Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: They all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round they all laughed when Edison recorded sound.
They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother when they said that man could fly.
They told Marconi Wireless was a phony. It's the same old cry.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Welcome to 100 Years of Television.
This is episode number 16, Countdown 91. America runs on Bulova time for 100 weeks that started in October 2025. This podcast is going to recall the top 100 milestones in the first 100 years of television and video.
The countdown is pegged to culminate on September 7, 2027, the 100th anniversary of of the day Television as we know it was invented.
I'm Paul Schatzkin, author of the Boy who Invented Television, the definitive biography of Philo T. Farnsworth, who invented the world's first all electronic television system.
In the last episode, the United States finally adopted universal television signal standards that enabled the launch of commercial television. Today, we're going to do just that.
From 1939 through 1941, RCA's experimental New York TV station occasionally broadcast local baseball games, mostly the Yankees and the Dodgers. With the Giants appearing now and then just before the Dodgers Philadelphia Phillies game on July 1, 1941, viewers witnessed another historic television first.
For about 10 seconds, starting at precisely 2:29pm A clock face superimposed over a map of the United States appeared on the screen.
After about five seconds of silence, an authoritative voice announced, america runs on Bulova Time.
Congratulations America. You have just witnessed your first television commercial.
It was fortunate for bulova that the 10 second spot only cost them 9 $9 because hardly anybody saw the ad.
When the FCC adopted the NTSC 525 line standard in March, there were fewer than 10,000 television receivers in the New York metropolitan area, all still operating on RCA's proprietary 441 line format.
When the Commission ruled that commercial broadcasts had to use the new standard, all those early adopters suddenly found themselves in possession of an elegant but useless piece of furniture.
With its formidable corporate resources, RCA was able to retool quickly.
Weeks after the new code was mandated, RCA was aggressively marketing their new TRK line of 12 inch, 9 inch and 5 inch receivers in advance of the July 1st launch of commercial broadcasting.
Other companies like General Electric, Dumont and Philco quickly followed suit.
Still, it is likely that fewer than 1,000 televisions were capable of seeing that first commercial production ramped up quickly through the remainder of 1941.
Nearly 10,000 new sets were sold in the last half of the year. As consumers rushed to adopt what was now a settled and promising new source of information and entertainment.
Later that same July evening, CBS's WCBW, now WCBS TV, also launched its first day of scheduled programming. Though it took a more conservative approach than NBC.
The programming included news segments and a discussion show. It also included the one time experimental broadcast of a game show called Truth or Consequences, the first game show on American television. But CBS refrained from selling any commercial advertising until later in the year.
Rather than the 1939 World's Fair, July 1, 1941 should be remembered as the day television truly entered American life.
From Philo Farnsworth's workbench in 1927 to a 10 second Bulova ad in 1941, it had taken 14 years for television to become a business, a medium and a fixture in the nation's living rooms.
It all came to a screeching halt five months later when the Japanese bombed Pearl harbor on December 7, 1941.
This brings us to the end of number 91 in the countdown of the top 100 milestones in the first 100 years of television.
Stay tuned for the next episode when all the resources of the nascent television industry shift to wartime production.
Thanks for listening to 100 Years of Television. This is a two year countdown to the centennial of television on September 7, 2027.
For more, aim your gizmo to 100yearstv.com this podcast was written, recorded, edited, engineered and uploaded by me, Paul Schatzkin and is a production of Farnovision.com if television was invented by somebody named Farnsworth, why don't we call it Farnovision?
[00:05:43] Speaker A: They all said we never would be happy. They laughed at us and how but ho ho ho, who got to laugh out now.
