TV Station Celebrates 15th Year

One of the nation’s pioneer TV stations, General Electric’s WRGB, is currently celebrating its 15th anniversary of regular telecasting. The station dates back to when receiver screens were only four-inches wide. It began one-hour per week telecasting on Nov. 6, 1939 after 12 years of research. Earlier that year, WRGB, known at the time as experimental station W2XB, participated in the first long-distance transmission of modern high-definition TV. GE engineers, located in the Helderberg Hills outside Schenectady, received and transmitted pictures of England’s King George and Queen Elizabeth as they toured the 1939 World’s Fair.

Actually, the station’s history goes back to 1928. GE engineer Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson, already re-nowned for his radio developments, staged the first demonstration of “remote” TV at his home in Schenectady on Jan. 11. Later that year engineers took equipment to Albany, 15 miles away, and televised New York Governor Alfred E. Smith’s acceptance of the Democratic Party nomination for president, thus becoming the first man in history whose picture was flashed to the public via the new medium. But the station’s “public” at the time consisted of only four reception sets, one of which was in Dr. Alexanderson’s home. Today the pioneer station brings TV to more than 2 million people in Eastern New York and Western New England.

Tele-Tech & Electronic Industries/January 1955