![]() Philadelphia affiliates were key players in this new industry. The broadcast tower atop the PSFS Building had the advantage of being in the heart of downtown Philadelphia, but as the television audience grew and expanded to the suburbs, stations erected more powerful transmitters outside of Center City. Thus, the story of the creative and experimental “Golden Age of Television” is fundamentally the history of the local affiliates of the national broadcasting networks. The networks did not broadcast shows until the evening, so the bulk of the broadcast day consisted of locally produced programming. The DuMont Network also had a presence in Philadelphia in these early days (from 1946 until the network’s demise in 1956). In the early days of commercial television in Philadelphia, from the mid-1940s through the late 1960s, national programming was limited, for the most part, to the three broadcasting systems- ABC (American Broadcasting Company), CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System), and NBC (National Broadcasting System). By the end of the decade almost ninety percent of American households had at least one receiver and the average person watched approximately five hours of television each day. With the rise of postwar consumerism in the 1950s, the television industry hit its stride. At war’s end, commercial production began anew. The production of television sets ceased for the most part when the United States entered World War II, although limited program broadcasting continued. By 1941 there were approximately 7,000 television sets in the United States and fifty hours of combined national and local weekly programming available to home viewers. The television industry developed slowly during the 1930s. Farnsworth and Philco parted ways in 1933, but Farnsworth continued research under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania until he left the region in 1938 and established the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In 1932, the company established an experimental station, W3XE, at its manufacturing plant at C and Tioga Streets. Like RCA, Philco was a pioneer of early television manufacturing and broadcasting. He relocated to the Philadelphia area (Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania) from California in 1932 to pursue his research under a contract with Philco Radio Corporation (founded in Philadelphia in 1892 as Helios Electric Company). ![]() In Philadelphia, meanwhile, Farnsworth similarly engaged in television experimentation. “Our Gal Sal”-Sally Starr- was one of Channel 6’s pioneers of local programming and one of the few women with their own shows in the early days of television. In 1933, they successfully transmitted an image of Mickey Mouse to a test site in nearby Collingswood, New Jersey. In the early 1930s he and his team performed field tests for television transmissions. ![]() Hired by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in Camden, New Jersey, in 1929, Zworykin served as associate director of its fledgling electronics research lab. ![]() Farnsworth (1906-71) and Vladimir Zworykin (1888-1982)-had close ties to the Philadelphia region. The two figures widely credited with developing the modern electronic television set- Philo T. Philadelphia’s role in the development of television began in the 1930s when solitary inventors and corporations began investigating the possibility of transmitting moving images over the air to a home receiver. From the manufacturing of television sets to the production of innovative programming, researchers, technicians, and creative talents in the region produced many of the “firsts” that propelled television to success as a new mass medium in the twentieth century. The Philadelphia region had a key role in the ascent of television in American popular culture.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |