I remember it well; that a network connection of TV stations from Schenectady, to Philadelphia, to Washington D.C. It was the true beginning of television coverage along the northeast coast. Channel 3, WPTZ, Channel 6, WFIL the Philadelphia Inquirer station, and channel 10, WCAU. Aluminum and primitive aerials began to appear on rooftops all over the area. It would be 3 or 4 years before the Glover family journeyed over to Bond's Electric on Hamilton Avenue and purchased a 10 inch Admiral "Consolette," thanks to my brother Bud's Navy mustering out pay. What a thrill it was! Every afternoon WPTZ ran old "B" westerns on their 1 hour "Frontier Playhouse" program. Saturday nights were set aside for Sid Caeser and Imogene Coca and "Your Show of Shows." Sunday afternoons in the Glover house included a then popular program called "Super Circus." In those very early years of commercial television, programming began around mid day and went off the air before midnight. The non broadcast hours were filled with what we all found was called a "test pattern" which television technicians used to adjust focus, clarity and the complete definition of the many horizontal and vertical lines that were part of the design.
Tommy
ReplyDeletemy father bought a 132 inch westinghouse round tube with device that made the picture square but not bigger. The program I remember was the "schmidts mystery hour and the ball games from the dodgers on chsnnel 9 with Red Smith and a young Vince Scully.
Lee
How well I remember, Lee. You forgot Red's last name. It was
ReplyDeleteBarber and as I recall, Shafer Beer.
Tommy
Tommy
ReplyDeleteyour right about red Barber but I still think it was Schmidts beer out of Philly. How about good old Trenton old stock. My uncles used to fill A Galvanized tub with ice and good old Trenton old stock and head for Washington park on Sundays for a picnic.
LEE
UH UH, Lee. Definetely Shafer. I can still remember how Red Barber pronounced it: "Shayfuh."
ReplyDeleteTommy
ReplyDeleteYour right on Shafer beer out of new York with the dodgers but I was also mentioning another program out of Philly called "The Schmidts mystery hour". Almost as good as the "Inner Sanctum" on the radio.
Lee