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WWDT signed on in October 1946 as a DuMont primary, with NBC as a secondary affiliation. By March 1947, the situation had flipped at WWJ. The station was now NBC primary with secondary DuMont affiliation. CBS and ABC were also secondary affiliations until WJBK (CBS) and WXYZ (ABC) went on the air in late 1948. WJBK took the DuMont affiliation in 1948, leaving WWJ with just NBC.
In 1955, CKLW in Windsor took the DuMont affiliation until the network shutdown in August 1956. Nobody knows for sure how much DuMont programming CKLW actually carried in this period. Network operations at DuMont seem to have ground to a halt with the exception of the occasional sporting event after mid-1955. |
#2
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I'm disappointed that I couldn't watch the film, but, thank you for a most interesting history, and, a wonderful job done. Speaking of first., We were the first family on Woodcrest, in Harper woods, to own a 1950 RCA Victor 6T74 16" TV. All the neighbors used to come to watch it. Years later, someone gave me just the tv guts for the rare combination 10" tv AM-FM table model tv. That's how I first found out they made such a set...
Thanks for a wonderful job, guys...................... Bill Cahill
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#3
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Quote:
Bill Cahill "We now return you to our regularly scheduled program."
__________________
"Tubes are those little glass things that light up orange unless there is a short.. Then they light up all pretty colors..." Please join my forum. http://www.tuberadioforum.com/ |
#4
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I never knew you grew up in Harper Woods. I grew up just a few streets down from you on Beaconsfield and Anita across from Eastland! Small world. Darryl |
#5
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Quote:
Bill Cahill
__________________
"Tubes are those little glass things that light up orange unless there is a short.. Then they light up all pretty colors..." Please join my forum. http://www.tuberadioforum.com/ |
Audiokarma |
#6
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No, but that was me as well. 😀
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#7
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I've also found FCC applications from 1945 for TV licenses in Detroit. The city was originally to have 7 VHF allocations: 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13. Among the applicants were United Detroit Theaters and members of the Hudson and Grinell families. Why so many VHFs? Remember that in 1945-1946, Detroit was still either the fourth or fifth largest city in the nation, behind NYC, Chicago, and Philly, and either ahead of or behind Los Angeles depending on the population estimates you choose to believe.
Channel 9 was quickly given to the Canucks and would become CKLW many years later. Channel 5 was sent up to the Tri-Cities, and WNEM would sign on in 1955. Channel 13 was sent down just past the state line and WSPD signed on in Toledo, Ohio in 1948. That left 2, 4, 7, and 11 for Detroit. The FCC declined to assign a station to 11, and eventually that allocation was given to Toledo instead. This was in large part due to the slow withdrawal of FCC applications in early 1946. With only three applicants left by mid-to-late 1946, there was nobody to assign 11 to. |
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Wow--this is terrific stuff. Thank for putting it together and sharing it. I'm fascinated by the arrival of television in various markets. In Pittsburgh, my great-grandmother bought a set (Dumont console!) in 1948 even though the first station didn't go on the air until 1949. She was from the old country and I think she saw it as a way to show off to the neighbors how well her family was doing in America.
Also, I wonder what the ratings were like for "Study in Slides!" Probably a 100% share... |
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Neil and Skip both had BAs in Physics from UM Ann Arbor (back in the prewar era most EEs still earned physics degrees), and they were radar men during the war. Anyway, they were dumped off in NYC for leave, and they decided, being electronics "nerds" to go down to radio row to pick out a wedding gift for my Grandparents. To make a long story short, the gift they picked out was a brand new Viewtone television set. My Grandparents weren't enamored with it, initially anyway, as there wasn't anything on the air in Detroit yet! But, when broadcasting officially began in October 1946, they likely would have been the only middle class couple in the entire city capable of watching television from the comfort of their own living room. Whether or not they did watch the inaugural broadcast, I don't know. Neil and Skip were living with my Grandparents after their discharges as they had a rocky relationship with my Great-Grandfather, and the postwar housing crisis made getting homes of their own impossible. I only ever met Neil and he couldn't recall if they watched the October telecast or not. He did recall that by March of 1947 the set was receiving regular, if infrequent use, and that my Grandfather gradually warmed up to the whole idea of television. Eventually Neil and Skip went to work for RCA in Cherry Hill, NJ, then down to Princeton, then finally they ended their careers working out in Los Angeles and later Silicon Valley. My Grandfather, in the mean time, purchased a new set within a few years and relegated the Viewtone to his garage, where it sat until he died. The set eventually made its way to their attic, and eventually from the attic to one of my Aunts, and from her to my TV collection. I've loaned the set out to a handful of local museums, but as of right now it's at our vacation home in northern Michigan. I feel lucky to not only have a Viewtone, but to have one that has never actually left our family. |
#10
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$55 for installation ? I will do it for $20 Lol
That is a lot of money back then for that , between the cost of the tv itself and the installation no wonder why there were so many not tossed and available today |
Audiokarma |
#11
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My mother told me that when they lived in Pittsburgh in 1946 the only tv station they could get was from Ohio...
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#12
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It seems the CRT's were damaged in shipment. The antenna was possibly included in the installation charge. |
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