Back to Index(this was found on Fidonet back in 1994, and is a very interesting report on early television. It is posted here without the permission of the author.) Early Television StationsSource: The Great Television Race, A History of the American Television Industry 1925-1941, by Joseph H. Udelson (U of Alabama Press, 1982) (editor's note: This account does not mention Philo T. Farnsworth who also made many contributions to television. The biography of Farnsworth is very interesting reading.) |
Charles Francis Jenkins was the first American to demonstrate television technology. His first successful laboratory transmission was 19 May 1922. The first public demonstration was 3 October 1922 using Navy station NOF in Anacostia (Washington, D.C.). These were still pictures rather than "television" as we know it. Jenkins' first true television demonstration was 14 June 1923 from NOF. Jenkins continued to use NOF until 1925. By 1925, the NOF transmissions were on 1875 kHz, using 48 lines. Meanwhile in England, John Logie Baird transmitted his first laboratory pictures in 1924. The first public demonstration was 25 March 1925, using a double spiral of lenses and a radially slotted Nipkow disk. The BBC began regular experimental television broadcasts on 30 September 1929, using Baird's equipment to produce a 30-line picture. The following is a comment sent to me by Gerry Wilkinson of broadcastpioneers.com in Philadelphia: Looking at your early TV before 1945 page, It mentioned that W9WFT in Fort Wayne, Indiana was before 1939. Not true. Philo Farnsworth who was the one responsible for Philco getting the license for W3XE on the air early in 1932, left Philco shortly after the death of his son, Kenny. Seems like Philco thought Farnsworth was too valuable to let him accompany the body for burial to Utah. Farnsworth never got over this and left Philco to form Farnsworth television. From the summer of 1936 to the Spring of 1939, they operated W3XPF from Wyndmoor, Pa (one block over the Philadelphia city limits). That site would later be used for W3XE and WPTZ. When Channel 17 came on the air, they too used that site. In Spring of 1939, Farnsworth moved his operation to Fort Wayne, Indiana and transferred W3XPF to Fort Wayne with a change in calls to W9WFT. Therefore, W9WFT could not have dated from before 1939. Following these earliest experiments, many other experimental stations were established: |
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Surviving Stations licensed before 1941:
New York W2XBS (WNBT, WRCA-TV, WNBC-TV)
W2XAB (WCBW, WCBS-TV)
W2XWV (WABD, WNEW-TV)
W2XBB (WOR-TV, WWOR-TV)
Schenectady W2XB (WRGB-TV)
Washington W3XWT (WTTG)
W3XNB (WRC-TV)
Philadelphia W3XE (WPTZ, KYW-TV)
W3XAU (WCAU-TV)
Cincinnati W8XCT (WLWT)
Chicago W9XBK (WBKB, WBBM-TV)
Milwaukee W9XMJ (WMTJ, WTMJ-TV)
Los Angeles W9XAO (KTSL, KNXT, KCBS-TV)
W6XYZ (KTLA)
W6XEA (KSEE, KFI-TV, KHJ-TV)
Note: There may have been additional call letter changes since 1982