Television comes to Detroit - 1946/1947

[benman94]

In late October of 1946, WWDT signed on as Detroit's very first commercial television station for a single day of programming. The transmitter and cameras had been purchased from DuMont, and network affiliation was originally intended to be with DuMont. Power input to the transmitting antenna was a paltry 500 watts, and engineers reported nothing but snow at the corner of 9 Mile and Woodward in Ferndale, Michigan. The Evening News, owners of WWDT, were dissatisfied with the test delayed the start of regular broadcasting until changes could be made.

Infrequent unannounced tests continued until March 4, 1947, when a second attempt was made to start regular programming was made. New RCA cameras had been purchased for remote work; the DuMonts stayed at the studios. There was a major advertisement blitz from RCA and DuMont, but again, the News was dissatisfied with results, and regular broadcasting was again delayed. Infrequent tests were made, again generally unannounced while the engineers struggled to get comfortable with the new medium.

On May 15, 1947, WWDT changed its call letters to the more familiar WWJ-TV and switched from a DuMont primary affiliate to NBC. At some point between May and June, the station received a new 5000 watt RCA transmitter. The old DuMont transmitter was sold to Harold F. Gross of Lansing where it would be used at WJIM from 1950 until sometime in early 1954.

Finally, on June 3, 1947, regularly scheduled programming from WWJ-TV commenced with a ball game live from Briggs Stadium at Michigan and Trumbull. The Tigers lost to the Yankees, but the News had considerably better success; engineers reported noisy but watchable reception as far away as Flint and Port Huron, with sufficiently large antennae of course, and a city grade signal throughout much of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties.

The following clippings from the Detroit News document this eight month period in chronological order.