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WRGB
History
It was quite a year, Hoover became President...
Mickey Mouse was first seen on film...
Sonja Henie was the star of the Amsterdam Olympics...
Amelia Earhart flew the Atlantic...
Ravel wrote "Bolero"...
and
"Button Up Your Overcoat" was the popular
tune of the day. |
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The Geiger Counter was developed and the first color movies
were shown. The year was 1928, a time of invention
and ambition, and the world was about to grow smaller, and
far away lands were to become neighbors. It would be
a year remembered, but the winds of change actually would
begin decades earlier in Schenectady, New York.
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On
Christmas Eve, 1906, General Electric inventor Ernst Alexanderson
broadcast the world's first radio program with song and
music via his new creation, a high frequency alternator.
A few years later, Alexanderson, in 1918, perfected a
bigger 200 kilowatt alternator permitting long-range radio
messages. That same year, the famous Italian inventor
Guglielmo Marconi wanted to buy exclusive rights to the
alternator. President Woodrow Wilson appealed to General
Electric not to sell, but instead organize an American
Company to use it. A company later called RCA. (GE
withdrew from the affairs of RCA in 1933 until GE purchased
RCA in the late 1980's).
By 1924 and from "Alex's Lab," the first wireless
telegraph picture was transmitted across the Atlantic.
It was the handwritten page from a letter Alexanderson
sent to his father, a Professor in Sweden. As Alexanderson's
prolific genius began amassing dozens and later hundreds
of patents, his attention turned to sending moving images
through the air.
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Ernst
Alexanderson |
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With
the roaring twenties in full swing and prosperity seemingly
boundless, the public was receptive to new inventions
and ideas, but most of all, to something amazing called
television.
The initial home television reception over the air took
place in Alexanderson's home in 1927, but the first
public demonstration and WRGB's birth date was January
13, 1928 as the first experimental television program
was broadcast and shown in Dr. Alexanderson's home at
1132 Adams Road in Schenectady, New York. The broadcast
signal had a range of 15 to 20 miles. In Alexanderson's
laboratory, witnesses saw a mechanical device, large
and clumsy with a tiny screen and a perforated "rotating
scanning disc. "...a disc that would eventually
give way to the all electronic picture tube in use today.
Magazine articles began to appear with fanciful descriptions
of what the new technology would bring. Yes, the
science fiction had become science. Television
was here and we would never be the same again.
Newspapers like the New York Times heralded the event.
It was front page news in the Boston Post with
headlines reading, "Radio with pictures for the
first time!" |
The
Boston Post Front Page |
An
eyewitness to the event, Willard Purcell, who retired from
WRGB in 1960, recalled the 1928 picture. He said,
"...the face of a man, smoking a cigarette, on the
little screen looks like it had been made with x's on the
typewriter. It was very crude and wavered from side
to side..." The small screen was not black and
white, but a pink color.
Then on May 10, 1928, the first regular television program
began twice a day, three days a week with the world's first
television newscasts. Station manager Kolin Hager
read the farm and weather reports. Two days later
on May 12, 1928, General Electric issued a publicity release
which said, "...as from Saturday, May 12, 1928, station
WGY (WRGB) will broadcast television programs three days
a week." In the spring of that year, the Federal
Government gave us our first name, W2XB, although we were
popularly known as "WGY's Television" named after
our then sister radio station six years our senior. All
this led to numerous television firsts.
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New York Governor Al Smith
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On
August 22, 1928, the world's first remote news telecast
took place. Televised live from the State Capitol in
Albany, New York, Governor Al Smith announced his acceptance
of the Democratic nomination for President of the United
States. From eyewitness accounts, "There was a
special platform built for the occasion on the lawn
in front of the Capitol building in Albany. The cameras
were on this platform and before the ceremony, there
was a rehearsal. Everything went perfectly. The four
television sets in Schenectady carried the picture clearly.
Later when the real ceremony was held it rained. Everyone
had to move everything inside and someone put some arc
lights up to light the room for the cameras. The picture
then was dreadful. The lights flickered on and off,
and made ripples in the picture. Nobody could see much
of anything there in the State Legislative Chambers.
The Governor periodically left his position before the
microphones to stare directly into the TV camera and
say a few a words." The photograph that is commonly
available today is actually a photograph of the rehearsal
outside.
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The
following month in September 1928 with only four television
households in the area, each equipped with a "pink
3-inch screen," WRGB televised the world's first
dramatic program, "The Queen's Messenger,"
by J. Harley Manners, a blood and thunder play with
guns, daggers, and poison. There were more technicians
required for special effects than there were actors.
In fact, technical limitations were so great and viewing
screens so small, that only the actor's individual hands
or faces could be seen at one time. Three cameras were
used, two for the characters and a third for obtaining
images of gestures and appropriate stage props. Two
assistant actors displayed their hands before this third
camera whenever the occasion demanded.
Our founder, E.F.W. Alexanderson, remembered the presentation
as "a little drama, a playlet, that was not a great
work of art by any means." The director was a man
brought up from New York City especially to work on
the play. Everyone became very annoyed with him when
he kept calling his rehearsals at 4:00 a.m. |
"The
Queen's Messenger"
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According
to the New York Herald Tribune's article of September
11, 1928, "...Director Mortimer Stewart stood between
the two television cameras that focused upon Miss Isetta
Jewell, the heroine and Maurice Randall, the hero. In
front of Stewart was a television receiver in which he
could at all times see the images that went out over the
transmitter; and by means of a small control box he was
able to control the output of pictures, cutting in one
or another of the cameras and fading the image out and
in. Whether it was successfully received at any
point, other than the operation installation of the General
Electric Laboratory, could not immediately be ascertained.
It was the general opinion among those that watched the
experiment that the day of radio moving pictures was still
a long, long way in the future. Whether the present
system can be brought to commercial practicability and
public usefulness, remains a question." With
all its technical weaknesses, however, "The Queen's
Messenger" marked the first step toward modern dramatic
programs.
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Director Mortimer Stewart |
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Proctor's
Theater
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The
'20's and '30's were a great pioneering era, an exciting
time where nothing was impossible and visionaries dreamed
of color, giant screens, and worldwide communications.
In 1929, GE engineers produced television images
by means of the cathode ray tube, forerunner of the modern
picture tube. On May 22, 1930, the first public
demonstration of large screen television took place before
a theater audience. The sellout crowd saw a seven-foot
television picture projected on stage at Proctor's Vaudeville
Theater in Schenectady, New York. It was the first
showing in any theater in the world of television.
Front pages across the nation proclaimed, "The radio
wizards in Schenectady had worked in secrecy for the past
few years." The performance took place in GE
Building 36, two miles from Proctor's. Martha Rust
sang and Frank Camadine played the harmonica. Vaudeville
teams bantered back and forth by television. Reception
was excellent in spite of the distance of 129 miles. WRGB
cameras, also at the Fair, gave thousands of visitors
their first chance to perform on television via closed
circuit. Several of these actual cameras are still in
existence in storage at the Schenectady Museum & Planetarium.
The Fair telecast marked the creation of the first television
network, WRGB and NBC. Then on January 12, 1940,
continuous network broadcasts began between the two companies.
A third station, owned by the Philco Company in
Philadelphia, WPTZ, later joined the network in 1942. |
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During
the late '30's and early '40's, WRGB experimented with a variety
of program ideas, many were later adopted by the television
industry and are still a staple of programming today. Variety
shows, dramas, and boxing events were the most popular program
forms in those early days. In fact, the earliest "rating"
surveys taken by the station to gauge viewer interest showed
boxing and wrestling to be the most popular in the fall and
winter followed by variety shows, light operas, news commentaries,
and full-length plays. A two-hour variety show in 1939 included
musical numbers, dancing, skits, cartoonists, a boxing match
and game shows. Boxing and wrestling were extremely popular
and would have ranked first in the "ratings" if they
had been telecast on a year-round basis.
Among the plays presented during this period was "Uncle
Tom's Cabin." The cast went right through the entire play
without a break. In those days, since video tape had not been
invented, television was all live. There were eight different
stage sets for the production. As each scene took place during
the live broadcast, the players simply walked from one set to
another. WRGB also produced some Gilbert and Sullivan and presented
an entire evening of "Pinafore."
Although WRGB telecast scores of "experimental" programs
between 1928 and 1939, from a small 12-foot square studio, a
more complete and regular schedule began November 6, 1939, generally
thought to be the benchmark date for the beginning of modern
television. A few years later, when the attack on Pearl Harbor
closed down live, talent-produced shows at many other television
studios, WRGB continued to operate of a full schedule. The 1945,
General Electric publication entitled, "Television Show
Business" stated, "this was to continue show business
development so that programming would have a backlog of experience
when the manufacturing of television sets and transmitters resumed
after the war." Except for a short time in 1941, program
production never stopped at WRGB and for awhile it was the only
operating station in the country.
World War II delayed the growth of television for several years,
but WRGB continued to program and experiment. Staffed by a small
crew of technicians and producers, many of them women, WRGB
was telecasting each week throughout the war years. Originating
from the studios on Washington Avenue in Schenectady, WRGB produced
variety and dramatic programs that are possible only on a network
level today.
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It
was during this time that national advertisers began taking
note of television's future potential. During the '40's and
early '50's, many techniques of production that today are commonplace
were devised and tested on WRGB. Not only was production seasoned
and perfected, but performers, artists, and entertainers were
given the opportunity to adapt to this new medium. The proximity
of Schenectady to New York City, coupled with its remoteness
from the scrutiny of New York City critics, made the station
an ideal place to master the art of performing before the television
camera. WRGB demonstrated the effectiveness of commercial television
to many key national advertising personnel by producing special
shows and demonstrations that would usher in commercials a few
short years later.
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Our
Washington Avenue studios went into operation on December
19, 1941. Heralded as the most modern television production
facility in the country and the first building created
solely for the purpose of television, the original studios
at the Washington Street location were 41 feet by 70 feet
with an 18-foot ceiling. Lighting was overhead, water
cooled, mercury vapor lights, which were installed prior
to the war. Occasionally, during live shows, the water-cooled
lights leaked dropping awkward "spring showers"
on the living room set below. These lights were supplemented
by incandescent spotlights, on an experimental basis,
in late 1944.
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Washington
Ave. Studio
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Between
November 1939 and September 1944, WRGB telecast 958 television
programs; over 700 of them between 1943 and 1944. The content
included art, children's programs, commercials (at that time
called "sales plugs"), dance telecasts, discussions,
full-length plays, one-act plays, educational programs, fashion
shows, "game shows," hobby shows, light opera, minstrels,
monologues, musical telecasts, news programs full-length operas,
public service telecasts, puppet shows, quizzes, religious telecasts,
reviews, special features, sports, variety shows, vaudeville
acts, and women's programs. More musical programs were telecast
than anything else.
On September 15, 1940, a variety show took place at the old
studios in the GE main plant. Ted Steele was the Master of Ceremonies;
he played an organ recital. The show as an hour long and also
featured a dance review and a showing of still photographs and
slides.
The most complex variety review televised during this period
of time was on September 1, 1945 called the "Americapers,"
presented by the Green Mansions Playhouse of Warrensburg, New
York. A one-hour show with 11 skits, including
a comedy singer, chorus, an operating room scene, a furlough
bride skit, a takeoff on old-time vaudeville, and a Barnacle
Bill pantomime dance; also a street scene called "Mr. Verdis
on the Hurdy-Gurdy." Nine different sets were required.
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On
July 16, 1943, an all-western hour, glamorized the square
dance. The program was called, "Ho Down Night,"
and featured a quartet of singing cowboys. Dozens of other
program descriptions and dates can be found in the 1945
publication entitled, "Television Show Business."
WRGB has been providing programs of interest to younger
viewers longer than any other U.S. television station. This
commitment to children's programming goes back many years.
For example, in 1941, the Mont Pleasant High School drama
group presented "The Pageant of Christmas Eve."
The Scotia Jr. High school created "The Thanksgiving
Program" in 1942, and Pleasant Valley school presented
"The Easter Festival" in 1943. A sampling of other
early local children's programs included:
Children's
Story 1942
Stories for the Nursery 1942
Uncle Gene and Alexander visit 1944
Martha Harper Presents 1944
The Storyteller ` 1944
Sleeping Beauty 1943
The Children's Hour 1942
Youth Night 1943
The
Whisker 1944
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In
1944, the 6th graders of Schenectady's Yates School created
and staged their own "puppet" version of Rumpelstiltskin
here on WRGB.
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On
February 26, 1942, W2XB was renamed WRGB when the station
received its commercial license from the Federal Government.
(This license is on display at the WRGB studios). Our new
call letters paid tribute to the late Walter R. G. Baker,
a pioneer in television and radio and a GE Vice President
involved in setting up the station.
With the war at its peak, the American Television Society
presented the station an award in 1943 for the greatest contributions
to television program development of the year. The society
wrote, "We wish to pay tribute to the courageous viewpoint
of the management, for carrying on against all odds at a time
when the future of television depends to so great degree upon
you."
By 1945, there were nine television stations operating in
the U.S.: NBC's WNBT; CBS's WCBW; Dumont's WABC in New York
City; Philco's WPTZ in Philadelphia; Balabann Kate's WBKB,
and Zenith's W9XZV in Chicago; Don Lee's W6XAO and Television
Production's W6XYZ in Hollywood; and of course, General Electric's
WRGB in Schenectady. A total of 300 television sets were in
use in the Albany/Schenectady/Troy area with the largest sets
having a 7-1/2" by 10"
screen. Surveys made in 1943 and 1944 indicated that many,
many people were saving for their first television set.
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Lousi
vs. Conn Fight
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As
the war ended, commercial television began. It was 1946
and WRGB aired programs Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays
from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Local advertising was almost
nil because of small audiences. The station practically
had to give the first commercials away. The only thing
the sponsor was charged for was the cost of props. On
June 19, 1946, WRGB aired its first network commercial.
Gillette was the sponsor, and the show was the Heavyweight
Boxing Championship between Joe Louis and Billy Conn.
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On
August 10, 1946, the station announced that it would expand
to 5 nights a week.
By 1948, there were 1919 television sets owned in the area and
that number thereby increased at a startling rate as the broadcast
day lengthened and the number of programs grew. A year later,
there would be over 18,000 television sets in area homes; 139,600
by February 1951, and 198,600 by February 1952.
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In
the early '50's WRGB televised programs from four television
networks, NBC, ABC, CBS and Dumont, as well as producing
more than nineteen live shows. Later WRGB became solely
affiliated with NBC, the network with which the station
had set up the first experimental network.
In 1954, WRGB provided eighteen hours of programming from
7 a.m. to 1 a.m. each weekday and 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. on
weekends including programs from the four major networks
and local programs as well. In that same year, twenty-eight
local programs were originating each week in eighty-two
local time segments from WRGB studios. Each program was
live.
Color television was just around the corner and on September
12, 1954, WRGB broadcast the first network color "spectacular"
from NBC. A 90-minute program, starring Betty Hutton.
In later years, that word spectacular would change to
"special." The same reference used today. |
Betty Hutton
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Tyron
Power in
"Captain from Castille"
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The
first local color origination would be on Nov. 25, 1957.
That evening WRGB aired "Cinema Six," the
color movie was the 1947 film "Captain from Castile"
starring Tyrone Power.
Technical changes also improved in 1954 when WRGB's
long-time channel number changed from 4 to 6. Our transmission
power was increased from 16 to 93 kilowatts and a new
transmission tower and antenna three times higher than
the old equipment were put into operation. With a much
larger coverage area, WRGB was now in position to provide
services for years to come.
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In
1957 WRGB moved its studios to its current 1400 Balltown
Road address in Niskayuna, New York. With full production,
news and programming services, the new studios greeted
hundreds of area visitors each week, in effect becoming
a local tourist attraction. In fact, during the Open
House that November,
literally thousands of area residents passed through
the new building, greeting celebrities of the day, and
learning how the marvel of television brought pictures
to their home. People waiting to get in formed lines
that snaked around the building and for blocks down
the street. Traffic jams went for miles around the station
despite the enormous parking facility next to the new
building. During that open house on Nov. 21, 1957, GE's
first color camera was displayed with closed circuit
pictures for the press.
WRGB was among the first to recognize the need for educational
television programming. Before the founding of "Public
Television," our management spearheaded the drive
that resulted in the formation of the Mohawk-Hudson
Council on Educational Television. Through the donation
of airtime, facilities, and funds, the station helped
the council grow and become a vital force in the community.
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1400
Balltown Road
Niskayuna, New York
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Ernie
Tetrault |
One
of WRGB's most popular early shows began in April,
1948. "The Teenage Barn," produced by Tommy
Sternfeld, was telecast for 17 years and featured
highly polished student performers who sang, danced
and played instruments. It was truly a showcase for
young talent and for the time, rather elaborately
staged with very sophisticated camera techniques for
local television of that era. Several segments from
these programs still exist on tape in the WRGB archives.
In the early 1960's, WRGB's Ernie Tetrault was one
of the announcers on the program. Thirty to forty
youngsters appeared on each show, Thursdays at 7:00
p.m. for half an hour. Some large groups as well as
individuals performed. The program's last airdate
was January 29, 1965 when it was third in the time
period right behind "Meet The Press" and
"The Ed Sullivan Show."
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Other
popular early programs included "The Freddie Freihofer
Show" sponsored by the Freihofer Baking Company.
The program, also entitled "BreadTime Stories"
began November 21, 1949, in black and white and ran
until 1966. The color telecasts began April 28, 1965.
There were a variety of hosts over the years including,
Ralph Kanna, Ed Joyce, Bud Mason and Jim Fisk who took
over the program July 23, 1956. The program featured
"squiggles," a cartoon drawing completed by
the host with "abstract" assistance from the
kids in the audience. For many preschoolers it was their
first experience interrelating imagination and drawing
skills and this magical thing called "television."
"Breadtime Stories" was the first live local
color series. Shortly thereafter, the "Pete Williams
Show," "Teenage Barn," "Friday Nights,"
"Ginny's Game Room," and "Satellite Six"
on Saturday mornings were telecast in color.
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Freddie
Freihofer Host Jim Fisk
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In
June, 1961, WRGB telecast the first medical program in the area;
an hour-long documentary which became the story of 7-year-old,
Donna Langley's open heart surgery at Albany Medical Center.
On February 20, 1965, WRGB telecast the first local color television
program, Saturday, at 2:45 p.m. entitled, "Engineering
for Human Needs." The program was taped live at the studio.
In more recent times, WRGB inaugurated the area's first local
one-hour 6 p.m. newscast on January 22, 1973. The station was
one of the first in the country to recognize the public's desire
for more local news.
Today, that hour is continually evolving, now composed of two
individual half-hour newscasts which also broke new ground in
the structure of local newscasts nationally. WRGB was also first
to add additional locally daily newscasts, one hour 6 a.m. and
a half-hour at 5 p.m.
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On
September 21, 1981, WRGB became affiliated with the CBS Television
Network; and a year later in October 1982, TV-6 became the first
commercial TV station in the market to provide programming 24
hours a day.
On August 29, 1983, General Electric sold WRGB television for
thirty-four million dollars to Unicom which was owned by the
New York City investment firm, Forstmann Little & Company.
Two and one-half years later, Freedom Newspapers, Inc., purchased
WRGB on March 4, 1986, for fifty-seven million dollars marking
a new era in WRGB's development and the first ownership by a
company solely in the communications' business.
Today, WRGB television's excellence in local and national news
is the hallmark of our image in the tri-state area. WRGB originates
28 hours of local newscasts each week and more viewers
get their news, weather, and sports information from NewsCenter
6 than anywhere else.
For decades, WRGB's newscasts have set audience viewing' records.
Continually a leader, NewsCenter 6 joins a handful of other
stations across the country with the largest news audiences
in America.
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In
addition to news, WRGB has presented a wider variety
of local programs than any other area station, including
"Student Spectrum," a daily newscast produced
by young people; "NewsCenter Six Sunday Morning
with Liz Bishop," a behind-the-scenes look at
news issues of the week; the area's first real estate
show; the regions first local shopping show; and "TV
Tournament Time," where area bowlers performed
for nearly 30 years. At the time, this bowling show
was the longest running local sports program in the
country.
You'll also find a variety of specials on WRGB, including
the "Melodies of Christmas" each December,
and special documentaries on local issues year round.
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TV-6
donates hundreds of thousands of dollars through our "Making
a Difference" projects in the form of public service advertising
and programming. During the winter, WRGB collects thousands
of coats in our "Coats for Kids" campaign held in
New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont. WRGB also creates a special
food-basket drive that involves all the major food market chains
in the area. Hundreds of tons of food have been collected and
distributed to the needy.
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And
there's more, WRGB continues its television leadership
position with new marketing techniques and new local
program formats. In recent years, multimillion-dollar
expenditures were made on computerization and television
satellite technologies including the area's first mobile
satellite uplink truck and fixed uplink, giving WRGB
more up and downlink capability than any other station
in the region. WRGB's satellite truck went on-line in
July of 1988. Five months earlier, the area's first
computerized newsroom was installed and in October of
that year, WRGB provided the area's first closed-captioning
of our Newscasts throughout the day. Today, virtually
all of our local, syndicated, and network programming
is closed captioned. WRGB is on the cutting edge of
computer technology. WRGB is the first area station
to own non-linear computer editing systems which eliminate
videotape from the editing process and increases picture
quality. In November 2000, WRGB launched the area's only station-owned doppler radar, Instant Doppler 6.
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Avid Media Composer
Non-linear Editing System
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In
1992, scenes from the Universal motion picture "Sneakers"
starring Robert Redford and Sydney Poitier were shot on our
NewsCenter 6 set. Newsman Ernie Tetrault taped pivotal scenes
that appear in the film.
On September 2, 1993, at 1:58 p.m., WRGB telecast the first
commercials ever aired from a hard-drive storage system by any
television station. This commercial break came directly out
of a computer with no videotape involved. On October 11, 1994,
WRGB eliminated the use of videotape in playing commercials
on the air and began full-time use of computer hard disks for
airing all commercials, public service announcements, and promotion
spots.
Recognized as the country's pioneer television station, and
according to some, the longest continually operating television
station in the world, WRGB serves the Albany/Schenectady/Troy
market. Its service area in New York and New England has grown
to over a million television households in five northeast states.
Beginning in a small 12-foot square studio in 1928, WRGB is
now housed in a 50,000 square foot communications complex, the
largest television facility between New York City and Montreal.
Our founder, Ernst Alexanderson lived to see much of WRGB's
success, he died in 1975 at the age of 97. From the smoking
cigarette in that first telecast, to men hitting golf balls
on the moon; from Milton Berle and "Bonanza" to microwaves,
satellites, and worldwide instant communication -- Alexanderson
was here for it all -- and thanks to him, so was WRGB.
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That
pioneering spirit and commitment to be the best have been
historic WRGB traditions for over sixty years. Today, those
accomplishments are the hallmarks we compare with tomorrow's
vision. WRGB will continue to provide new and unique services
for our time and the decades beyond.
At New York City's Plaza Hotel, on February 24, 1987, the
broadcast pioneers honored WRGB's 60th Anniversary with an
industry attended banquet and awarded the station the highly
coveted Golden Mike Award. The first time ever for any television
station. The award stated, "We honor WRGB for your pioneering
work as the first television station and for distinguished
contributions to the Art of Broadcasting and in recognition
of dedicated adherence to quality, integrity, and responsibility
in programming and management." The speaker at the banquet
was CBS anchorman, Dan Rather. The event honored the scores
of men and women employees who over the past 60 years made
WRGB one of America's great television stations.
During the banquet, President Ronald Reagan stated, "As
the first television station in the United States, WRGB was
a pioneer in the truest sense of the word...the history of
this station is truly the history of television."
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