1951: REMEMBER "TV GUIDE?"

I was one of the early fans of television back when there was very limited programming. In 1946 or perhaps 1947, "Mac" McEwan from the "corner store" about which I have written numerous columns, set up a television room in the back of his store and opened it to us kids. It was a perfect combination: We would sit and watch what was the first or nearly first TV set in the area, and Mac sold a lot of Kern's soda, Coke, Pepsi, potato chips, etc. I remember watching "Frontier Playhouse" on channel 3, WPTZ. Every afternoon at 5 we would watch Ken or Kermit Maynard, Bob Steel, the "Three Mesquiteers" and other class "B" westerns followed by "Burn 'em up Barnes, a 12 chapter serial. It was here that we watched the news casts of John Cameron Swayze or Douglas Edwards. The scan above shows a very young Ed McMahon who got his start with WCAU, channel 10, Philadelphia. In the very early years of commercial television, the programming started around 2 in the afternoon, and shut down around 10 or 11 PM, the rest of the hours we watched what was known as a "test pattern" which was transmitted for station identification, and so that television installers and service people could adjust sets and antennas.

Ralph Lucarella said...

I RECALL TOM, THE TEST PATTERNS WERE USED FOR QUITE A LONG PERIOD SO THAT PEOPLE COULD, AS YOU SAY, ADJUST THE PICTURE. THEY WOULD SAY A PERFECT CIRCLE WOULD MEAN YOUR PICTURE IS OKAY. I WAS ONE OF THE EARLY PURCHASERS AND IT WASN'T EASY TO GET A PERFECT CIRCLE. SO, THAT WAS IT, TRYING TO GET A PERFECT CIRCLE AND WATCHING ED McMAHON. SOME OF THE PATTERNS WERE GREAT.