Sandy's Journal of Historical Communications

From 1935: How Electric Signs Work

2011-12-04T13:18:00.001-06:00

I have always wondered how it was you could display digital letters and numbers on a large display before computers and solid-state electronics. As it turns out, it was accomplished mechanically, with millions of bulbs and switches, and a roll of strong paper. Throw in a group of people to maintain the apparatus, and you've got quite an adventure. Credit: DavidVonPein2@youtube.

Commercials Before Television, Circa 1932

2011-11-28T15:28:00.001-06:00

"Win a Car in This Theater!"

It looks like there are actually three different advertisements in this package, which was compiled by AutomobileHistoryUSA@youtube. The first looks to be from a local dealer, the second is for Essex Terraplane (Hudson Motor Co.), and the third looks to be an ad for the same vehicle formatted as a newsreel.

Long Distance Telephone Service, Circa 1950's

2011-11-23T22:00:00.001-06:00

Back in the Days When "0" Meant Operator

From the AT&T Bell System is a training film which showed operators how to place long distance calls for the customer. In many areas of the United States, direct dialing was unavailable, so live operators were necessary to complete this task. Until I saw this film, I didn't realize you needed a special tool to work the dial!

CBS Remote Broadcasts

2011-11-14T22:03:00.001-06:00

Live TV, circa 1960s

From CBS comes this film about early remote broadcasts using a mobile unit (credit: hdvideodude@youtube).

The Challenger Tragedy, 25 Years Later

2011-01-28T12:10:00.004-06:00

Obviously a Major Watershed Moment for TV News

Mark Rabinowitz reporting once again…

As you know, today marks the 25th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

What the tragedy has to do with television history is the extent to which it changed the world of TV news.

After 24 successful launches and landings over nearly five years, the major TV networks—CBS, NBC and ABC—decided that live coverage of Space Shuttle launches was becoming mundane and unnecessary. The excitement of the first launch and landing had worn off. The “big three” also thought their viewers would not want them to interrupt or pre-empt the soap operas and game shows they were airing. Furthermore, the 25th launch had been repeatedly delayed due to numerous problems, which made pre-empting programming even more difficult. So, even despite the fact that Mission 51-L was the first with a civilian among its crew (schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe), the “big three” stuck to their “regularly scheduled programming.”

Thus, only CNN—pretty much the only other television news outlet, and only then if you were a cable TV subscriber—provided live coverage of the event from Cape Canaveral (and incidentally, posted video of the launch and explosion on YouTube about 20 hours ago). The brainchild of Ted Turner, the man who built WTBS from an obscure Atlanta independent UHF channel into a “Superstation,” CNN was the first channel of its sort—providing nothing but news, 24 hours a day. On the morning of January 28, CNN was already enjoying a significant boost in viewership just by virtue of being the only network to cover the launch, and on top of that, all the schools across the country that wanted to see McAuliffe and the rest of the Challenger crew lift off into space and had cable TV access. CBS, NBC and ABC had camera crews there as well, but only to videotape the event for footage to be used on their respective evening newscasts.

Then, 73 seconds after liftoff, a failed O-ring would lead to the explosion of Challenger’s fuel tank, destroying the space shuttle and sending 7 men and women to their deaths.

But as I said, this blog entry is not about the disaster. It’s about how the TV news world changed in the wake of it.

The “big three” scrambled to do the very thing they had tried to avoid—pre-empting its regular programming to bring their viewers a “Special Report”—but by the time they were ready, it was too late. Anyone watching the tragedy unfold on CNN had doubtless called friends, family and colleagues alike to turn on CNN. Not “Turn on the TV.” Not “Turn on CBS, NBC or ABC; any of them will have a special report any minute now.” But “Turn on CNN, the Space Shuttle just exploded!”

In the immediate aftermath, CNN was on the map of the TV news world, earning respect the way an expansion team in a sports league does—by beating its competition. CNN was no longer viewed a place for telejournalists who “weren’t quite good enough” to be working for the “big three.” It went from being a novelty—24-hour news in a world where news only aired for a few hours a day—to a network that cable TV providers absolutely had to carry.

On the flip side, the “big three” learned they needed to be more pro-active where news coverage was concerned; being reactive was unacceptable with CNN now in the mix, having "caught them with their pants down." Indeed, of today’s “big four” networks, three now have 24-hour cable news channels (Fox launched Fox News Channel in 1996; NBC and Microsoft formed a joint venture that launched MSNBC in 1997; ABC’s parent company, the Walt Disney Company, launched ABC News Now in 2004), which, among other things, give them the ability to present “live breaking news” at any time.

According to Wikipedia, despite not being covered live by any of the major broadcast TV networks, 85 percent of Americans surveyed in a poll had heard the news within an hour of the accident. I remember hearing it from a friend within 45 to 50 minutes.

The Challenger disaster arguably changed the direction of TV news in general as well. In a 1995 retrospective article on live TV news coverage, Lisa Belkin of the New York Times said, “If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a moving picture is worth many times that, and a live moving picture makes an emotional connection that goes deeper than logic and lasts well beyond the actual event.”

In the years since the disaster, we have seen TV networks and TV stations increasingly break away from “regularly scheduled programming” to bring breaking news—not just the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and the O.J. Simpson chase in 1994, but also the Columbine High School shooting on April 20, 1999 (the kind of event that generally begins and ends well before news crews even have a chance to cover it, and for which live coverage was once considered unthinkable, but I definitely remember watching ABC News’ live coverage as students were evacuated from Columbine High, running out of the building with their hands on their heads).

The trend became more and more evident as the viewers who watched game shows and soap operas got older, and with the increase in “reality TV” programming, perhaps it is no surprise that younger viewers would not mind the “Special Report” interruption nearly as much as their older counterparts did. It is, after all, the ultimate in reality TV.

Today, TV stations in Los Angeles usually break away from their programming to cover police chases. A number of news networks have reached the point now where they are constantly searching for “breaking news stories,” sometimes with the end result that the “breaking news story” amounts to nothing more than people gathering around where the cameras are.

The Fox-New World Deal

2010-12-11T02:02:00.005-06:00

Entry No. 10-020 - Corporate Money Rules; Consumer Opinions Don't Matter

Mark Rabinowitz reporting once again: Exactly sixteen years ago, WJBK (Channel 2 in Detroit, my local TV market) switched its affiliation from CBS to Fox as the result of a deal struck more than six months earlier between the News Corporation (parent company of the Fox Broadcasting Network) and New World Communications. WJBK and stations in eleven other markets were recently acquired or about to be acquired by New World Communications. Eight of those stations were CBS affiliates, including WJBK. It led to a rash of affiliation deals and switches affecting many markets across the country, as outlined in this Wikipedia article.

I hated that deal at the start, mainly because it was one of those deals where a few rich guys made a deal and didn't give a crap that it affected so many people, consumers and TV station employees alike. WJBK found itself with large time gaps after losing its CBS affiliation, and CBS had to broadcast on a low-powered UHF station. I especially hated the latter part because I did watch one CBS show on a regular basis (Christy, starring my favorite actress, Kellie Martin) and picking up that show on Channel 62 was a pain in the neck without cable. If you were to travel back in time to 1995, I doubt you would have found a single TV viewer who found anything good in the shake-up that resulted from the deal.

I've read on a number of sources (including Wikipedia) that Fox's acquisition of NFL broadcast rights in 1993 (the NFC portion thereof, that is) was a compelling factor in the deal. That is baloney, simply put. If NFL football--sports programming that only airs a few games a week on weekends for just a few months a year--was such a strong driver for affiliation switches, then CBS would have lost even more affiliates to Fox in 1994, and NBC would then have lost affiliates to CBS in 1998 when the latter began carrying the AFC package.

The deal was, simply put, a bona fide case of corporate money controlling what people watch--usually, it's a network cancelling a show because the advertisers sponsoring the show don't want to pay for that sponsorship anymore, but this deal was corporate control on a much higher level. Following the deal, Detroit very nearly had no CBS affiliate at all.

First, the former Fox affiliate (WKBD, Channel 50) was owned by Paramount Stations Group and thus bound to become affiliated with the new United Paramount Network in January 1995;
The owners and management at NBC-affiliated WDIV (Channel 4) were not about to switch affiliations, as NBC was doing very well in the Nielsen ratings (and would be the dominant network of the late 1990s);
WXYZ (Channel 7) stayed with ABC after its owners, Scripps-Howard, agreed to affiliate all of its stations with ABC--a deal that led to repercussions in other markets.
Finally, the owners of WXON (Channel 20) and WADL (Channel 38)--both independent stations at that time--refused to sell their stations to CBS. The former subsequently affiliated itself with the WB Network, while the latter simply made unreasonable demands to CBS.

The only option CBS had left was low-powered religious independent station WGPR (Channel 62). It had only been operating for 19 years and was generally regarded as a low-budget station that aired lots of religious and shopping programs. It aired CBS programs that WJBK declined to air (most notably CBS This Morning, the weak sister among the "Big Three's" 7am-9am morning shows; WJBK dumped it in 1992 in favor of producing its own morning show). CBS had a problem promoting its new Detroit affiliation: it aired TV spots about the change on Channel 62; the problem was that hardly anyone was watching, so CBS had to rely on print media to promote its new station. By contrast, WJBK was allowed to promote its switch to Fox even when it was still affiliated with CBS. Its weak signal discouraged viewers from tuning in, especially older ones who lived without cable TV and were frustrated over no longer being able to get CBS' soap operas with just "the rabbit ears." In the months that followed, CBS' ratings in Detroit suffered terribly, as did its ratings in Atlanta and Milwaukee (markets where CBS also had to work out eleventh-hour deals with high-numbered UHF stations after losing affiliates to Fox). The ratings decline was especially evident with The CBS Evening News, because WGPR did not have a 6pm newscast, whereas WJBK always did.

The sale of Channel 62 from the International Free and Accepted Modern Masons to CBS was not smooth, either. Two ethnic groups protested the sale--African-Americans because WGPR was the only African-American-owned station in Detroit (and the first such station in the United States), and Arab-Americans (because WGPR aired a locally-produced two-hour Middle Eastern variety program called Arab Voice of Detroit, and that show left the air upon WGPR's agreement to become CBS' Detroit outlet). After much legal wrangling, the sale to CBS was approved in July 1995. At that time, WGPR has changed its call letters to WWJ-TV, in an effort to enhance its brand image by tying itself to the far better-known all-news radio station, WWJ-AM 950, which CBS bought in 1989.

One thing that surprised me about the Fox-New World Deal was a lack of intervention by either the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). For one thing, Fox had deliberately avoided being regulated by the FCC by programming just under the number of hours to be legally considered a network (in particular, Fox has still never aired a non-sports program at 10pm Eastern time on any day of the week). If Fox didn't want to be regulated by the FCC, why should it have been allowed to gain high-profile stations at the expense of those networks that did comply with FCC regulations? Surely one of these commissions would say that this deal was not in the best interests of viewers in various markets, including Detroit, Atlanta and Milwaukee.

One immediate effect of the affiliation changes was that both WJBK and WGPR had large time gaps to fill in their schedules--the former because it no longer carried CBS programming, and the latter because (other than CBS network programs) it had virtually no programming. WJBK filled the time once occupied by the CBS soaps with reruns of Night Court, Amen and Top Cops, and curiously, also reruns of the Canadian-produced legal drama, Street Legal. WGPR went to the bottom of the rerun barrel with 21 Jump Street (a Fox show, for Pete's sake), Knight Rider, Night Heat, Rescue 911 and a cancelled talk show, The Jane Whitney Show. You read correctly--at 5pm, instead of news, CBS' new affiliate was showing reruns of a cancelled talk show.

In an ideal world--OK, the Mark Rabinowitz version of an ideal world--the Fox-New World deal would never have taken place. Instead, 16 years ago, CBS would have remained on Channel 2, and Fox would have moved to Channel 20 in January 1995 (after WKBD moved from Fox to UPN at the same time). However, I have come to realize that if the Fox-New World deal had not taken place, then surely, another deal would have shaken the local TV landscape in Detroit. An example is the CBS-Viacom merger in 1999. If CBS was still affiliated with WJBK at that time (instead of owning and operating WWJ-TV), might CBS have moved their affiliation to Viacom-owned WKBD as part of that merger? And if so, would Fox have moved from WXON Channel 20 to WJBK, even though it would have meant moving to its third different Detroit affiliate in five years?

16 years later, there is some consolation to be found in the deal.

WJBK's news programming has improved considerably since becoming a Fox O&O. When it was a CBS affiliate, it was owned by Storer Broadcasting--a company that was not willing to pay to keep its best talent--and Gillett Communications, a company built on debt and thus was too cash-strapped to possibly hold on to talent. Its newscasts were filled with unfunny banter and cheesy slogans. Not surprisingly, WJBK had a high turnover of on-air talent. By contrast, its current anchor team of Huel Perkins and Monica Gayle has been together since 1998 and Fox 2 News has won numerous local Emmy awards, perhaps because Fox is willing to pay to keep WJBK's best talent, whereas Storer and Gillett were not.
Furthermore, Channel 62's broadcast signal improved after the CBS-Viacom merger. In 2000, CBS moved Channel 62's operations to WKBD's studios in Southfield. Between the stronger signal, CBS' acquisition of the AFC portion of NFL broadcast rights in 1998, and a better slate of programs than it had in the mid-1990s, CBS' ratings in Detroit are much better than they were 15 years ago.
Finally, the old VHF and UHF channel positions have become increasingly irrelevant. Being Channel 62 on the UHF dial was horribly inconvenient in the days before remote controls (which was why TV networks prized VHF channels so much back then). However, between the rise of digital television in the late 2000s and the increasing use of cable TV before then, switching to a high-numbered channel is as easy as pressing a couple buttons on the remote.

Final analysis: Boy, I hated that deal then (I still consider it a minor factor in the untimely cancellation of Christy). I've gotten used to it, but I still think back to the days when the CBS station had local newscasts at 5, 6 and 11, the Fox station was on the UHF dial, and Arab-Americans could catch Arab Voice of Detroit on Saturday nights at 10 on Channel 62.

That's all for now. On January 28, 2011, I'll bring you an entry on the 25th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy as it relates to the history of television. Until then, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year.

Earliest Surviving Color Videotape, 1958

2010-10-10T20:28:00.000-05:00

Entry No. 10-019: From NBC affiliate WRC in Washington, D.C.

Over 50 years ago, a feed from Washington, D.C., to the west coast was videotaped, and it appears from this ceremony, involving President Dwight D. Eisenhower, that this marks one of the first times a national broadcast was aired from color videotape. The quality of this recording is quite remarkable.

How to Dial a Telephone, Circa 1940

2010-09-12T20:11:00.001-05:00

Entry No. 10-018: No Operator Needed.

Not long ago when I was a clerk at my church, I used an old typewriter to fill out a form. Someone passing by in the hallway, a lad in his early teens, looked at me in amazement. He later explained that he had not seen someone use a typewriter before.

For anyone born in the 1980's or later, I think this clip (courtesy: danieljbmitchell@Youtube) may draw a similar reaction. Seems that in the very early days of the telephone, it was impossible to place your own calls, but you needed an operator to do it for you. So when it was announced that you could make the calls yourself (at least locally), it was a Big Deal. Here, now, is what your parents had to deal with.

(For an earlier version from 1927, this silent film is a little longer, but shares the same story.) --SJR

Mormon Tabernacle Choir: 100 Years of Recording

2010-09-02T22:26:00.002-05:00

Entry No. 10-017: A Remarkable Anniversary.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that one hundred years ago yesterday, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir made its first recording. The press release regarding this event is here. Links to historical photos and audio are included.

The Decline of NBC

2010-08-17T17:24:00.004-05:00

Entry No. 10-016: Proud as a Peacock ... Run Over By a Truck, That Is

Mark Rabinowitz, reporting: The National Broadcasting Company, once the #1 network in the country, has fallen so far as to fill an hour of its Friday night lineup with what amounts to an infomercial for ancestry.com. Recently, they had a reality series with inspirational speaker Tony Robbins when really, the only inspirational speaking NBC needs is a chewing out of its programming execs by, say, Gordon Ramsay. (Oh, wait, Gordon does three shows for the Fox network. Never mind.) And last year, it resorted to giving Jay Leno a five-night-a-week prime time talk show in an obvious effort to cut costs (which backfired, resulting in a five-hour void in its programming schedule and the loss of Conan O'Brien).

It's easy to just say, "NBC had a slew of hit shows--The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, L.A. Law in the '80s; Friends, Seinfeld, Frasier and ER in the '90s--and now all they have left is The Office and Sunday Night Football." What I don't get is this: You would think that now that NBC is part of a family of networks (including cable networks USA, SyFy and Bravo), its owners would think of using those cable networks to develop shows for NBC, much like Major League Baseball teams have minor league affiliates to develop ballplayers. NBC, after all, is still the more accessible network by virtue of the fact that you don't need cable or satellite service to get it; therefore, NBC should be to the "big leagues" as USA and Bravo are to the "minor leagues." Surely SyFy shows like Eureka and Warehouse 13 and USA shows like Burn Notice, Psych and Royal Pains would be more worthy to put on NBC's sked than Who Do You Think You Are (the aforementioned ancestry.com infomercial series). Heck, even Friday Night Smackdown would be better (SyFy is getting that this fall, but you'd think NBC would be desperate enough to want that given the sorry state of its own Friday lineup).

Why do I lament the decline of NBC? Because I fear that the future for NBC will be one in which its owners (which could be Comcast; a deal is pending) moves its best stuff to the cable networks they own in an effort to force more people to get cable (or satellite) service, and force those who can't afford it to "make do" with crappy infomercials and "reality TV." Already, if you want to see recent movies ("recent" meaning 2-3 years ago), you pretty much have to rely on FX, TBS, TNT, USA, AMC and ABC Family (whereas 30 years ago, ABC, CBS and NBC all showed movies on Sunday--and that's movies that had come out in theaters a few years before, not the made-for-TV kind). Original series are popping up on cable networks all the time, as opposed to 30 years ago when original series were on the "big 3" networks and the cable nets were for reruns and "niche" programming.

If NBC puts in a bid for Sunday Night Football when its contract for that package comes up, I'll bet the NFL tells them they need to shape up their act. Fox had The Simpsons and The X-Files even before they got their first football package. NBC has... The Office, and for how long?

Music and the Spoken Word

2010-08-08T18:14:00.000-05:00

Entry No. 10-015: Mormon Tabernacle Choir Enters Radio Hall of Fame.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that The Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Music and the Spoken Word program has been voted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. The radio program began its broadcasts in 1929 and remains one of the longest running network radio program in the United States.

Link for more: http://newsroom.lds.org/blog/2010/08/mormon-tabernacle-choir-enters-radio-hall-of-fame.html

What is a Cylinder Record?

2010-07-31T11:03:00.000-05:00

Entry No. 10-014: Echoes from a Very Different Era.

Before the days of compact discs, podcasts, and MP3's, before the days of 8-tracks and LP's, before 78rpm platters, even before radio, one of the first ways in which sound was reproduced for entertainment were through the use of cylinders, as designed by inventor Thomas Edison. These were typically made of wax, although I understand the later ones used plastic-like compounds. Listening to these recordings present a very fascinating look into a very different America from the one we are accustomed to today. And I don't say that in a bad way, but still, the manner in which people dressed, conducted themselves, made announcements, or sang, all seem very different. So much so that it's almost like listening to a broadcast from a foreign land.

This YT clip (courtesy: fuzzbear6240) shows a cylinder record player (an Edison Amberola) in action, and demonstrates just what I am talking about. The duet by Billy Murray and Ada Jones, "Rainbow," has quickly become my daughter's favorite. --SJR

Cable TV's Outdated Business Model

2010-06-22T08:05:00.007-05:00

Entry No. 10-013: "I'd Really Love to See Your À La Carte Menu..."

Once again, I'm Mark Rabinowitz (the younger brother of witzontv), and I'm proud to approve this message.

With CNET's Rick Broida asking yesterday if it is time for people to "pull the plug" on cable TV, I thought now would be a good time to visit another of my TV-related pet peeves, the current business model employed by cable TV providers.

In this business model, you have to pay a certain amount of money every month, and in return, you get a set of networks, regardless of whether you like all of them or not. It goes back to the 1970s, when transmitting/receiving data was relatively expensive and the technology to do so didn't hold a candle to the technology we have today. So back in the '70s and '80s, the best way to make cable affordable was to "bulk package" those networks.

The trouble, as I noted in this entry on my personal blog, is that cable TV packages are just like being forced to buy a set "food package" every time you set foot in a supermarket--even if all you wanted at the time was milk, bread and eggs, you'd be forced to buy other items as well, regardless of whether you needed or even wanted those other items. Cable TV networks and providers have retorted that allowing consumers to pick and choose networks was just like trying to buy only the sports section of your local newspaper (Viacom, which owns a number of cable networks, said something very close to that on December 21, 2007, according to this article.) News flash, cable industry--supermarkets aren't dying off despite letting their consumers pick and choose what they want; newspapers, on the other hand, are dropping right and left like flies. Your business model is outdated and needs to be overhauled, and fast.

It's frustrating that no cable TV provider has stepped forward and tried to switch to the "à la carte" model (in which each subscriber could get to pick and choose the networks he or she wants--in my case, it would be bye-bye to all the shopping and religious channels, probably Food Network as well, and hello to BBC America and NFL Network). In the short run, whichever provider goes the "à la carte" route may well have a much lower profit margin than it presently has, but in the long run, it could recoup those profits by getting the lion's share of those consumers who want only 10 or 20 networks. And once that happens, other cable providers would start to see a dent in their profits.

Another thing, too--that "à la carte" model would also hurt any TV network that's been getting by on crappy programming (such as the kind of "reality TV" where the pre-cast people are more fake than an '80s sitcom). If every cable TV provider in the country went "à la carte," then those networks would suddenly realize they're not reaching nearly as many homes. Such networks would actually have to provide better programming in order to win back viewers, just as food manufacturers (to go back to my supermarket/food analogy) have to make good products in order to be available to consumers in supermarkets across the country.

The Decline of "Niche" Networks on Cable TV

2010-06-07T14:50:00.010-05:00

Entry No. 10-012: There Is Such A Thing As Brand Positioning, Folks...

Recently, my brother Sander invited me to contribute to this blog, and I decided to take him up on it. One thing that will differ between my entries and his: While his entries span the entire history of television, mine will come from my lifetime (so the 1970s to the present). I'll start by discussing a pet peeve that has reared its ugly head in recent years.

Once upon a time, you used to be able to turn to Bravo for "fine arts" stuff, Court TV for shows dealing with courts, crime and punishment, The History Channel for documentaries pertaining to U.S. and world history, and so on. Basically, you could figure out what would be on which channel just by knowing all the channel names.

But over the last five years or so, a number of cable networks have tried to reach a broader audience. Personally, I don't like it--the channels involved risk losing brand identity amongst their core audiences, and the more that networks resort to doing it, the more their viewers will get confused. It's like when Black & Decker started selling toaster-ovens and coffee makers in the '80s--I always associated them with power tools, nothing less, nothing more.

Examples include:

SciFi, under the ownership of NBC Universal, which has changed its name to the utterly meaningless SyFy (so it can air non-science fiction stuff like WWE wrestling and non-sci-fi/horror movies such as Casino Royale).
Bravo, since joining the NBC Universal family, has become mixed-up, airing shows related to the fashion world (Tabatha's Salon Takeover) on this day, "Real Housewives" shows on that day, Top Chef on this other day... no clear theme here, unlike in years past when you could count on it for "high arts" stuff like movies from Europe, Cirque du Soleil, and so on. In addition, it airs stuff that you may have already seen on one of its "sister" networks, USA, like reruns of House and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Court TV was bought by Time Warner (aka AOL Time Warner Turner Netscape), which changed its name to TruTV in January 2008, and why? So it could air shows about shocking stunts and dumb parties as well as shows about shocking police chases and dumb criminals, apparently. They still air criminal trial coverage from 9am-5pm, but for how much longer?
Cartoon Network has been showing live-action shows and movies lately, which is dumbfounding considering the name means animated fare (it began as the home for Ted Turner's library of Hanna-Barbera cartoons before he created Boomerang and moved that library there to make room for original hit cartoons like Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo and so on).
As for History, they're bombarding me with this "History... Made Every Day" stuff. Some of it works--Life After People, Pawn Stars and American Pickers offer some historical trivia nuggets every now and then. But Ice Road Truckers and Ax Men do NOT belong on this channel!!! Give me back Great Blunders in History and Wrath of God (the latter was a series about disasters throughout history) any day of the week.
TLC used to be The Learning Channel. It hasn't been doing much in the way of teaching in the last 10 years.

I'm not saying that broadening your programming base isn't always a bad idea--MTV and VH1 had to do something when it became obvious that the novelty of watching music videos was wearing off, but those were special cases because the "niche" was just too narrow in both cases. Same could be said for CMTV (Country Music Television), which now does what The Nashville Network did 20 years ago--air programming appealing to "blue-collar" people who just happen to also like country music.

Bottom line, generally speaking, more often than not, broadening one's audience doesn't work. Remember when CBS tried to reposition TNN from The Nashville Network to The National Network? It didn't work, and TNN had to change its name (to Spike) and decide on a specific type of programming to specialize in and stick to (action-oriented shows and movies, along with shows that appeal mainly to men). To their credit, some networks have stuck to their niches (Animal Planet and HGTV come to mind). The six networks I listed earlier could learn a few things from them.

Movie Intro, Circa 1918

2010-05-17T20:53:00.004-05:00

Entry No. 10-011: The MGM Roar Before MGM.

In fact, this was even prior to sound. --Credit: @TheDaVinci030 (YouTube).

Innovations in Video Editing, Circa 1961

2010-05-12T02:01:00.003-05:00

Entry No. 10-010: Just Make the Selection, Push the Button, and Throw the Handle.

"And it's not expensive."

From station KTTV in Los Angeles, now a FOX affiliate, comes a demo production, entitled "Television Tape," extolling the latest in special effects. The main idea was that by videotaping scenes in advance, it was then possible to edit them by routing the signal from two video playback machines through an edit bay, where special effects would be added and a third tape would be mastered. Ironically, the demo being shown now is a kinescope. Credit: @dante314159 (YouTube).

Review: 80stvthemes.com

2010-05-10T00:01:00.006-05:00

Entry No. 10-009: Odds and Ends From a Special Decade (more or less).

This site has been around for over a decade (hence, its reliance on Real Audio files, which I find to be antiquated, proprietary, and archaic), but it does have quite a bit in the way of television themes and related graphics. Until YouTube, a significant number of items, including the 1978 Today Show theme by Ray Ellis, could only be found here. If you already have Real Player, it might be worth a look. I think the site is still updated from time to time, but most of the pages appear to be static.

Television is Introduced (Britain), 1936

2010-05-08T02:01:00.004-05:00

Entry No. 10-008: A Unique View into Pre-War Television.

From the BBC, we have what appears to be a segment from a documentary showing the early days of experimental television in Britain. As with the United States and other countries, development was seriously interrupted by World War II. But for that, one wonders whether television might have been able to come to its own in the late 1930's. Be that as it may, enjoy this brief glimpse into how television was done (note: there didn't seem to be any TV monitors in the control room, only knobs and dials!). --Credit: @lswrsi (Youtube).

Review: Freemusicarchive.org

2010-05-07T02:01:00.001-05:00

Entry No. 10-007: Unorthodox Site, But Having a Treasure Trove of Old Recordings.

Have you ever heard of an "Edison Amberol Record"? Neither did I until I came across freemusicarchive.org, in response to a posting I saw to one of my law practice discussion groups. This is actually a repository of many different genres of music under the GNU license (which allows for unlimited downloading and playback for personal use). I haven't yet explored the entire site to see what I would enjoy or not, but I noticed that "Old Time/Historic" recordings were listed separately, so I went there, as represented by the following URL?--

http://freemusicarchive.org/genre/Old-Time__Historic/

Right now, there's a group of about 100 recordings, nearly all from around 1910-1920, each about 3-4 minutes in length (the maximum recording time of a typical record of the era). Some of the recordings are so old that they even pre-date 78 RPM recordings, being in the form of a cylinder rather than a disc. My favorite is "Rainbow," found near the bottom of the first page of listings.

Network Logo Nightmares

2010-05-06T00:01:00.011-05:00

Entry No. 10-006: One Reason ABC Changed its Logo

I'm not sure of the precise dates when the American Broadcasting Company used this particular logo, but I think it would have been from about 1950 to about 1956. I'm just glad it was before I was born, or I might have had nightmares. This literally has the appearance of a dead, electrocuted bird. Be that as it may, at some point, ABC got the message. The current logo, introduced in 1963, turned out to be well ahead of its time and has served them well. --Photo: ABC, circa 1953, via kinescope.

Breaking News

2010-05-05T01:02:00.002-05:00

Entry No. 10-005: Passing of a Legend.

Ernie Harwell, announcer for the Detroit Tigers whose career spanned over four decades, most of that over station WJR-AM, passed away earlier tonight following a battle with cancer. He was 92. The Detroit Free Press (freep.com) has more.

Review: Southernmedia-NMSA.com

2010-05-04T02:01:00.000-05:00

Entry No. 10-004: A Central Repository for Local News Themes.

The website at http://www.southernmedia-nmsa.com/ doesn't take you directly into the history of television, but they seem to have a nearly comprehensive and growing library of local news themes dating back into the 1960's, including the famous "Cool Hand Luke: Tar Sequence" that was used for many years by ABC affiliates.

Review: Phonetrips.com

2010-05-03T02:01:00.000-05:00

Entry No. 10-003: How Telephones Used to Work.

I'm not quite sure how I came across this, but there is a website, established circa 1996, that is dedicated to archiving how the original Bell Telephone system (that's AT&T before the court-mandated 1984 breakup) used to work. I'm not sure I even know who runs the site, known as phonetrips.com and groupbell.com, because pseudonyms were used, like Evan Doorbell and Ben Decibel. At least one of the individuals I speak of literally drove through much of the United States, deliberately recording the telephone line as calls were placed, and in most cases, reaching operators, busy signals, and intercept recordings.

How peculiar, you say. I would agree: Playing with the telephone and dialing seemingly random numbers is a bit off the beaten path. Be that as it may, the resulting recordings, from the 1960's through 1980's, provides one of the few detailed (and at points, quite technical) looks at how the telephone system used to work, before the age of fiber optic cable, satellites, or voice-over-IP.

Real Player is required to listen to the recordings straight off the web site. Or, you can go to ftp://ftp.wideweb.com/GroupBell to download MP3's of most of the same clips.

Called to Serve

2010-05-02T02:01:00.000-05:00

Entry No. 10-002: Tabernacle Choir Video Highlights Media Evolution.

This 2008 video was a joint effort between BYU and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. While the hymn itself is worthy of discussion, it seems to highlight the evolution of audiovisual media from black and white film all the way to streamed content over the Internet. Perhaps the message behind this piece is how a devine Creator is able to inspire his children to invent things for the purpose of spreading His message.

High Definition TV, Circa 1933

2010-05-01T02:01:00.000-05:00

Entry No. 10-001: An Introduction.

In writing to this blog for the first time, I thought it would be appropriate to post what I think has got to be the earliest surviving photograph of an electronically scanned test pattern, from the RCA system. This image comes from the collection of Steve Restelli in Vermont, from his website at http://framemaster.tripod.com/. For everyone who has ever thought that television did not come into its own until the late 1940's following World War II, it is amazing to consider that a number of successful tests had been conducted very early in the 1930's, and this 1933 photo represents one of them. It is even all the more amazing when one considers that radio itself was still in its infancy.

At only 200 lines of resolution, it's rather fuzzy by today's standards. But in the early days of experimental television, this must have been something of a breakthrough. Bear in mind that some competing systems, such as the one made by John L. Baird as first demonstrated in the 1920's, involved a mechanical method of scanning and receiving images that involved the use of rapidly spinning discs. Such a system was said to provide about 50 lines of resolution, more or less.

In the coming weeks and months, I hope to share my perspectives on the history of media. Some posts may focus on content, but for the most part, my focus will be on that happens behind the scenes. Some of it may even be technical. Whether there will be a common thread in these posts remain to be seen, but at the very least, I want to share my fascination with how these events unfolded and how they still leave an impact with us today.