin Cities, the first sponsored television program will start next Monday [29]. Philco Corp. will bankroll a series of films to be flown from the spring training camps of nine major league baseball teams. The series, “1948 Baseball Preview,” will be narrated by Bill Slater. KSTP-television will carry the films Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.
The papers weren’t carrying the experimental schedules, but Tribune’s George Grim describes what he watched on KSTP-TV on March 29 in his column two days later.
Television Preview: It's Good If It Behaves
I’ve just heard a distant rumble—heard it from a comfortable chair in the living room of a friend who has a television set. We had dropped over to see one of the experimental telecasts of KSTP-TV.
"Remember, the tower isn't up yet," said the friend, who also happens to be a KSTP executive. "And we don't start boasting about our pictures until April 27, when we start officially. But take a look anyhow."
It was 7:50 p.m. and there was music playing in the background for a black-and-bluish thing called a "test pattern." It has lots of lines and crosshatches in it so you can tune your set.
Like the Old Movies
That's something to watch. What appears on the little screen is what, when you were a kid, caused you to whistle at the operator in the local movie theater. Curved lines were succeeded by a jumping image which then locked itself into place and turned into the beginning of a newsreel.
In rapid succession, we saw King Michael of Romania flying his plane over New York . . . Jane Fromen's wedding . . . Mrs. Lee Hutton of Excelsior talking to President Truman. That was the newsreel. At Intervals, the picture seemed as though you were looking at it through the thin seat of an old pair of herringbone trousers. "Remember, this is experimental," said my friend.
(And, having seen television in England and New York, I agreed: the picture, when all the machinery runs right, is about the same as a good home movie in quality.)
Next came the television commercial . . . a demonstration of a record player that played records without anybody watching. While the girl poked the record into a machine, a gentleman put his arm around her and said, "Let's dance."
Baseball, and Barn Dance
Next was a baseball picture from a training camp. We saw Florida palm trees and group pictures of the players . . . individual shots of old timers and rookies. It was a warmup to the St. Paul Saints games which will all be played in your living room—if you have a television receiver.
After that came the first television appearance of Dave Stone's KSTP barn dance unit. Now, I'm not a fan of hillbilly entertainment—but these people just ignored the cameras and had a wonderful time. They told corny jokes and tap danced. Billy Folger sang a couple of ballads, and Dave carefully showed you the songbook the boys sell.
Somehow, it was all very friendly and very informal. It gave you a preview of something television could do: come down off its high horse and just act like someone having fun in your amusement room.
That lasted for half an hour. Then it was over for the evening.
You heard the distant rumble of a new form of entertainment.
You felt, too, the dangers television faced. It was so personal, there in your house. It had to behave like a guest or else. If it behaved, it would become a member of many a family. If not . . .
The last bit of news before the start of regular programming came on April 22, when an agreement was signed to air games of the American Association’s Minneapolis Millers. The deal affected all home games except on Sundays and Holidays. Minneapolis Ford picked up sponsorship, the reason the station gave for dropping plans to broadcast games of the rival St. Paul Saints.
This was a complete turnaround for Millers’ General Manager Rosy Ryan told KSTP-TV its cameras weren’t welcome. Why the change? He explained to the Trib’s Joe Hendrickson:
"A year ago I didn't know much about television so I refused to give the okay pending a survey the New York Giants were taking,” Ryan declared."They discovered that television has not hurt baseball attendance, and they suspect it has helped it.
"With a strong 50,000 watt station like KSTP doing the job, it is probable our games will reach many of the rural communities of Minnesota which cannot get our regular broadcast. I am hoping that the interest stimulated by this television spread throughout the state will help our drawing power. It will make more people interested in baseball and bring more people to Minneapolis.
"We are willing to pioneer in KSTP’s project. If television is the coming thing in radio, we want to go along with it.
"We did not go into it for the money we will receive for the contract."
Newspapers jumped to sell space to stores either selling TVs for able to fit TV into their ads. There were lots of television stories as well the day before The Big Day. Jones’ wrote a feature story for Aug. 26.
DIRECT NETWORK LINK STILL IN FUTURE
Telecast Fare to Range From Fights to Drama
No matter how much you pay for a television set, how big the screen is, or how bright the picture, the most important thing anybody wants to know about a set is:
What kind of programs are going to come out of the thing?
Until late this year, at least, the answer to that question can come only from the program department of KSTP-TV.
After its T-day opening, with a Minneapolis-Louisville baseball game, the KSTP television station will broadcast some 12 to 14 hours a week, Monday through Friday.
HOPE FOR INCREASE
After that, the station hopes gradually to increase the number of hours it is on the air. Some 18 to 25 hours of weekly programs should be available during the summer.
The exact number will depend upon the Millers' baseball schedule. Eventually the station hopes to offer about 30 hours of programs a week.
Baseball telecasts are scheduled every afternoon during the first week of KSTP's operation. Evening programs will be divided about 50-50 between films and programs originating in the studio. Studio programs include a half hour with the Sunset Valley barn dance gang, a program on which hobbyists are interviewed, an amateur half-hour under the heading "Television Audition," a couple of scenes from Shakespeare by a Macalester college drama group, a program on which a family is interviewed and a wacky disc jockey program.
NEWSREELS PLANNED
Films scheduled the first week include a 10-minute daily newsreel, possibly a half dozen short subjects and a western.
That lineup is pretty much the same as the television fare offered in other cities. Quiz shows and how-to-do-it programs for housewives undoubtedly will be developed. Puppet shows for children are planned. Television crews will be sent out to pick up special events whenever possible. KSTP also will air a newsreel of Twin Cities events twice a week. Other newsreels will be supplied by NBC.
The day when you'll be able to sit at home and watch a three-act play or a brand new Hollywood movie still is some time away, however. The same goes for big-time musical and variety programs originating at network studios in New York and Hollywood.
It will be two years before local stations can be linked with the east via a direct network. It will take that much time to install necessary cables and relay systems to bring programs to the Twin Cities.
Jones’ column that day in the Trib profiled the “wacky disc jockey.” It was KSTP “Clock Watcher” morning man Roch Ulmer.
Jockeying records for television presents a problem. You can't just sit there and talk about records. People have to have some reason to watch you, too.
Ulmer has attacked the problem directly. I'm not sure he has come up with a real reason for watching him. But at least he has figured out a number of things to do in front of a television camera which are watchable.
Watch Him Crank
He plays the records on a battered old victrola. It has to be cranked. You can watch him crank it.
He has a table full of assorted junk with which he plays while the records are spinning. His costume is a derby hat and a set of white grease monkey overalls. He introduces himself as "scientist, inventor, lecturer."
He was working on a complicated record-tipper all during the pre-T-day program that I watched. It was made of two-by-fours.He'd place a record on one end of the contraption, slam his foot down on the other end. It would flip the record into the air.
Sometimes he caught the record in mid-air. Sometimes the record crashed to the floor. It never flipped onto the victrola.
Ulmer's deadpan clowning was at least as amusing as in Edgar Kennedy short subject, and much quieter.
He Hammers
He got noisy a few times. Once he had to saw a piece of wood. The sawing all but drowned out the record which was playing. The record was "Babyface," I think, so it wasn't any real loss. Later Ulmer indulged in some loud hammering. That didn't disrupt any important music, either. Now that I think it over, none of the music he played could be hurt by any amount of noise.
Ulmer also managed to show off a couple of other inventions. One was a "safety cigar lighter." It was designed, he said, "with the cooperation of the Minneapolis and St. Paul fire departments."
It was a fire siren. He turned a crank. The siren screamed. He placed a kitchen match against the whirring wheel inside. The match ignited. Ulmer lighted his cigar.
Safety Cigar
The cigar was his own invention too. It had a piece of rope and a piece of rubber wrapped near the mouth end.
"If you fall asleep with the cigar in your mouth,” said Ulmer, “you don't have to worry about burning yourself.
"When the cigar burns down so far, the rope burns. The smell of burning rope wakes you up. If that doesn't work, the rubber burns. The smell of burning rubber is sure to wake you up."
Another Trib story pointed out:
TOWER WILL BE READY
When KSTP-TY makes its formal bow tomorrow [27], it is expected that some 2,500 television receivers will have been installed in the Twin Cities area.
The station's 568-foot transmitter tower at 3415 University avenue is being finished in time for the opening. In its first weeks of operation, however, the station will use a temporary 500-watt transmitter.
It will take several weeks for engineers to finish the 27,000-watt transmitting equipment to bring the station to its full power. The equipment was designed by John Fricker, technical director.
A new $500,000 studio plant is under construction at the University avenue address. It straddles the Minneapolis-St. Paul city line.
TWO ROOMS COMPLETED
Only two large rooms of the studio have been completed. They are in use now for television broadcasts. By fall, KSTP hopes to have the studio building finished to the point where offices and regular broadcasting studios can be moved to the University avenue site. Present offices and studios in the Radio City theater will be vacated.
For covering sports events and affairs away from the studios, the station uses a large specially-equiped bus.
Dorothy Spicer has been named television program director, Hubbard said. Don Hawkins, until now an announcer and disc jockey, is the television producer.
Television news coverage is directed by Walt Raschik, head of the KSTP news room. The news staff will use 16-millimeter movie equipment to cover news events, as well as television cameras for on-the-spot coverage.
The only newspaper reviews after the first day of broadcast involved the baseball game, being the season opener. The Star declared: “Visually, reception was reported varied, from needle-sharp in some localities to fuzzy in others. In a more general aspect, reception was excellent.” The Trib’s Hugh Harrison talked about the reception in bars and taverns: “In some, the players were pin-point clear. In others, the screen was so blurred that it was impossible to tell second base from the umpire’s whisk broom. Patrons at the Andrews hotel saw both extremes. Those sitting in the cocktail lounge found it difficult to follow the game on the large projection-type screen, but those standing at the bar saw it clearly on a small direct image screen. The way the television camera was operated made a difference, too. A neat double play by the Millers brought gasps of admiration at the Dyckman hotel, not only for the players’ skill but also for the accuracy with which the camera operator followed the play.” He added sometimes the ball’s travels could be seen on the screen, but sometimes not.
Despite the newspaper hoopla, none of the papers immediately added TV listings to their radio schedules. However, the Star published a list for the week.
MONDAY, APRIL 27
7:15-7:30—Test pattern. 7:30-8:00—T-day banquet, Prom ballroom. 8:00-9:00—Floor show, Prom ballroom.
TUESDAY, APRIL 28
2:30—Test pattern. Baseball—Louisville at Minneapolis. 7:30-7:50—Test Pattern. 7:50-8:00—Local news. 8:00-8:30—Sunset Valley Barn Dance. 8:30-9:25—Knights of the Plains, (Paramount, 1939).
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29
2:30—Test pattern. Baseball—Louisville at Minneapolis. 7:30-7:50—Test Pattern. 7:50-8:00—National news. 8:00-8:20—What’s Your Hobby? with Jimmy Valentine. 8:20-8:30—Jungle Playmates, (Van Beuren, 1937). 8:30-9:00—Daffy Disks with Roch Ulmer.
THURSDAY, APRIL 30
2:30—Test pattern. Baseball—Louisville at Minneapolis. 7:30-7:50—Test Pattern. 7:50-8:00—Local news. 8:00-8:30—Television auditions. 8:30-9:00—Film feature.
FRIDAY, MAY 1
2:30—Test pattern. Baseball—Columbus at Minneapolis. 7:30-7:50—Test Pattern. 7:50-8:00—National news. 8:00-8:30—Pencil Mania, cartoon, (Van Beuren, 1932). 8:10-8:30—Dramatic Vignettes, scenes from “Twelfth Night.” 8:30-8:40—Pack and Saddle, Grantland Rice Sportslight, (Van Beuren, 1931) 8:40-9:00—At Home With Your Neighbors, with Ben Leighton.
