This ad appeared 75 years ago this month, in the May 1950 issue of Radio Retailing, for the SILAVOX, manufactured by Skinner & Pelton, Inc., 100 N. LaSalle St., Chicago. The add-on device allowed you to use headphones with your television. For private listening without annoying others in the household, the speaker could be shut off. But for the hard of hearing, you could leave the speaker turned on. Both the headphone and the speaker had independent volume controls.

When I worked for Radio Shack in an earlier lifetime, we sold a similar device, shown here in the 1980 catalog. One day, we received an urgent communication from headquarters in Forth Worth that they were to be immediately removed from the shelves. I never heard the exact details, but I believe that someone had managed to electrocute themselves.

Many TV sets of the day had a hot chassis, meaning that there was a 50/50 chance that the chassis was hooked to the hot side of the AC power connection. In addition, there were extremely high voltages inside the set, and even with the set unplugged, there was a possibility that the capacitors still held a deadly charge. So the prospect of a consumer installing one of these was problematic. And if they did the job wrong (or maybe even if they did it right), there was a chance of high voltage running to the earphone attached to someone’s head. It’s actually surprising that they lasted as long as they did.

Shown here are Ed Parsons, W7FKZ, and his wife Grace. Parsons was the owner of KAST in Astoria, Oregon. It was Mrs. Parsons who came up with the idea of having television, and she knew that if anyone could do it, it was Parsons. In addition to running the station, Parsons was the go-to man for the town’s fishing boats when they needed electronic equipment repaired.

The problem was that Astoria was 140 miles away from the closest TV station, KRSC (later KING-TV), channel 5, in Seattle. Complicating the problem were mountains along the path. Parsons took up the challenge, and drove every inch of the city, and discovered that there were fingerlike bands where a signal was making it. One of those bands included his penthouse apartment, and he set up shop there. While his wife watched the set for a signal, he adjusted the antenna, communicating by telephone.

Eventually, he had success, and his house had constant visitors. Eventually, he set up a rudimentary Cable TV system, retransmitting the signal on channel 2 into a coaxial cable, which could be run up to 2000 feet. Within this radius were a number of businesses who had sets running in their shop windows.

This story appeared in the April 1950 issue of Popular Mechanics. A more in-depth biography of Parsons can be found at this link.

Youngsters won’t appreciate the perils involved in watching television back in the day. Here, we see the effects of bad horizontal hold. The image appeared in the April 1950 issue of Radio News.

Seventy-five years ago this month, the March 1950 issue of Radio News went into details of what went on behind the scenes to put a television program on the air. The cover image is a color shot of the scene.

The program they were airing was Howdy Doody, on New York station WNBT.

Shown here is Popular Science author Robert Gorman upgrading his 10-inch television to a “big screen” 16-inch set. He owned a 10-inch RCA 630-type circuit (which he had built from a kit). That circuit was widely distributed, both by RCA and other well-known brands. It had enough power to run the larger picture tube, and an article in the March 1950 issue of Popular Science showed how to make the conversion.

The new tube had the same pin configuration, and only a few small changes to the circuit were required. The larger tube required adding some wiring to the socket, and the article warned of the importance of using wire insulated for the high voltages involved.

The larger tube required a new cabinet. An accompanying article showed how to make one. The cost of the cabinet was a significant portion of a TV’s cost, so even if you were buying a new TV, you might save money by just buying the chassis and putting it into a cabinet of your own making.

This idea to promote television appeared in Radio Retailing 80 years ago this month, March 1945. Anticipating a television boom after the war, the magazine suggested that the idea might promote interest in television. Dealers who were equipped with sets could invite neighbors and customers who might be interested but had no set.

The address on this invitation is residential, and undoubtedly the home of O.H. Caldwell and Mildred B. Caldwell. The location is about 30 miles from the Empire State Building, so would pull in a good signal with a suitable antenna.

Caldwell, one of the original commissioners of the Federal Radio Commission, is described as an editor of the magazine.  His home was said to be a home of the future, with many modern electronic devices, including, apparently, the television.