My father was a WWll vet., and as soon as he returned home he married my mother. They were poor peanut farmers in Oklahoma, and lived in a small one room shack with no indoor plumbing. The first thing they did was go in debt for a television, and it was the first one seen in that area. My parents said on Saturday night they would sit the t.v. in the window, and all of the neighbors would sit outside around the window to watch wrestling. Some would arrive early to watch the test pattern. This was the only program on at that time, and even the test pattern was interesting.
That was a bold thing for your parents to do! The first TV station in Oklahoma went on the air in 1949, so your dad would've had to wait quite a while with that interest in TV before he could watch. Cool story.
James Ferris, thanks ! That's a great and picturesque story, but I need some FACTS ! When will the test pattern be on the boob tube, again? Does it have a time slot on Nik@Nite ? ;-)
My Uncle, who grew up in the '40's & '50's in rural Alabama, mentioned to me, that their neighbors had the first TV he ever saw. He said, that wrestling was pretty much the only thing on. My landlady, when I lived near Georgia Tech in Atlanta, said her tenant, sometime in the late '40's or early '50's, had the first TV, which she saw. She also said, that wrestling was pretty much the only thing on. Whether rural or urban, it was pro-wrestling. ...Funny how history fails to mention that, instead letting people imagine, that viewers were watching "Masterpiece Theatre", when they really were watching "Gorgeous George"!
My grandmother's next-door neighbor bought the first color television in our town. I remember watching "Bonanza" on it in 1959 , complete with pink horses and a purple sky.
I grew up in Los Angeles 1940's/50's. I remember the Don Lee Network, but never knew what it was. Thank you for this presentation. It's filled in some blanks from my youth.
I was a broadcasting major in college (once upon a time), and I'd never heard about the Don Lee Broadcasting System - ever. Thanks once again for your amazing ability to dig in the nooks and crannies of history to find the stories we rarely hear.
That might've been because Don Lee was West Coast-based. He owned KFRC then KHJ, both West Coast stations. If you're from somewhere else in the country, that could explain why. I'm a radio historian, and went into radio 35 years ago, AND on the West Coast, so I've known about Don Lee most of my life. He passed in 1934, and his son Thomas took over the business. In fact, LA's Channel 2 is now KCBS-TV, but it began life as Don Lee TV station KTSL (for Thomas S. Lee), but they sold it to CBS, who changed the letters to KNXT.
@@ApartmentKing66 I don't think there is any sort of coastal bias in how universities teach their subject matter, or at least I don't think there was back in the late 80's when I took my courses. It might have been a bias on the part of those who wrote the texts I encountered to focus on the major networks, which is a pity, as THG just showed so succinctly. I mean, the DuMont Network gets more attention, and they were only around 10 years!
@@ApartmentKing66 i’ve heard two scenarios about Don lee’s death 1.he choked to death in a restaurant 2. heart attack As mentioned here in the video. what are your thoughts?
I went to college for a television degree. We learned about Farnsworth and others never Lee or Lubcke. Thank you History Guy for giving us "The rest of the story"!
@@User0000000000000004 What's wrong with a television degree... I got one watching in the fifties. From Sky King... along with my cherished decoder ring
Mark wasn't Farnsworth the one that came up with how the picture would be received when he was a teenager? Sorry electronics are not my strongest point. Wrote it the best that I could.
@@tomriley5790 It is interesting , a lot of the Baird Ideas needed the discoveries of others to get to reliable working and it does seem that Lubcke came up with similar solutions. I wonder what Lee used to scan film, as Bairds Flying spot method is still the basis of film scanning to TV broadcast. Baird was hampered by the lack of support from the GPO in Britain along with reticence from the BBC at first too and also got caught up in a lot of fighting with RCA held patents (which I doubt were declared by them as being purchased from Lubcke once they developed systems for EMI in the UK). Baird was a bit slow in bringing in more line scanning ( though would get to 1000lines+ for post WW2 broadcasts into cinemas ) simply as they went to manufacturing sets which then effectively became a stuck technology - using the idea of independent kits as Lee did seemed to allow for more incremental innovation. Baird also had technology and finance links into pre WW2 Germany which obviously come the war impacted the UK initially far more than the US and Baird effectively lost control of the company as a result of need of finance and his death shortly after the end of WW2 really stopped independent UK innovation
As an engineer I can say that the original synchronization of the signal was the key to a lot of devices we use today. You can see by what frequencies communication operate on and to hold the frequencies they require synchronization even tho these devices are of different designs today. Great lesson History Guy but the outcome was still fashioned by WWII. It’s amazing how that war shaped our world we live in today.
4 года назад+3
I believe the Germans had Television in 1939 too, not sure if it was available to the public.
You can say that as an engineer, huh? I guess that means you're correct. Couldn't possibly have just brought that statement right out from under your ass. No way.
A big piece of The Don Lee Broadcasting still exists, what was the new studio is now the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study owned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
One of the thing I love about your channel is the flashbacks I get when I watch and this one was no different! The flashback this time was in the late 60's while as a young child our TV died and my father took the back off of it to see what was wrong and for someone of 7 or 8 this was a wonderland of technology I was staring at. He removed all the vacuum tubes and we went to the store to have them checked out on this machine and once he found the bad one he loaded up all us boys and went home to repair the TV. So thank you THG for the history lesson and the trip down memory lane.
I hold a broadcasting degree from SIUE. In all of my studies we never heard of Don Lee Broadcasting or H.R. Lubcke.. This was extremely interesting to me. Thank you.
I always enjoy episodes about common household items. We take for granted being able to put washing into a washing machine or putting items into a fridge, just a couple of generations ago this was not possible.
@john street Not all stations did that. Some stations would have the test pattern for two to five minutes before and after the day's broadcast. Then it was "snow" and a rather obnoxious sound.
I can remember mornings eagerly waiting in front of a television for the test pattern to appear, then the national anthem, all in anticipation of the morning cartoons.
Don Lee's Cadillac dealership building is a landmark today in Pasadena, CA. I walked by it several times a week for decades. The beautiful building on Green St. is on the Nat'l Historic Register (as are many of Don Lee's dealerships throughout CA) and now houses an exclusive florist. Starting in the late 40s, my grandparents bought a new Caddy from his dealership every two years. Ah, the memories! Thanks, THG, for another amble through history, in this particular case, a bit of mine!
My great great grandfather had several cars shortly before the Mexican revolution. A Thomson. A stanly and a Cadillac . His house had electricity and plumbing. Everything was taken away by the revolutionaries
6:57 that picture of the L.A. river from the 1930s is pretty amazing. The river is easy to forget as it now runs in an aqueduct but the river used to flood areas of L.A. and it along with the San Gabriel defined the geography of L.A., with places like Riverside and MacArthur park (used to be Westlake Park). This would be a great topic for a video History Guy team.
How sad that you lost your river in L.A. We love our Chicago River. You can kayak under bridges that lift up for tall ships and dye it green for Saint Pat’s. We did have to change the direction it flowed back in 1900. We dug the Deep Tunnel to handle flood water (although it may not be deep enough).
Thank you for this most excellent coverage of our early television history. A subject near and dear to my heart. One of the high points of my life was having a two hour conversation with Pem Farnsworth by telephone many years ago. She spoke highly of Lubke and the other engineers and technicians who worked side by side with her husband, who she adored to her dying day, Philo T. Farnsworth. My personal hero and inspiration.
I've read a couple books about early television history and had not learned about Lubke or the Don Lee network. This video was very informative, thank you so much!
John Logie Baird? A great pioneer of TV history pre-war (from 1921 onwards). After the Second World War he proposed using a system he had developed, here in the U.K., for a 1000 line system which would have given the same definition as 4K gives us today!
Thank you for your interesting histories. My grandfather Earl L White came out from Kansas in 1910, he developed Magnolia Park and parts of Burbank, he had a radio station KELW Burbank that eventually became KABC. His son my father P H White worked at Lockheed and pulled the plane chocks out from under Wiley Post and Will Rogers plane and then waved goodbye. Your story about that era in that area is very interesting..
You end by saying " I hope you enjoyed this..." You have no ideal how much I do. You sir are a national treasure that as of yet are still held dear to just a few.
Wow. I enjoy all of your work, but you outdid yourself this time, with the Don Lee story. I don't live in LA anymore, but grew up there and was always kind of a TV geek. There are a few web sites which have bits and pieces of the story of Don Lee and Harry Lubcke, but you marvelously pulled all of that info together. Almost all of the locations where Don Lee functioned are still up and around in LA. His studio at 7th and Bixel was demolished about 10 years ago for a high rise, but the rest of the buildings still exist. For example, the main studio at 5515 Melrose was for a long time the site of KHJ radio (his radio station), but that's now part of Paramount Pictures. The building on Vine St where KTSL had its early studio is now a Motion Picture Academy archive. You knew about Mt. Lee and the LA City operation in his old transmitter. And the Wiltern Building in LA, where Tommy Lee jumped to his death, is now a historical monument (not for this, of course). I realize that your audience is worldwide. However, if you wanted to expand on the growth of broadcasting, and growth of broadcasting in Los Angeles, you might want to look up Earle C. Anthony, a Packard dealer and a competing broadcaster to Don Lee. It might be worth a story, perhaps. Thanks for the great work, and keep it up!
I remember as a kid going with my father to the local hardware store and watching him test a bunch of tubes he would take out of the TV whenever it broke down. Back home, he would replace them while my mother stood by making sure neither I, nor my sister would wander back there while he worked. She was convinced we would be instantly electrocuted if we went anywhere near the exposed back side of the set. Till this day I still hesitate when plugging and unplugging cables behind my own TV's. So many great memories. Between Covid, Minneapolis,the protests, I've become little down and depressed. Your channel always provides a smile with all the wonderful memories of a simpler time. Thanks History Guy, and Blessings to you and yours.
Another great story from history. I love history (and also have a degree in it) - but I continue to learn so much new stuff from your great work. I remember when TV came to the small west Texas area where I grew up in about 1955. Until then, my dad used to have me and my siblings sit around his armchair as he read from books to us. That was a great time in my early life. When we got our first TV, my dad quit reading to us and the TV became our nightly distraction from homework or hot evenings. Have you considered a study on how television changed family life in America? It sure did for us - and not for the better.
Thank you for these thoughts. I have a 6 year old, and my wife or I read to him almost every night at bedtime. Now, I think we both should be present to make it a family thing.
Interesting my family bought a TV in 1955 in Texas. As my dad set up the TV on a table we looked at it but nothing happened. It seems a second purchase was necessary. Dad said we'd have to wait a few months to afford an antenna that reached up about 60 feet so we could get something called reception. We always did enjoy sitting on the floor listening to the great radio programs that were very funny on the Radio. The TV would have to wait.
Wonderful story, partly due to me hearing about some of this before like the broadcast from the City of Long Beach after the earthquake in 1933. Living and hiking in the area, I will get around to hiking "Mount Lee". As a suggestion, how about the first live news report in 1949 of the girl who fell down the water-well and tragically died in the City of San Marino. There is a memorial plaque there still today. It is already on the internet, but I would love to hear your version of it. Thank you History Guy for another great bit of history!
Fascinating episode, History Guy; thank you for another great history reveal. I regret that, as a avid user of en.wikipedia.org, there is no article written - yet - about Harry Lubcke, only a reference in another article on Mount Lee. I hope The History Guy can make available a list of his sources for this episode, so that such an article can be crafted.
Back in the late 60"s in highschool, I majored in electronics, we actually Covered his innovations in television classes. Wow now I feel really old. Lol
@@dutt_arka it was fun, it was something I really loved so much that I went on to get my bachelor's degree in electronic engineering 5 years after graduating high school. From vacuum tubes to compactrons, to the first transistors, the first red LEDs that were not very bright, to IC chips and IC the logic, do today's LSI integration. It has been a wild ride. Lol. Nowadays it's moving so fast it's hard to keep up.
@@dutt_arka BTW. If you like old electronics there is a RUclipsr that's called. Mr. Carlson's lab. He refurbishes a lot of old electronics. there is another RUclipsr I don't remember his name, but he will totally rebuild really old tube radios replacing the old capacitors resistors and tubes from start to finish.
I know of W6AO well as my father Ritchard N. Brown, director/producer, was there in 1946 before moving to the"Red Network" (ABC) in 1947. He told me many stories about early broadcasting and you have filled some important blanks. Thank you History Guy
"They will live a long time, these men of broadcast television. They had an American quality. They, like their innovations, will be remembered as long as our generation lives. After that, like the men of early radio, they will become strangers. Longer and longer shadows will obscure them, until the terms CBS, NBC, and ABC sound distant on the ear, like roll film and LP." - With apologies to James Michener
Thank you Mr. Geiger for this great video tribute to Don Lee and Harry Lubcke. Two of the pioneers of modern day television. A perfect example of "If you build it they will come". Stories like this are one of the main reasons why I follow your channel. Thank you once again.
At 12:13, the History Guy says, "They also had that great commitment to original programming which was really ahead of its time..." And YOU, History Guy, carry on in that great tradition! Great work, as always! Thank you!
There are some men with extraordinary ingenuity like mr Lubkey. At General Electric a Swedish youngster became one of the company’s most important innovators. Mr Ernst Aleksandersson formed much of the radio technology during 1910 and 1920. In Sweden there are the only surviving mechanical ULW transmitter, of his design. 200kW transmitting power at 17,200 Hz. Fast keyed Morse code with 200 characters a minute. I think engineer Aleksanderssons story is worth remembering. Thank You for one of the best history sources of the internet!
I know many others have commented on you revealing something they had never, ever heard of over the years, and this is my moment. I thought I knew the history of television in America, but this takes the cake! Thank you.
My grandfather worked for Philo Farnsworth in the 1930's and was on the local tv in the Philadelphia area. If you got to the philo farnsworth website he can be seen in one of the pictures playing the drums. When I was young he told me a lot about him, quite the inventor. Thanks and stay safe.
Thanks for another great bit of history. As a boy in the 1950's and '60's I did not know that I lived in one of the few areas of nation where one could view all three major networks, I just thought everyone could watch all three.
This video came as a shock to me. It opened my eyes. Living in Schenectady I was immersed in GE history. When I received my amateur radio license I was more immersed by Individuals familiar with television and radar development. I miss those gentlemen of knowledge. They were the best teachers to me and others. Thank you ! Great video and I hope you can link GE tv to this video. Your great uncle would be pleased!!
Fascinating video! I was aware of a little bit of the history of W6XAO/KNXT/KCBS because the station aired a program on the station’s history some years ago; since the station was (and still is) owned by CBS, the special emphasized its place as a trailblazer in LA television and its connection to CBS, but didn’t mention much (if anything) about Don Lee. In the words of a famous broadcast personality, now I know the rest of the story! 😁 If you’re looking for more broadcast history that deserves to be remembered, I’d love to hear more about the “border radio” stations- the AM stations broadcasting of out of Mexico that had a substantial reach over the US at night. From what I’ve read, there were more than a few shady and colorful people involved with those stations. Keep up the great work!
Thank you. It reminded me of Earle C Anthony, another car dealer turned broadcaster. I still remember in mid 1950-1960s hearing the call-signature of that "blowtorch" 50,000 watt radio station KFI identified with Earle C. Anthony. KFI 640 is another great history story. Associated with the then "CONELRAD" system ("tune to 640 or 1240") to alert us of pending doom (cold war, etc.) All radios at the time all had the circle/triangle CONERLAD symbols on the tuning dial at 640 and 1240.
Thank you so much for that look back into early broadcasting, History Guy. As an electronics tech with a background in radio and TV, I appreciate the look into West Coast network operations. You have given me a detailed look at something which was dismissed in a sentence or two in my "History of Broadcasting" class in college. Anything else you have on early TV would be greatly appreciated. For example, did you know that Frances Farmer, the film actress, had a career as a host on local TV (Indianapolis) after her hospitalization?
I'm old enough to remember being at my dad's family home in Kentucky back in the mid 1950s and watching an old T.V. that had a tiny screen where everything shown on it had a greenish tint and that was more cabinet than screen. I seem to recall watching a documentary about the earliest days of B.B.C. (British Broadcasting Corporation) television wherein the new system was called "pictures in the sky".
My wife and I love an old time radio podcast. We often here programs originally broadcast on the Don Lee network. This particular history is particularly interesting in that context. Thank you.
Salute to the heroes of the Lee Broadcasting Network! Like the Baird team in the UK, pursuing a mechanical TV system to its limit - folk that indeed deserve to be remembered.
You left out "The Howdy Doody Show" and Milton Burle's "Texaco Hour". We got our first TV in 1948 when I was four. I can remember using the test pattern to get the best reception by moving the rabbit ears around when I was a tyke. An excellent informative video and thanks for the memories.
I grew up in the San Francisco area and am a bit of a radio history buff. I'd heard stories about the Don Lee Radio Network and some of the radio shows they had done in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. I never heard of the Don Lee Television Network until now. I did not know there was as much TV broadcasting back in the 1930s and early 1940s as there apparently was. Thanks for educating me.
This is a wonderful piece of forgotten history all right. Pretty much only us television history buffs (particularly those not in California) know of Don Lee and Harry Lubke at all. My esteem for Lubke has been increased greatly by this episode. Now I'm going to have to research him more. This episode was a great way to start my day.
Rob, this is from a Cheech and Chong comedy record: Cheech: "what's that on the TV?". Chong: "aw man, I'm watching a movie about Indians, but it's really boring". Cheech: "aw man, that's not a movie, man, that's a test pattern, man"!
@@Rfk1966 according to their Wiki it is mostly local. I'm going to tune it in next time I go to San Diego, live just to far away by a couple dozen miles to get it around home.
As a TV repairman for the last fifty odd years it's kinda fun hearing about all of the infighting and drama that came along with the Advent of broadcast TV thank you very much.
Thanks for this episode, I have heard for nearly sixty years “Brought to you by the Don Lee Broadcasting Network” from the “old time radio” that my grandmother introduced to me at an early age.
@Dave Goldspink I tend to agree Dave. I have not watched, or in fact even been remotely interested in the Logies for many years. But it is what it is. We are here because we like the History Guy...or is that Bloke? Cheers.
Baird proposed using a system as the standard in the U.K., that he had developed, of 1000 lines. This would have given us picture quality the same as 4K that we have today. As an aside when I was in the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford a couple of years ago I was being shown around their large collection store when I came across the apparatus that Baird used for his original experiments. The one with the large rotating disc and the paper machie dummy’s head.
Talking about the early days of TV makes me remember when we put our digital TV station on the air in 1999. For the first couple of years, I knew all of our viewers and ended up giving most of them tours of the studio and transmitter.
Sometimes, while listening to Radio Classics, a station on SiriusXM that broadcasts old radio shows, primarily from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, you will hear the network identifier for the "Don Lee Broadcasting System" on certain shows. I have been meaning to learn more about this network, but then I see TheHistoryGuy has done it all for me!
Thank you for a piece of history that deserves to be remembered ! Take care , stay safe and healthy there in St Louis ! Still doing well here in Kansas !
Thanks so much for the story of an enthralling pioneer. Two other pioneering efforts from the 1930s deserve their own documentary. The first is the 1935 Berlin TV station. This organised the 1936 Berlin Olympics broadcasting - the first ever Olympics television. The second is the BBC broadcasts starting in 1936. This kicked off with a song celebrating TV: Conjured up in sound and sight By those magic rays of light Which bring television to you... It might be the first song broadcast on TV, as well as being a rare example of a song about TV.
Excellent piece. I received a scholarship from Mark Finley, who was Thomas S. Lee's press agent in the 40s. He told me that studio building up on Mt Lee had a swimming pool with a glass wall, to telecast Busby Berkeley-style musicals. The building is long gone, but the old KTSL auxiliary tower made it as far as the 1994 earthquake. It was damaged and replaced. Virtually every LAPD and LAFD radio call is relayed on that tower - very high security.
What's really scary is that you have to describe to the viewers how television was broadcast through Airwaves, like we are describing some ancient technology! Are the rabbit ears antennas that much of a relic now?!
Many people don't realize you still can get broadcast television - you just need a different antenna, because the signal is now digital. But due to a variety of laws most major networks maintain broadcast stations, at least in metro markets. People in RVs often use this for their television while on the road, rather than pay for a satellite subscription they only use a couple times a year.
My mother loved Liberace, so we HAD to watch his show every week. One night she kept adjusting the "rabbit ears" constantly, though the B&W picture was fine. We finally figured out that what she thought was static was the lingering reflection of the sequins on his jacket.
@Gail1Marie That was called "image lag." Bright very bright spots-"specular reflections"- Would cause this effect in early television camera imaging tubes.
My late Dad built a 64 scanning line mechanical 'TV'. Pictures were transmitted via radio after the audio stations had closed down. A neon lamp was wired across the speaker output terminals and flickering signal resolved by a motor driven rotating metal disk having 64 small holes set in a spiral pattern around the outer one inch of the circumference. Synchronisation with the studio broadcast camera was done via a rope brake wrapped around the motor drive shaft. Apparently the small room was packed out with neighbours all trying to get a glimpse of this postage stamp sized picture. Stay safe folks. BobUK.
DuMont Television Network...another sad demise of innovators, and the only competition for CBS, NBC and ABC (ABC was not doing so good at all, at that time, but saved DuMont's butt once by refusing to join forces with CBS and NBC to push DuMont out of several big markets) from 1948 until 1956. Unfortunately, all kinescopes of their programing were destroyed in the 1970s, including many episodes of classic shows (common practice in the TV industry in that era). While not as obscure as the Don Lee Television Network, it's mostly forgotten now. They had a small TV station and transmitter in Allen Park, MI as our local affiliate, but that was quite a few years before my time. I guess as empires are forged, many fall by the wayside as collateral damage. Because the other 3 big networks had their radio programming to bring to the new Television Medium, and DuMont's rocky relationship with Paramount Television, they just could not compete. (Edit: The Honeymooners episodes were destroyed by CBS, where it aired. Jackie Gleason WAS on DuMont, but not with that show)
My father told me about how the local hardware store was selling TV antenas all the time but rarely did they sell a TV. It became all the rage for those in town to put up an antena on their chimneys to make the neighbors think they had a TV but only a handfull of folks had one. The reason he remembers it was that his grandfather was one if the better off folks in town and had started the fad, only he really did have a TV and all the jealous neighbors wanted to be like him. By the time I came along, we had all of 3 channels to watch from 7am to midnight, and if the president was on, our night was screwed because he would be on all 3 channels at the same time. Now I am a father and to get my boys to do their chores, we have to disconnect the internet lines coming into the house so that they wont be tempted to sit down. A lot of the problems with the coming generation can be attributed to lack of self control when it comes to entertainment and the mind numbing variety it offers.
Thanks so much for that shot of the W6XAO studio. I collect early test patterns, and while having seen another W6XAO pattern, have never seen the one in the lower right part of the frame. Look forward to recreating it in Photoshop.
Born in So. California during WWII, I remember growing up watching KHJ channel 9, the Don Lee Network, along with the other independents or semi-independents: KTLA Channel 5, KTTV channel 11, and KCOP channel 13. It's been many years since I heard anyone say the Don Lee Network.
May note that the Television's Inventor was an Idaho country boy. A fact that we Idahoans are proud of. Love your program and wish you further success.
This was fascinating. I had no idea of the history of Don Lee in television. I knew it was a regional radio affiliate for Mutual, almost purely from the classic OTR show "Let George Do it." Thank you for filling in so much of the story I'd never heard.
I grew up in Long Beach Calif. and do remember KHJ Ch 9 tv .Spent career in "Electronics" when it was analog LOL. The 1st Color TV station was KNBC Ch 4 in LA . My electronics class was visiting Ch 4 xmtr site on Mt Wilson when JFK was shot .
The History Guy is truly one of the best programs on RUclips!
I reakon! I've discovered this channel fairly recently & love the content & presentation.
Absolutely. He has a gift. My personal top three imo.
My father was a WWll vet., and as soon as he returned home he married my mother. They were poor peanut farmers in Oklahoma, and lived in a small one room shack with no indoor plumbing. The first thing they did was go in debt for a television, and it was the first one seen in that area. My parents said on Saturday night they would sit the t.v. in the window, and all of the neighbors would sit outside around the window to watch wrestling. Some would arrive early to watch the test pattern. This was the only program on at that time, and even the test pattern was interesting.
That was a bold thing for your parents to do! The first TV station in Oklahoma went on the air in 1949, so your dad would've had to wait quite a while with that interest in TV before he could watch. Cool story.
James Ferris, thanks ! That's a great and picturesque story, but I need some FACTS ! When will the test pattern be on the boob tube, again? Does it have a time slot on Nik@Nite ? ;-)
My Uncle, who grew up in the '40's & '50's in rural Alabama, mentioned to me, that their neighbors had the first TV he ever saw. He said, that wrestling was pretty much the only thing on. My landlady, when I lived near Georgia Tech in Atlanta, said her tenant, sometime in the late '40's or early '50's, had the first TV, which she saw. She also said, that wrestling was pretty much the only thing on. Whether rural or urban, it was pro-wrestling. ...Funny how history fails to mention that, instead letting people imagine, that viewers were watching "Masterpiece Theatre", when they really were watching "Gorgeous George"!
Your dad was probably one of the guys that threw bricks at Jim Cornette in Tulsa. LOL
My grandmother's next-door neighbor bought the first color television in our town. I remember watching "Bonanza" on it in 1959 , complete with pink horses and a purple sky.
I grew up in Los Angeles 1940's/50's. I remember the Don Lee Network, but never knew what it was. Thank you for this presentation. It's filled in some blanks from my youth.
I was a broadcasting major in college (once upon a time), and I'd never heard about the Don Lee Broadcasting System - ever. Thanks once again for your amazing ability to dig in the nooks and crannies of history to find the stories we rarely hear.
Stone 1 andonly.....what you said...
That might've been because Don Lee was West Coast-based. He owned KFRC then KHJ, both West Coast stations. If you're from somewhere else in the country, that could explain why. I'm a radio historian, and went into radio 35 years ago, AND on the West Coast, so I've known about Don Lee most of my life. He passed in 1934, and his son Thomas took over the business. In fact, LA's Channel 2 is now KCBS-TV, but it began life as Don Lee TV station KTSL (for Thomas S. Lee), but they sold it to CBS, who changed the letters to KNXT.
@@ApartmentKing66 I don't think there is any sort of coastal bias in how universities teach their subject matter, or at least I don't think there was back in the late 80's when I took my courses. It might have been a bias on the part of those who wrote the texts I encountered to focus on the major networks, which is a pity, as THG just showed so succinctly. I mean, the DuMont Network gets more attention, and they were only around 10 years!
@@ApartmentKing66 i’ve heard two scenarios about Don lee’s death 1.he choked to death in a restaurant 2. heart attack As mentioned here in the video. what are your thoughts?
@@ApartmentKing66 and why did his son Thomas commit suicide? Would love your thougbts
I went to college for a television degree. We learned about Farnsworth and others never Lee or Lubcke. Thank you History Guy for giving us "The rest of the story"!
A television degree? TELEVISION DEGREE?! I hope you dropped out or at least got a refund!
How about Logie Baird?
@@User0000000000000004 What's wrong with a television degree... I got one watching in the fifties. From Sky King... along with my cherished decoder ring
Mark wasn't Farnsworth the one that came up with how the picture would be received when he was a teenager? Sorry electronics are not my strongest point. Wrote it the best that I could.
@@tomriley5790 It is interesting , a lot of the Baird Ideas needed the discoveries of others to get to reliable working and it does seem that Lubcke came up with similar solutions. I wonder what Lee used to scan film, as Bairds Flying spot method is still the basis of film scanning to TV broadcast. Baird was hampered by the lack of support from the GPO in Britain along with reticence from the BBC at first too and also got caught up in a lot of fighting with RCA held patents (which I doubt were declared by them as being purchased from Lubcke once they developed systems for EMI in the UK). Baird was a bit slow in bringing in more line scanning ( though would get to 1000lines+ for post WW2 broadcasts into cinemas ) simply as they went to manufacturing sets which then effectively became a stuck technology - using the idea of independent kits as Lee did seemed to allow for more incremental innovation. Baird also had technology and finance links into pre WW2 Germany which obviously come the war impacted the UK initially far more than the US and Baird effectively lost control of the company as a result of need of finance and his death shortly after the end of WW2 really stopped independent UK innovation
As an engineer I can say that the original synchronization of the signal was the key to a lot of devices we use today. You can see by what frequencies communication operate on and to hold the frequencies they require synchronization even tho these devices are of different designs today. Great lesson History Guy but the outcome was still fashioned by WWII. It’s amazing how that war shaped our world we live in today.
I believe the Germans had Television in 1939 too, not sure if it was available to the public.
You can say that as an engineer, huh? I guess that means you're correct. Couldn't possibly have just brought that statement right out from under your ass. No way.
@@User0000000000000004 ha! As a random guy on the internet, I chuckle heartily at this statement
@ Actually even before then, the 1936 Berlin Olympics were broadcast. The original Nazi TV.
A big piece of The Don Lee Broadcasting still exists, what was the new studio is now the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study owned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Being a FCC licensed radio operator we use a great deal of his innovations still today only in solid state form. Thanks great video.
One of the thing I love about your channel is the flashbacks I get when I watch and this one was no different! The flashback this time was in the late 60's while as a young child our TV died and my father took the back off of it to see what was wrong and for someone of 7 or 8 this was a wonderland of technology I was staring at. He removed all the vacuum tubes and we went to the store to have them checked out on this machine and once he found the bad one he loaded up all us boys and went home to repair the TV.
So thank you THG for the history lesson and the trip down memory lane.
I hold a broadcasting degree from SIUE. In all of my studies we never heard of Don Lee Broadcasting or H.R. Lubcke.. This was extremely interesting to me. Thank you.
I always enjoy episodes about common household items. We take for granted being able to put washing into a washing machine or putting items into a fridge, just a couple of generations ago this was not possible.
My grandmother used a gasoline engine-powered washing machine!
We had and used a real "Ice Box" when I was a kid. We got ice from the Milkman twice a week.
I loved it when Television stations “signed off” for the evening.
@john street Not all stations did that. Some stations would have the test pattern for two to five minutes before and after the day's broadcast. Then it was "snow" and a rather obnoxious sound.
Some stations had very elaborate and patriotic sign on and off videos. Those were fun to watch and compare with other stations.
@@ronfullerton3162 BBC used to have the national anthem, then test card for a bit, then switched off the transmitters.
I can remember mornings eagerly waiting in front of a television for the test pattern to appear, then the national anthem, all in anticipation of the morning cartoons.
@@stuarthall3874 Haaaa ... "Have No Fear ... Underdog Is Here !"
Well done. Just put this on in Dec 2023. This is indeed history that deserves to be remembered.
Don Lee's Cadillac dealership building is a landmark today in Pasadena, CA. I walked by it several times a week for decades. The beautiful building on Green St. is on the Nat'l Historic Register (as are many of Don Lee's dealerships throughout CA) and now houses an exclusive florist. Starting in the late 40s, my grandparents bought a new Caddy from his dealership every two years. Ah, the memories! Thanks, THG, for another amble through history, in this particular case, a bit of mine!
My grandfather bought a 1931, V12 Cadillac from Don Lee, just before the full effects of the Great Depression were felt...
My great great grandfather had several cars shortly before the Mexican revolution.
A Thomson. A stanly and a Cadillac .
His house had electricity and plumbing. Everything was taken away by the revolutionaries
Nice taste! I wish Caddywhack was still on that level. I bet gramps took one hell of a haircut when he sold that car.
He he, we just wait to listen to that history guy, best broadcasts ever.
I want to listen to your mom.
@@User0000000000000004 🤣☝🏻
Thank you for preserving the life of people that made a difference.
6:57 that picture of the L.A. river from the 1930s is pretty amazing. The river is easy to forget as it now runs in an aqueduct but the river used to flood areas of L.A. and it along with the San Gabriel defined the geography of L.A., with places like Riverside and MacArthur park (used to be Westlake Park). This would be a great topic for a video History Guy team.
Thank you. I was wondering about that photograph, view.
That is amazing. I can't believe how wide the river was and how undeveloped LA was then. That's less than 100 years ago!
How sad that you lost your river in L.A. We love our Chicago River. You can kayak under bridges that lift up for tall ships and dye it green for Saint Pat’s. We did have to change the direction it flowed back in 1900. We dug the Deep Tunnel to handle flood water (although it may not be deep enough).
Thank you for this most excellent coverage of our early television history. A subject near and dear to my heart. One of the high points of my life was having a two hour conversation with Pem Farnsworth by telephone many years ago. She spoke highly of Lubke and the other engineers and technicians who worked side by side with her husband, who she adored to her dying day, Philo T. Farnsworth. My personal hero and inspiration.
I've read a couple books about early television history and had not learned about Lubke or the Don Lee network. This video was very informative, thank you so much!
I had always thought of Allen duMont as a pioneer of television broadcasting. Thanks for setting me straight.
I agree. There was a plethora of information I've never heard before this offering.
John Logie Baird? A great pioneer of TV history pre-war (from 1921 onwards). After the Second World War he proposed using a system he had developed, here in the U.K., for a 1000 line system which would have given the same definition as 4K gives us today!
Thank you for your interesting histories.
My grandfather Earl L White came out from Kansas in 1910, he developed Magnolia Park and parts of Burbank, he had a radio station KELW Burbank that eventually became KABC.
His son my father P H White worked at Lockheed and pulled the plane chocks out from under Wiley Post and Will Rogers plane and then waved goodbye.
Your story about that era in that area is very interesting..
So, did Earle C. Anthony buy KELW from your grandfather and change the call letters to KECA?
For my taste, being an early technologist, this is one of your most interesting segments. Congratulations!
You end by saying " I hope you enjoyed this..." You have no ideal how much I do. You sir are a national treasure that as of yet are still held dear to just a few.
I do remember KHJ radio, it was the heartbeat of the local county I lived in.
Wow. I enjoy all of your work, but you outdid yourself this time, with the Don Lee story. I don't live in LA anymore, but grew up there and was always kind of a TV geek. There are a few web sites which have bits and pieces of the story of Don Lee and Harry Lubcke, but you marvelously pulled all of that info together. Almost all of the locations where Don Lee functioned are still up and around in LA. His studio at 7th and Bixel was demolished about 10 years ago for a high rise, but the rest of the buildings still exist. For example, the main studio at 5515 Melrose was for a long time the site of KHJ radio (his radio station), but that's now part of Paramount Pictures. The building on Vine St where KTSL had its early studio is now a Motion Picture Academy archive. You knew about Mt. Lee and the LA City operation in his old transmitter. And the Wiltern Building in LA, where Tommy Lee jumped to his death, is now a historical monument (not for this, of course).
I realize that your audience is worldwide. However, if you wanted to expand on the growth of broadcasting, and growth of broadcasting in Los Angeles, you might want to look up Earle C. Anthony, a Packard dealer and a competing broadcaster to Don Lee. It might be worth a story, perhaps.
Thanks for the great work, and keep it up!
Great video! Broadcasting of the 1940 Rose Parade brought my mother out from Minnesota, somehow, where she met my Dad.
I remember as a kid going with my father to the local hardware store and watching him test a bunch of tubes he would take out of the TV whenever it broke down. Back home, he would replace them while my mother stood by making sure neither I, nor my sister would wander back there while he worked. She was convinced we would be instantly electrocuted if we went anywhere near the exposed back side of the set. Till this day I still hesitate when plugging and unplugging cables behind my own TV's. So many great memories.
Between Covid, Minneapolis,the protests, I've become little down and depressed. Your channel always provides a smile with all the wonderful memories of a simpler time. Thanks History Guy, and Blessings to you and yours.
Another great story from history. I love history (and also have a degree in it) - but I continue to learn so much new stuff from your great work. I remember when TV came to the small west Texas area where I grew up in about 1955. Until then, my dad used to have me and my siblings sit around his armchair as he read from books to us. That was a great time in my early life. When we got our first TV, my dad quit reading to us and the TV became our nightly distraction from homework or hot evenings. Have you considered a study on how television changed family life in America? It sure did for us - and not for the better.
Thank you for these thoughts. I have a 6 year old, and my wife or I read to him almost every night at bedtime. Now, I think we both should be present to make it a family thing.
I've always thought that in the end TV may be considered a bane on humanity and not a boon.
Interesting my family bought a TV in 1955 in Texas. As my dad set up the TV on a table we looked at it but nothing happened. It seems a second purchase was necessary. Dad said we'd have to wait a few months to afford an antenna that reached up about 60 feet so we could get something called reception. We always did enjoy sitting on the floor listening to the great radio programs that were very funny on the Radio. The TV would have to wait.
I never understand the dislikes on this channel I love the history guy and I am saying that most people do to this video was very interesting as usual
Ludittes. Or trolls.
CBS Board members. 😂
It's ANTIFA and BLM. They HATE facts.
people just hate for a hobby
@@christianfreedom-seeker934 you're thinking the Proud Boys. And the orange shitgibbon.
Wonderful story, partly due to me hearing about some of this before like the broadcast from the City of Long Beach after the earthquake in 1933. Living and hiking in the area, I will get around to hiking "Mount Lee". As a suggestion, how about the first live news report in 1949 of the girl who fell down the water-well and tragically died in the City of San Marino. There is a memorial plaque there still today. It is already on the internet, but I would love to hear your version of it. Thank you History Guy for another great bit of history!
Fascinating episode, History Guy; thank you for another great history reveal.
I regret that, as a avid user of en.wikipedia.org, there is no article written - yet - about Harry Lubcke, only a reference in another article on Mount Lee. I hope The History Guy can make available a list of his sources for this episode, so that such an article can be crafted.
Back in the late 60"s in highschool,
I majored in electronics, we actually
Covered his innovations in television classes. Wow now I feel really old. Lol
I'm majoring in Electronics Engineering,and it's really interesting to hear the perspective of people who studied Electronics way back in the 60s!
@@dutt_arka it was fun, it was something I really loved so much that I went on to get my bachelor's degree in electronic engineering 5 years after graduating high school. From vacuum tubes to compactrons, to the first transistors, the first red LEDs that were not very bright, to IC chips and IC the logic, do today's LSI integration. It has been a wild ride. Lol.
Nowadays it's moving so fast it's hard to keep up.
@@dutt_arka BTW. If you like old electronics there is a RUclipsr that's called. Mr. Carlson's lab. He refurbishes a lot of old electronics. there is another RUclipsr I don't remember his name, but he will totally rebuild really old tube radios replacing the old capacitors resistors and tubes from start to finish.
I know of W6AO well as my father Ritchard N. Brown, director/producer, was there in 1946 before moving to the"Red Network" (ABC) in 1947. He told me many stories about early broadcasting and you have filled some important blanks. Thank you History Guy
I think you mean the Blue network, NBC Blue became ABC .
"They will live a long time, these men of broadcast television. They had an American quality.
They, like their innovations, will be remembered as long as our generation lives. After that,
like the men of early radio, they will become strangers. Longer and longer shadows
will obscure them, until the terms CBS, NBC, and ABC sound distant on the ear, like roll film and LP."
- With apologies to James Michener
Thank you Mr. Geiger for this great video tribute to Don Lee and Harry Lubcke.
Two of the pioneers of modern day television. A perfect example of "If you build it they will come".
Stories like this are one of the main reasons why I follow your channel. Thank you once again.
Thank you, History Guy, for another well-told tale, full of detail and points of interest.
At 12:13, the History Guy says, "They also had that great commitment to original programming which was really ahead of its time..." And YOU, History Guy, carry on in that great tradition! Great work, as always! Thank you!
The steps we took from here to the NTSC and PAL system...man, what a ride it took
Ahhhh "Never The Same Color", "People Always Lavender"... But, you left out the "System Essentially Contrary (to the) American Method", or SECAM!
@@johnpinckney4979 : "Need The Signal Clearer"
I love stories about beginnings, and this was perfect!
There are some men with extraordinary ingenuity like mr Lubkey.
At General Electric a Swedish youngster became one of the company’s most important innovators.
Mr Ernst Aleksandersson formed much of the radio technology during 1910 and 1920.
In Sweden there are the only surviving mechanical ULW transmitter, of his design.
200kW transmitting power at 17,200 Hz.
Fast keyed Morse code with 200 characters a minute.
I think engineer Aleksanderssons story is worth remembering.
Thank You for one of the best history sources of the internet!
I know many others have commented on you revealing something they had never, ever heard of over the years, and this is my moment. I thought I knew the history of television in America, but this takes the cake! Thank you.
My grandfather worked for Philo Farnsworth in the 1930's and was on the local tv in the Philadelphia area. If you got to the philo farnsworth website he can be seen in one of the pictures playing the drums. When I was young he told me a lot about him, quite the inventor. Thanks and stay safe.
Thanks for another great bit of history. As a boy in the 1950's and '60's I did not know that I lived in one of the few areas of nation where one could view all three major networks, I just thought everyone could watch all three.
Thank you for bringing back memories of when I was a kid. There was a WW2 vet that I used to talk to for hours that worked in early radio and tv.
This video came as a shock to me. It opened my eyes. Living in Schenectady I was immersed in GE history. When I received my amateur radio license I was more immersed by Individuals familiar with television and radar development. I miss those gentlemen of knowledge. They were the best teachers to me and others. Thank you ! Great video and I hope you can link GE tv to this video. Your great uncle would be pleased!!
Fascinating video! I was aware of a little bit of the history of W6XAO/KNXT/KCBS because the station aired a program on the station’s history some years ago; since the station was (and still is) owned by CBS, the special emphasized its place as a trailblazer in LA television and its connection to CBS,
but didn’t mention much (if anything) about Don Lee. In the words of a famous broadcast personality, now I know the rest of the story! 😁
If you’re looking for more broadcast history that deserves to be remembered, I’d love to hear more about the “border radio” stations- the AM stations broadcasting of out of Mexico that had a substantial reach over the US at night. From what I’ve read, there were more than a few shady and colorful people involved with those stations. Keep up the great work!
Thank you. It reminded me of Earle C Anthony, another car dealer turned broadcaster. I still remember in mid 1950-1960s hearing the call-signature of that "blowtorch" 50,000 watt radio station KFI identified with Earle C. Anthony.
KFI 640 is another great history story. Associated with the then "CONELRAD" system ("tune to 640 or 1240") to alert us of pending doom (cold war, etc.) All radios at the time all had the circle/triangle CONERLAD symbols on the tuning dial at 640 and 1240.
THG never ceases to amaze me. This bits of hidden and forgotten history are amazing!
Thank you so much for that look back into early broadcasting, History Guy. As an electronics tech with a background in radio and TV, I appreciate the look into West Coast network operations. You have given me a detailed look at something which was dismissed in a sentence or two in my "History of Broadcasting" class in college. Anything else you have on early TV would be greatly appreciated. For example, did you know that Frances Farmer, the film actress, had a career as a host on local TV (Indianapolis) after her hospitalization?
I simply love this guy and this video.its a history geeks dream come true.
Perfect example of the content that makes this one of the best channels on youtube.
Thanks again for the real stories the public hasn't heard.
I'm old enough to remember being at my dad's family home in Kentucky back in the mid 1950s and watching an old T.V. that had a tiny screen where everything shown on it had a greenish tint and that was more cabinet than screen. I seem to recall watching a documentary about the earliest days of B.B.C. (British Broadcasting Corporation) television wherein the new system was called "pictures in the sky".
My wife and I love an old time radio podcast. We often here programs originally broadcast on the Don Lee network. This particular history is particularly interesting in that context. Thank you.
Salute to the heroes of the Lee Broadcasting Network! Like the Baird team in the UK, pursuing a mechanical TV system to its limit - folk that indeed deserve to be remembered.
I have viewed most all of your tales and this is the most impactfull yet. Brava, like Mr, Lubcke, keep educating and inovating. P.S....Luv the Bow Tie
I am amazed at the amount of lost and buried history. Thank you.
Or history that's been willfully trashed...
You left out "The Howdy Doody Show" and Milton Burle's "Texaco Hour". We got our first TV in 1948 when I was four. I can remember using the test pattern to get the best reception by moving the rabbit ears around when I was a tyke. An excellent informative video and thanks for the memories.
I grew up in the San Francisco area and am a bit of a radio history buff. I'd heard stories about the Don Lee Radio Network and some of the radio shows they had done in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. I never heard of the Don Lee Television Network until now. I did not know there was as much TV broadcasting back in the 1930s and early 1940s as there apparently was. Thanks for educating me.
This is a wonderful piece of forgotten history all right. Pretty much only us television history buffs (particularly those not in California) know of Don Lee and Harry Lubke at all. My esteem for Lubke has been increased greatly by this episode. Now I'm going to have to research him more. This episode was a great way to start my day.
Another Don Lee station has an interesting footnote in history. Google KLEE-TV Houston...
Breakfast with the history guy I enjoyed this one I knew nothing about it and now I do thanks again history guy
As a Southern Californian, this was fascinating. The call sign KHJ is still around, but I think they are a religious broadcaster now
The Don Lee El Centro station, KXO is still around and cater to an older radio audience.
Rob, this is from a Cheech and Chong comedy record: Cheech: "what's that on the TV?". Chong: "aw man, I'm watching a movie about Indians, but it's really boring". Cheech: "aw man, that's not a movie, man, that's a test pattern, man"!
Kevin Conrad I try to tune it in when crossing the desert. Still sounds locally programmed... a rarity
@@Rfk1966 according to their Wiki it is mostly local. I'm going to tune it in next time I go to San Diego, live just to far away by a couple dozen miles to get it around home.
Rob KHJ radio station was a popular station in the 60s I understand.
I worked at KRKO in Everett WA.! Its definitely History that deserves to be Remembered!
Were you on air? Your name sounds familiar. Any other western WA stations?
As a TV repairman for the last fifty odd years it's kinda fun hearing about all of the infighting and drama that came along with the Advent of broadcast TV thank you very much.
@11:11 - He deserves an Emmy for his - I.M.M.Y. image orthicon camera
Thanks for this episode, I have heard for nearly sixty years “Brought to you by the Don Lee Broadcasting Network” from the “old time radio” that my grandmother introduced to me at an early age.
Another pioneer was John Logie Baird. The Australian television awards are named Logies.
As an Australian, I never knew that.
@Dave Goldspink I tend to agree Dave. I have not watched, or in fact even been remotely interested in the Logies for many years. But it is what it is. We are here because we like the History Guy...or is that Bloke? Cheers.
Who was a Scotsman naturally.
@@bobmurdoch4719 who natural said "sod this!" to the weather, and moved to England! ;-)
Baird proposed using a system as the standard in the U.K., that he had developed, of 1000 lines. This would have given us picture quality the same as 4K that we have today. As an aside when I was in the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford a couple of years ago I was being shown around their large collection store when I came across the apparatus that Baird used for his original experiments. The one with the large rotating disc and the paper machie dummy’s head.
Talking about the early days of TV makes me remember when we put our digital TV station on the air in 1999. For the first couple of years, I knew all of our viewers and ended up giving most of them tours of the studio and transmitter.
Sometimes, while listening to Radio Classics, a station on SiriusXM that broadcasts old radio shows, primarily from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, you will hear the network identifier for the "Don Lee Broadcasting System" on certain shows. I have been meaning to learn more about this network, but then I see TheHistoryGuy has done it all for me!
Thank you for a piece of history that deserves to be remembered ! Take care , stay safe and healthy there in St Louis ! Still doing well here in Kansas !
Thanks so much for the story of an enthralling pioneer. Two other pioneering efforts from the 1930s deserve their own documentary.
The first is the 1935 Berlin TV station. This organised the 1936 Berlin Olympics broadcasting - the first ever Olympics television.
The second is the BBC broadcasts starting in 1936. This kicked off with a song celebrating TV:
Conjured up in sound and sight
By those magic rays of light
Which bring television to you...
It might be the first song broadcast on TV, as well as being a rare example of a song about TV.
What a marvelous piece of history..Bravo!
Loved this one as I work in the broadcast industry!
Sir you never cease to amaze !! Thank you for all you do I'm A fan for life 👍
Excellent piece. I received a scholarship from Mark Finley, who was Thomas S. Lee's press agent in the 40s. He told me that studio building up on Mt Lee had a swimming pool with a glass wall, to telecast Busby Berkeley-style musicals. The building is long gone, but the old KTSL auxiliary tower made it as far as the 1994 earthquake. It was damaged and replaced. Virtually every LAPD and LAFD radio call is relayed on that tower - very high security.
I love when you cover these little gems of American history. Thank you.
You never to cease to amaze. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Another fascinating episode, thank you 😊
What's really scary is that you have to describe to the viewers how television was broadcast through Airwaves, like we are describing some ancient technology! Are the rabbit ears antennas that much of a relic now?!
Yes
Yes, and it was free.
Many people don't realize you still can get broadcast television - you just need a different antenna, because the signal is now digital. But due to a variety of laws most major networks maintain broadcast stations, at least in metro markets. People in RVs often use this for their television while on the road, rather than pay for a satellite subscription they only use a couple times a year.
My mother loved Liberace, so we HAD to watch his show every week. One night she kept adjusting the "rabbit ears" constantly, though the B&W picture was fine. We finally figured out that what she thought was static was the lingering reflection of the sequins on his jacket.
@Gail1Marie
That was called "image lag." Bright very bright spots-"specular reflections"-
Would cause this effect in early television camera imaging tubes.
Another fantastic video done by the History Guy. Very well done!
As a retired engineer(Broadcast/recording) I knew some of this. Lee is an icon in electronics, Like a Colt in Firearms, a Ford, etc.
Definitely please do more of the history of television and radio. Very interesting! Thank you
My late Dad built a 64 scanning line mechanical 'TV'. Pictures were transmitted via radio after the audio stations had closed down. A neon lamp was wired across the speaker output terminals and flickering signal resolved by a motor driven rotating metal disk having 64 small holes set in a spiral pattern around the outer one inch of the circumference. Synchronisation with the studio broadcast camera was done via a rope brake wrapped around the motor drive shaft. Apparently the small room was packed out with neighbours all trying to get a glimpse of this postage stamp sized picture. Stay safe folks. BobUK.
DuMont Television Network...another sad demise of innovators, and the only competition for CBS, NBC and ABC (ABC was not doing so good at all, at that time, but saved DuMont's butt once by refusing to join forces with CBS and NBC to push DuMont out of several big markets) from 1948 until 1956. Unfortunately, all kinescopes of their programing were destroyed in the 1970s, including many episodes of classic shows (common practice in the TV industry in that era). While not as obscure as the Don Lee Television Network, it's mostly forgotten now. They had a small TV station and transmitter in Allen Park, MI as our local affiliate, but that was quite a few years before my time. I guess as empires are forged, many fall by the wayside as collateral damage. Because the other 3 big networks had their radio programming to bring to the new Television Medium, and DuMont's rocky relationship with Paramount Television, they just could not compete.
(Edit: The Honeymooners episodes were destroyed by CBS, where it aired. Jackie Gleason WAS on DuMont, but not with that show)
My father told me about how the local hardware store was selling TV antenas all the time but rarely did they sell a TV. It became all the rage for those in town to put up an antena on their chimneys to make the neighbors think they had a TV but only a handfull of folks had one. The reason he remembers it was that his grandfather was one if the better off folks in town and had started the fad, only he really did have a TV and all the jealous neighbors wanted to be like him. By the time I came along, we had all of 3 channels to watch from 7am to midnight, and if the president was on, our night was screwed because he would be on all 3 channels at the same time. Now I am a father and to get my boys to do their chores, we have to disconnect the internet lines coming into the house so that they wont be tempted to sit down. A lot of the problems with the coming generation can be attributed to lack of self control when it comes to entertainment and the mind numbing variety it offers.
True dat.
Thank you so much . Just a great story ....
Well done again HG. It is incredibly important that these guys and what they did is always remembered.
...another winner from the history guy.
Your video reminded me of the career of Wolf Man Jack and his radio work as he entertained multitudes of teenagers in years past.
The History Guy is in no way mind numbing. He was some of the best content on RUclips.
Absolutely CAPTIVATING! Thank you for this amazing history lesson.
Thanks so much for that shot of the W6XAO studio. I collect early test patterns, and while having seen another W6XAO pattern, have never seen the one in the lower right part of the frame. Look forward to recreating it in Photoshop.
Born in So. California during WWII, I remember growing up watching KHJ channel 9, the Don Lee Network, along with the other independents or semi-independents: KTLA Channel 5, KTTV channel 11, and KCOP channel 13. It's been many years since I heard anyone say the Don Lee Network.
May note that the Television's Inventor was an Idaho country boy. A fact that we Idahoans are proud of.
Love your program and wish you further success.
That is really interesting history to remember. Thanks HG. Epic as usual!
This was fascinating. I had no idea of the history of Don Lee in television. I knew it was a regional radio affiliate for Mutual, almost purely from the classic OTR show "Let George Do it." Thank you for filling in so much of the story I'd never heard.
Another fascinating story on history! I greatly appreciate your work! I'm a huge fan!!! Thanks!
The way you tell us about the US-history is really stunning - greetings from Germany - cant wait for the next Episode!
I grew up in Long Beach Calif. and do remember KHJ Ch 9 tv .Spent career in "Electronics" when it was analog LOL. The 1st Color TV station was KNBC Ch 4 in LA . My electronics class was visiting Ch 4 xmtr site on Mt Wilson when JFK was shot .
Fun to meet another person who remembers the KRCA transmitter at that time. I was there about 1958-59. It was the first time that I saw a color TV.
Fascinating history. Thanks very much.