Remembering the Early Days of Television ~ by James Banzer

   Do you remember when television was in its infancy? Most people can't 
do that, as they came into the world past the onset of video electronics.

   Back at home in south-central Kansas, TV made its debut in 1953. The 
young medium was born with one station covering the Wichita area.

   For a young boy, this was huge. The days, hours, minutes and seconds 
leading up to that time were a literal countdown to the event. It 
would now be possible to see black-and-white moving images on a 
21-inch rectangular screen coming from the world outside our home. How exciting!

   Our family of four took a trip to the downtown Jenkins Music store. 
Dad shopped for a television set, and hauled out a nice console Magnavox model. It came complete with all the ultra high frequency (UHF) channels, in 
addition to the very high frequency (VHF) channels, which had been the 
industry standard until that time. We were very high tech.

   The rotational dial clicked from channel to channel. No one had heard 
of remote control. That dial stayed stationary, right there on channel 12.

   Memories of that television test pattern with the American Indian 
chief's image at the top still linger. That's all that could be watched for weeks.
The audio was continuous monotony of a 1,000 cycle tone.

   On a Sunday before the station officially signed on the air, I went to 
a youth group meeting at our church. Dad and mom stayed at home, and 
would not arrive at the church until regular evening worship.

   After church services that night, dad said he had been watching a 
cowboy movie on television, while I was at the youth meeting. It was 
several days before the television station was officially scheduled to make its debut.

   I was upset. How dare the station do a sneak preview, when I had been 
waiting in anticipation of watching television come to our area. 
Sulking stopped when the regular shows started being transmitted at 
mid-week the same week.

   In those very early days of television, and until a second station 
came along, viewing choices were restricted to whatever station 
management decided to show. We had Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, or no Godfrey. Douglas Edwards with the News, or no Edwards. A Charlie Chan movie, or no Chan.

   TV was fascinating in those days. The nature of its newness made 
everything interesting. Watching the evening news on that one local 
station one night, I saw the reader trying to shoo a fly away. The 
next night, he showed the audience a fly-swatter that a viewer had 
sent him. Sure enough, the fly returned, and Mr. Anchor got up from 
behind the desk to take a swing at the fly. It's not known whether he got the pest.

   Television has changed significantly in the past century or so. Since 
the time when there was just that one black and white over-the-air 
television station, cable has enabled viewing choices to multiply by 
the dozens in every American market.

   More than a half-century has passed. No matter where you live in the U.S.
today, there are choices numbering in the dozens. I usually choose not 
to watch. There are better things to do with my time. The newness wore 
off a long, long time ago.

   It is no longer the naive medium that it was in the middle of the 
twentieth century. Somewhere along the line between then and now, the 
the television industry became very slick at the expense of civility, 
fun entertainment and an age of innocence. What a shame.


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James Banzer has enjoyed a long career in broadcast news and is now writing on his observations about the world around us. He is currently residing in Louisville, Kentucky. You may send an e-mail to him at  jamesbanzer@yahoo.com .