Color TV is 50 years old today!

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Steve D., Dec 17, 2003.

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  1. Steve D.

    Steve D. Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Color TV is 50 today!

    On Dec. 17th 1953 the FCC authorized the start of commercial compatible color broacasting in the U.S. :p


    While America and the world's attention is focused on Dec.17th as the 100th annniversary of powered flight, the Wright brothers stunning world changing achievement. Let's not forget that on this date 50 years ago the FCC approved the NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) color standards and authorized compatible color television broadcasts to begin in the U.S. According to Ed Reitan's "History of Color Television site, the first color viewed on that date was the NBC "color chimes" logo slide broadcast at 5:32 pm est. Not to be outdone, CBS presented the first NTSC program at 6:15 pm est. NBC followed with a program at 6:30 pm. In the months prior to Dec. 17th there had been several experimental and test color programs broadcast and received on prototype color receivers in the hands of engineers. The public would see their first major color show on New Years day 1954 as the Tournament of Roses Parade was colorcast to various special receivers set up in large department stores and other viewing sites. Color receivers would not be available for sale to the public for several months. although it has been suggested that Admiral had sets as early as Dec.30, 1953, Westinghouse is generally recognized as having the first mass produced and advertised color sets on the market in Feb. 1954. RCA Victor marketed its CT-100 color set starting in April 1954.
     
  2. AKA

    AKA Senior Member

    Steve H. and his sets are off celebrating.
     
  3. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    50 years since the start of Compatible Color. I love the dedication of those RCA engineers who invented this system. So complicated, yet it worked so well that we are STILL using it, even after 50 years!

    So, it was 50 years ago when David Sarnoff said "Let Those Sets Roll!"
     

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  4. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

  5. Bob Lovely

    Bob Lovely Super Gort In Memoriam

    Steve & Friends,

    As I have shared before, my Father was a Chief Engineer at a Radio/TV combo when I was growing up. I used to love going to work with him and hangin' out. I was was totally fascinated by both Radio and TV. This was in the days of live TV [late 50's and early 60's], of course. When the local station would break away from the 'net' [NBC] for local programming such as a 'news block', the feed from the net was still visable in the Control Room. In those days, WNBC-TV in New York. I could sit there and watch WNBC while the local station was off the net. I was fascinated by that. This was before satellites so, the feed was via microwave transmission - not always reliable as it was passed across the country from transmission point to transmission point. On rare occasion, the local station would 'feed the net' when there was a national story. My Dad shared that they fed the net several times including a 'live' interview with John F. Kennedy when he ran for President in 1960...

    Happy Anniversary Color TV!

    Bob:)
     
  6. guy incognito

    guy incognito Senior Member

    Location:
    Mee-chigan
    To commemorate the occasion, I think I'll pop in an "I Love Lucy" DVD tonight.

    Oh, wait...
     
  7. Gary Mack

    Gary Mack Active Member

    Location:
    Arlington, Texas
    The Dallas-Fort Worth NBC affiliate, then WBAP-TV, went color on May 15, 1954 with two cameras and three straight hours of live, in-the-studio programs. One of the local guys, college student Pat Boone, appeared in several sketches and a year later started having big hit records.

    No kinescopes exist of the program because the station didn't get one until late 1955 or early 1956. Rather than buy one, they built their own. It worked so well they built a second one! Several minutes of color home movies survive, however, and the show was quite a variety presentation.

    Unlike many NBC affiliates who went color in the mid-fifties only to abandon it within a year or two because of the numerous technical problems, WBAP stayed with it. When JFK was shot in Dallas in 1963, the first six or seven network cut-ins from the main studio for updates were full color.

    NBC, having pioneered color but neglecting to equip all their studios with color cameras, could only show their network anchors - Chet Huntley, Frank McGee and another man - in black & white. Eventually, the NBC brass, after being embarrass by the little Fort Worth-based WBAP and it's vivid color, killed the chroma on all local cut-ins that weekend.

    When I started working at WBAP in 1981 (by then it was KXAS), several of the original engineers were still there and some were still upset with NBC's decision! They took a lot of pride in the quality of their color broadcasts and were disappointed the network would not acknowledge their technical leadership!

    GM
     
  8. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    So the NBC brass turned off the color, eh? Interesting, I didn't know that.

    I think that even though the affiliates were part of NBC, the company expected EACH STATION TO BUY IT'S OWN COLOR GEAR FROM RCA and it was VERY expensive, plus the extra lighting, etc. Not many stations did it. Hard to believe that in 1963 with men in space most TV was still Black & White..

    Thanks, Gary!
     
  9. Steve D.

    Steve D. Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Gary,
    The third anchor on the Kennedy coverage was NBC newsman Bill Ryan. And thanks for clearing up the color question. I have a vhs tape of NBC's coverage that day. The New York anchors were seated in front of a bland wood paneled flat in B&W. It was jarring when they went to WBAP in Dallas and the picture is suddenly in color. The 1st throw to Dallas has a picture but no sound and the 2nd throw has sound and no picture. On the 3rd try the full color picture with sound of the Dallas anchor Charles Murphy. As you said after several color Dallas cut ins the feed became black & white. Now I know why.
     
  10. RetroSmith

    RetroSmith Forum Hall Of Fame<br>(Formerly Mikey5967)

    Location:
    East Coast
    And whats really hard to fathom is that CBS was not ALL COLOR up and down the lineup until 1970-71. CBS was the last network to still have some Black and White programming.

    I recently saw a video of a 1960 Cincinnati Reds vs Milwaukee Braves game broadcast in color. It was spectacular. RCa tube cameras......cant be beat for rich, smooth deep color.
     
  11. indy mike

    indy mike Forum Pest

    Hey mikey - wuzzat a WLW in Cincinnati broadcast???
     
  12. RetroSmith

    RetroSmith Forum Hall Of Fame<br>(Formerly Mikey5967)

    Location:
    East Coast
    Indy, I cant remember the call letters. Could be tho.

    Boy, those Reds uniforms looked so great in that 1960 tube color. people who had color sets them must have been mesmerized.
     
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