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- Introduction to Electronic Media
- Class 7, Coming of TV
- Mechanical Television
- Nipkow Disk
- Baird Television
- Electronic Television
- Vladimir Zworkin
- Philo T. Farnsworth
- Idaho amateur inventor
- image dissector
- World’s Fair 1939
- New York
- RCA Pavilion
- David Sarnoff
- introducing electronic, radio transmitted television
- National Television Standards Committee
- electronics firms, including RCA
- formulated interoperable standard for television
- analog TV standard
- 1941
- 525-lines
- 60 Hz (field per second)
- 30 frames per second (later 29.97 for color)
- interlaced
- FCC Freeze
- unexpected demand for television licenses
- VHF licenses running low
- institute Freeze on new licenses in 1948
- three major issues
- adopt a color system
- find additional channels on UHF
- allocate space for educational television stations
- Freeze lasted until 1952
- pre–1948 VHF stations affiliated with either NBC or CBS
- Color Format War
- CBS system, 1951
- RCA system, 1953
- CBS was not compatible with black and white TV, but RCA color was
- NTSC adopted RCA color, 1954
- first national color broadcast was 1955 Tournament of Roses Parade
- Ultra High Frequency
- FCC chose intermixture of VHF and UHF
- VHF
- Channels 2–13
- higher power (wattage)
- greater geographic reach
- most network stations were on VHF band
- UHF
- Channels 14–69
- less power
- require less channel separation
- stations would often be less-watched independent or
educational
- FCC did not mandate TVs to receive both VHF and UHF until 1960
- UHF stations did not thrive like VHF stations
- Popularity of Television
- Sales of TV would be strong throughout the 1950s
- less than 10% of American households did not have TV in 1950
- about 90% of American households had TV in 1960
- Live vs. Recorded Programming
- television is the only medium that could broadcast live pictures
instantly over great distance
- networks preferred live television
- kept stations dependent on networks for content
- kept movie studios out of television
- recording technology did not exist
- videotape would not be invented until 1958 (Ampex)
- kinescopes were of low fidelity, inferior to live television
- Live Anthology Dramas
- U.S. Steel Hour (1945–1953)
- Kraft Television Theater (1947–1958)
- Playhouse 90 (1956–1960)
- News
- Camel and Plymouth News Caravan (NBC, 1948–1956)
- Alcoa See It Now (CBS, 1951–1958)
- Situation Comedy
- imports from radio
- Amos and Andy (1951–1966)
- Burns and Allen (1950–1958)
- I Love Lucy (1951–1961)
- original for television
- three-camera 35mm film camera
- high-fidelity recording
- Hollywood and TV
- movie studios were kept out of television by radio networks
- movies thought TV was a threat to attendance
- smaller movie studios sold movies to television
- Disneyland (1954) on ABC
- Disney was a minor studio
- ABC was third to CBS and NBC
- other major studios followed suit
- 20th Century Fox Hous (1955)
- MGM Parade (1955)
- major movie studio revenues came from television by the end of
the 1950s
- Quiz Shows
- popular after postwar affinity of intellectuals
- rigged quiz shows
- 21 (NBC, Geritol)
- $64,000 Question (CBS, Revlon)
- after Herb Stemple congressional investigations against the
television industry
- Sylvester “Pat” Weaver
- head of NBC
- developed expensive “spectaculars”
- Today (1952)
- Peter Pan (1955)
- magazine sponsorship
- networks took control
- more profits
- Networks take control
- under single sponsorship, networks were “dumb pipes”
- convince FCC and public to be sole custodians of television
- three network oligopoly