L - Television Overview
Rich Cameron
Issue date: 5/15/02 Section: 100x MM Online
Telegraph to television
In a previous lecture I gave you my quick and dirty technological development of radio from telegraph. It involved the two tracks, from telegraph to telephone and from telegraph to wireless telegraph to radio telephone. Add content and you end up with radio.
Well, we can expand that image.
For television you simply must marry the content and concepts of movies with the broadcast technology of radio.
Television has actually been around for some time, though it did not really hit the market and become a big success until the 1950s. Television was first introduced to the American public at the 1939 World's Fair.
When we study history it is tempting to name the main inventor of a product. With radio we focused in on Gugliemo Marconi, though David Sarnoff probably was more important for the development of radio as we know it.
With television it is difficult to name just one person as the "Father of TV." Two people are really credited with inventing key components of TV. The two worked independently at different ends of the country.
Philo T. Farnsworth, who worked in Palo Alto up in what is now part of California's Silicon Valley, is credited with inventing the cathode ray tube (the television screen) that could decode the broadcast and render a somewhat clear image.
Vladimir Zworykin, who worked on the east coast, is credited with developing the camera that transformed the visual image into energy that could be broadcast.
TV takes over radio
When television came onto the scene, it had a relatively smooth introduction, at least compared to radio. There were a number of conditions in place that made it so.
Television was first introduced to the public in 1939, but did not make it onto the consumer scene in a big way until the late 1940s/early 1950s. There were two reasons for this. First was World War II.
The government did not have to put a moratorium on television patents the way it did with radio in World War I, but the introduction of television sets was delayed as resources went into the development of television as a military weapon.
After World War II the mass development of television was further delayed by a "six-month moratorium" on the issuing of television broadcasting licenses by the Federal Communications Commission. That six-month moratorium was designed to let the FCC essentially draw a road map for itself on where it wanted television to go. Making the decisions of where to go was more complicated than thought and the six-month moratorium was extended to four years. It became known as the era of the Big Freeze.
During the Big Freeze many issues related to television were settled, but there were four major ones:
To put the issues of the Big Freeze into perspective we need only look at the importance of today's big issue with licenses. While the FCC has not put a freeze on new licenses, it is in the middle of a program that will greatly affect all broadcasters and users. At the center is a new broadcast system as vastly different from NTSC as the RCA system was from the CBS system. We're talking High Definition Television, or HDTV. We'll talk about it in a future lecture.
Early TV networks
By 1948 there were four national television networks vying for a spot in the public spotlight, but it was clear that the economy could support only three at best. The contenders were:
Fox's success caused others to become bolder and in the late 1990s the WB and UPN networks started to make inroads as the fifth and sixth networks. WB hard the combined resources of the Warner Brothers movie studios for its content. And UPN hung its hopes on the success of the Star Trek series of television shows.
If you'd like to relive the early television show history, you should visit the Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills. For more information visit the museum's web site at http://www.mtr.org.
Reading Assignment
You should be reading the chapter on television in your textbook to get more information about television.
Exercise
Summarize the issues of the Big Freeze.
Note that when submitting the answer start the subject line with:
J100x-L -- YourLastName -- Television
Next lecture: TV Ratings
In a previous lecture I gave you my quick and dirty technological development of radio from telegraph. It involved the two tracks, from telegraph to telephone and from telegraph to wireless telegraph to radio telephone. Add content and you end up with radio.
Well, we can expand that image.
 Telegraph to Television |
- The complex concepts of the illuminated projector had to be harnessed. This included learning to control light and projecting it.
- The idea of illusion of motion is so familiar to us now, but a lot about the way we perceive and process images in our brain had to be studied.
- Photography included the recording of images, the use of light, the development of lenses, etc.
For television you simply must marry the content and concepts of movies with the broadcast technology of radio.
 An early television set |
Television has actually been around for some time, though it did not really hit the market and become a big success until the 1950s. Television was first introduced to the American public at the 1939 World's Fair.
When we study history it is tempting to name the main inventor of a product. With radio we focused in on Gugliemo Marconi, though David Sarnoff probably was more important for the development of radio as we know it.
With television it is difficult to name just one person as the "Father of TV." Two people are really credited with inventing key components of TV. The two worked independently at different ends of the country.
 Philo T. Farnsworth |
Vladimir Zworykin, who worked on the east coast, is credited with developing the camera that transformed the visual image into energy that could be broadcast.
TV takes over radio
When television came onto the scene, it had a relatively smooth introduction, at least compared to radio. There were a number of conditions in place that made it so.
- TV siphoned off radio talent /rise of deejays -- The early entrants into television broadcasting were those who were most successful with radio. And they brought with them the talent that made radio successful. The best writers, actors, shows, etc. all came over, creating a talent drain for radio.
- Manufacturing of sets was sophisticated -- Early radios were unsophisticated, largely because so much about radio frequencies was not yet understood and few saw radio as an information/entertainment medium. Not so with television. And between the introduction of TV in 1939 and its major introduction to the consumer market in the 1950s there was lots of time to improve the sets . . . not to mention a World War where military resources were applied.
- A control structure was in place -- Television did not have to suffer through the development of a control structure like radio did. By the time it came onto the scene the Federal Communications Commission was established and ready to control television.
- Financial base was clear -- Two elements applied here. First, it was clear where the financial support for content was going to come from: Advertising. None of this playing around with other financial structures we discussed in the radio lecture.
- Source of news was clear -- We didn't discuss it in the radio lecture, but radio had to fight for a source of news. Newspapers fought to keep wire services away from radio, but lost the fight. Television did not have to fight for the right to wire service stories.
- The idea of the network was already accepted -- Early radio started as a locally developed content medium. But soon the quality of content rose with the formation of large networks like ABC, NBC and CBS. Television simply cloned the concept.
- The public was familiar with moving pictures -- The movie industry got people past the novelty stage of moving pictures. Movie theaters were a major source of entertainment in the country. And the idea of a miniature movie theater in the home was easy to accept.
Television was first introduced to the public in 1939, but did not make it onto the consumer scene in a big way until the late 1940s/early 1950s. There were two reasons for this. First was World War II.
The government did not have to put a moratorium on television patents the way it did with radio in World War I, but the introduction of television sets was delayed as resources went into the development of television as a military weapon.
After World War II the mass development of television was further delayed by a "six-month moratorium" on the issuing of television broadcasting licenses by the Federal Communications Commission. That six-month moratorium was designed to let the FCC essentially draw a road map for itself on where it wanted television to go. Making the decisions of where to go was more complicated than thought and the six-month moratorium was extended to four years. It became known as the era of the Big Freeze.
During the Big Freeze many issues related to television were settled, but there were four major ones:
- 1. Utilization of UHF
It was clear early that the very high frequency bands of the electromagnetic spectrum would allow only 13 television channels in a given area, even if all resources were used. And this simply was not going to be enough to meet demand by those who wanted to become broadcasters. Channels 1-13 were set aside for VHF broadcasts. Channel 1 was not assigned to private licensees. Instead it was reserved for government use, probably along the lines of today's C-SPAN cable channels. The government never used the frequencies, though, and eventually manufactures deleted Channel 1 from the dials on sets.
The remaining channels were not enough, so the FCC wanted to look at the ultra high frequency (UHF) band, which could be sliced into smaller chunks and provide enough frequencies for channels 16-84. The problem was that the UHF band was considered inferior and early TV sets did not even allow for tuning into those channels. Those applying for licenses complained when it was suggested they be issued UHF channels.
The FCC conducted experiments in geographically isolated areas, such as California's San Joaquin Valley, to check the viability of UFH. While those of you who grew up in the Los Angeles area were used to Channels 3, 4, 7, 11, etc., those of use who grew up in the Fresno area lived with channels 24, 30 and 47.
The experiments showed that UHF was viable and the FCC decided to utilized it in bigger markets along with VHF. So a compacted area theoretically now could have channels 2 through 84. In reality, to make use of the UHF channels, allocated had to be on an interlaced pattern. In other words, fewer frequencies were allocated and there was space between each one. Not every frequency would be used.
- 2. City-by-city assignments
A related issue was that the larger cities in the 1940s easily could have gobbled up all available frequencies, leaving smaller cities out of luck when they grew in the future.
The FCC instead decided to reserve frequencies for future use. Smaller cities were allocated UHF and VHF frequencies that would lie dormant until cities could economically support them. Many of those frequencies still lie dormant.
- 3. Assignment of educational TV
And similar to the city-by-city assignments issue was the allocation of educational TV frequencies. Educational TV was the forerunner of public television. The idea was to use those noncommercial stations for education. The early licensees often were county boards of education. That experiment failed and public television took over.
But the issue during the Big Freeze was that frequencies needed to be reserved for the future. Like the city-by-city assignments, regional reservations were made mixing the UHF and VHF bands.
- 4. Choosing a color system
Perhaps the most colorful issue, if you'll excuse the pun, was the adoption of a color TV system. Keep in mind that black and white television was still on hold in this country and the FCC was already talking color. That's an example of how the manufacturing and development of television was so far along by the time television actually hit the consumer market.
There were two competing systems.
- CBS system -- The television network long had been involved in setting of technical standards and developed a color system that used a spinning disk. Think in terms of those color wheels you see splashing multicolored light on a Christmas tree and you have an idea of what this system was like. In that system a flood light is aimed a tree and color wheel is placed in front of it. As the wheel spun slowly the light projects through different colored gels, casting colored light on the tree. The CBS system used a similar system, though the wheel spun much more rapidly, causing our brains to think it saw continuous color.
Because the wheel spun, it was mechanical and subject to breakdown. And while the system produced a clear picture with good color, it could not be used with existing monochrome (black and white) sets.
In other words, all existing transmitters and had to be scrapped or there would be two television systems, color and monochrome. You could not own a color set and receive those programs that were broadcast in black and white. Likewise, if you had a monochrome set, you could not receive programs broadcast in color, even in black and white.
- RCA system -- The second system was proffered by RCA, the stereo and television manufacturing folks. Their system used an electronic process to create the color picture. Because it was electronic and not mechanical, it was less susceptible to breakdowns. Further, it was compatible with current systems. You would need special transmitting equipment to broadcast in color, but those with monochrome sets would see the program in black and white and those with color sets could receive black and white broadcasts. The picture was good, but not as clear as the CBS system.
We'd be using that system today were it not for the Korean War. The manufacture of color television sets was delayed because of the war. In the meantime, outraged broadcasters got together and formed the National Television Systems Committee and worked to improve the picture of the RCA system. They formed the NTSC system still used in America today.
- 2. City-by-city assignments
To put the issues of the Big Freeze into perspective we need only look at the importance of today's big issue with licenses. While the FCC has not put a freeze on new licenses, it is in the middle of a program that will greatly affect all broadcasters and users. At the center is a new broadcast system as vastly different from NTSC as the RCA system was from the CBS system. We're talking High Definition Television, or HDTV. We'll talk about it in a future lecture.
Early TV networks
By 1948 there were four national television networks vying for a spot in the public spotlight, but it was clear that the economy could support only three at best. The contenders were:
- NBC -- The successful radio network started by David Sarnoff had lots of talented writers, actors and shows to bring over from radio and was a clear early winner.
- CBS -- William Paley's successful radio network also was talent-rich and easily secured a spot.
- ABC -- Sarnoff's second radio network was a logical third network, but it had to compete for the spot with DuMont. In 1954 the fledgling network on the lookout for the killer show signed a contract with a new amusement park outfit in Anaheim, Calif. that also had a movie studio. Disney's "Wonderful World of Disney" became one of the longest running shows on television and gave ABC that killer program it needed.
- DuMont -- DuMont has a television manufacturing base and wanted to mimic the early radio manufacturers who hoped to raise capital with sales of the television sets. It made a strong bid for the third spot in America's hearts tried to be third network. The network folded in 1955.
Fox's success caused others to become bolder and in the late 1990s the WB and UPN networks started to make inroads as the fifth and sixth networks. WB hard the combined resources of the Warner Brothers movie studios for its content. And UPN hung its hopes on the success of the Star Trek series of television shows.
If you'd like to relive the early television show history, you should visit the Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills. For more information visit the museum's web site at http://www.mtr.org.
Reading Assignment
You should be reading the chapter on television in your textbook to get more information about television.
Exercise
Summarize the issues of the Big Freeze.
Note that when submitting the answer start the subject line with:
Next lecture: TV Ratings
