Category Archives: Television History

TV Comes to Lansford, PA, 1951

By 1951, TV had become a way of life in major cities, but rural communities lagged. But rural areas were working hard to have the magic of television. We previously explained the herculean efforts which brought TV to Marathon, Ontario. The March 1951 issue of Radio & Television News showed the system put in place in the Panther Valley of Pennsylvania, starting with the town of Lansford, Pennsylvania. The town was 75 miles away from the Philadelphia stations, and had the added problem of having a mountain in the way. In fact, rural residents of Summit Hill, just a mile away from the town, had TV, but the residents of the larger town did not.

The radio dealers in town, eager to be able to start selling TV, decided to take action. A test was run by putting an antenna on the hill and running a coaxial cable into town. The test was successful, and the system was built, as described in the magazine. The system was able to pull in three Philadelphia stations, WPTZ, channel 3, WFIL, channel 6, and WCAU, channel 10.

Fortunately, the cable was allowed on utility poles, and a legal inquiry confirmed that the franchise would not need to be regulated as a public utility. Another legal opinion was obtained from the FCC that no licensing was required. The system was originally envisioned as a nonprofit, but the bankers balked and insisted that the system be operated on a for-profit basis before financing was forthcoming.

1946 Chicago TV

Shown here 75 years ago this month in the February 1946 issue of Radio Retailing is one Mr. O. Winter, principal of an unnamed Chicago high school, along with some of his students. This is probably the first time any of them had seen television, and they are watching a special telecast over WBKB, put on by the Radio Manufacturers Association.

The young woman at the left appears to be excited by the advent of the television age, while the young woman at the right appears somewhat skeptical of the new medium. Below, three more students take in the experience. The young women seem to have dressed for the occasion, while the young man treats the occasion decidedly more casually.

Davey & Goliath 60th Anniversary

Today marks the 60th anniversary of Davey & Goliath, the iconic children’s religious claymation series, which premiered in syndication on February 25, 1961.

In 1958, the United Lutheran Church in America, which later became part of the Lutheran Church in America, and later the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), budgeted $1 million to fund production of a children’s television program. The denomination contracted with Clokey Productions, the creator of Gumby.

The resulting claymation series starred Davey, a boy who aged somewhat as the series progressed, and his dog Goliath. Goliath was able to talk, often making futile warnings about some peril Davey was about to get himself into. For some reason, only Davey was able to hear him.

Clay figures were used, but as the series progressed, the scenes became somewhat more realistic, with fabric clothing used rather than clay. Solid heads were used throughout the show’s production. Interchangeable heads with numerous facial expressions added a somewhat realistic look to the characters.

Luther rose. Wikipedia image.

After the duo survived some adventure, the program would often conclude with a Christian moral lesson delivered by Davey’s father, although occasionally the family’s pastor would deliver a sermonette. While I don’t believe Davey’s family had any denominational affiliation identified during the program, the Luther Rose was displayed during the credits, and the show’s theme song was A Mighty Fortress. I’m sure there are millions who identify the quintessential Lutheran hymn primarily as the theme song from Davey and Goliath.

Numerous episodes were made until 1975. After a hiatus, the ELCA decided in 2001 to bring the characters back. To finance the project, Davey and Goliath took on part-time jobs as commercial pitchmen for Mountain Dew. They went on to star in a 2004 Christmas special.

You can find a complete history and timeline of the series at LivingLutheran.org. For those who wish to delve deeper into the theological significance of the series, the site also offers an excellent 8-page study guide.

1951 Arvin Model 4162 CM Console TV

This ad for Arvin Television appeared seventy years ago this month in the January 1951 issue of Radio & Television Retailing.

It highlights their top-of-the-line console, the 16 inch model 4162 CM, which retailed for $349.95 (or an extra $20 for a blond cabinet), plus federal excise tax and warranty. Other sets started at $129.95, and the ad reminded dealers that the company had America’s most complete radio line, starting at $15.95, all of which rolled off the assembly line of Arvin Industries, Inc., of Columbus, Indiana.

1945 Television

Seventy-five years ago this month, the December 1945 issue of Radio Service Dealer depicted what was to become a ubiquitous postwar scene–a family watching television.

But in 1945, this was probably a hypothetical family, since there were still very few sets in operation. As of 1947, there were on 85,000 sets in private homes, tuned to a handful of stations in a half dozen cities. As of 1947, New York still led the nation in televisions, with about 40,000 in private homes, with another 4000 in bars.

Pulling In Blacked Out Games: 1970

I don’t remember if I saw this particular magazine, the November 1970 issue of Popular Mechanics, but I did see magazines like it, and I was intrigued. I had absolutely no interest in sports, but I was interested in pulling in distant TV stations. We had it pretty good for television signals in Minneapolis-St. Paul. We had 5 VHF stations, and if you moved the loop antenna just right, you could pull in channel 17 on the elusive UHF dial. Our local newspaper and the local edition of TV Guide listed only these channels. In the paper, channels 2-11 were shown in a grid, with the schedule for channel 17 printed in small type in a corner of the page.

But occasionally, we would travel to surrounding areas, and when we did, if I could scrape together enough change, I bought a copy of TV Guide. The Minnesota edition listed all of the Twin Cities stations, but it was also chock full of listings of other stations. By and large, they were all the same programs. But some of my favorites were on at different times. I just needed a way to pull in these stations.

We never did it, because the rabbit ears worked just fine for our local channels. But I dreamed of putting up an outdoor antenna to pull in those elusive signals. Articles like this spurred my dreams.

This particular article was penned by prolific electronics writer Len Buckwalter. The target audience was sports fans. Games were “blacked out” in those days. Football was particularly affected by these “blackouts”. Today, sports is a television event. But then, the thinking was that if the game were on TV, attendance at the stadium would suffer. They figured that nobody over a hundred miles away would drive to see the game, so it was safe to put it on TV there. But unless the game was sold out, it wouldn’t be televised locally.

So if you were in the team’s city, if you wanted to watch the game, you had two choices. Either you could buy a ticket and see it in person, or you could watch it on a distant TV station. Some people drove to other cities to watch the game. It was cheaper to rent a hotel room and drive there, so that’s what some people did. But some people put up a big enough antenna so they could watch the game at home, and that’s what Buckwalter’s article told you how to do.

He explained a number of possibilities. If you already had an outdoor antenna, then what you needed was a rotor, so you could steer it toward the city where the game was playing. Of course, your picture might still be full of snow, so putting a pre-amp on the mast might do the trick.

Particularly avid sports fans could purchase a separate yagi antenna tuned to the channel carrying the game, and point that toward the out-of-town station. They could install a knife switch like the one shown here. On game day, they would switch on the yagi. On other days, you would switch back to the antenna receiving the local channels.

To demonstrate the art, the article carried screen shots showing a baseball game broadcast on Channel 8 in New Haven, CT., being pulled in by an antenna in New York City. With an outdoor antenna a pre-amp, the picture quality was actually better than a New York channel with an average antenna setup.

A Preview of Postwar Television

When this issue of National Radio News, August-September 1945, went to press, the war was still raging in the Pacific. But the end was in sight, and despite the cynicism of skeptics, the editors of the magazine knew that television’s role in the postwar electronic era was a foregone conclusion, “witness the rapt attention of these comely lasses as they view the screen of the General Electric receiver.”

The Class of ’20

Shown here is the Class of ’20 (1920, that is) who graduated from the Furness School of Philadelphia on this day a hundred years ago, June 22, 1920. These girls are performing the “Welcome to Summer” dance as part of the commencement exercises, and this picture appeared in the next day’s issue of the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger.

Since the school was a junior high at the time, these were probably eighth graders, probably born in about 1906. Their older brothers very well might have gone to war, and we hope that most of them came back to attend the graduation.

A few years after this picture was taken, their families probably got their first radio. They were 23 years old when the stock market crashed, and they lived through the depression as young adults. Then, another war came. They were a little too old to go to war, and most of their children were too young. All of them, boys and girls, undoubtedly fought on the Homefront.

When they were in their 40s, they saw their first television, and probably bought one soon thereafter. They worked hard and retired with more wealth than their parents. A handful of them bought a computer and sent e-mails to their grandchildren. A few of them lived to see 9/11 on their television screen.

Welcome to Summer, Class of ’20.

A few weeks ago, I recorded this message to the Class of 2020:

Printed Circuits: 1959

These two television servicemen, pictured on the cover of Radio-Electronics, December 1959, realize that printed circuits are here to stay. Fortunately for them, as the magazine explains, the boards are becoming very reliable, and are designed to make servicing of television sets easier.

Rose Ann “Tex” Barbarite, W3FUS

Shown here 70 years ago this month on the cover of Radio-Electronics, November 1949, is Rose Ann “Tex” Barbarite (nee Longnecker), described by the magazine as a “lady television engineer.” The magazine contains a brief autobiography of her as a pioneer in engineering.

She writes that radio had been her hobby since her youngest days, when she built crystal sets with her brothers. When those were outgrown, they moved to vacuum tube circuits.

When she started a private girls school, however, she found herself unhappy, since the school viewed science and math as unnecessary for a girl. Undaunted, however, after graduation, she started at the Texas College of Mines in El Paso majoring in math. She was offered an electrical engineering scholarship at Purdue, where she found that the engineering profession was opening up to women, due to wartime labor shortages.

At the time of the magazine article, she was employed by RCA at its Exhibition Hall in New York. She had also taught basic radio theory and code to Civil Air Patrol cadets.

Ms. Barbarite eventually stopped working to raise four children. However, from 1985 to 1987, she was a member of the Peace Corps and taught at a high school in Belize. She died in 1998 at the age of 73 in Columbia, Maryland.

She was licensed as a ham in 1957 as W3FUS.

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