Television History Essay
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The Way We Live
Technology affects our lifestyles, whether you think so or not. Televisions advertise and you buy, buy, buy. Cell phones and beepers and computers in our cars, just how good is all this technology anyway? What good is it when someone will look a long time for a TV remote control before simply getting up to turn it on by hand! We have changed technology, and technology has changed us, in many ways. One technology that has advanced and changed us in America in the past one-hundred is the TV.
It's hard to know where to begin. I would say that the main ah change that television has made, at least here in the States, is that it's become the command centre of our culture. Television is quite different from other media such as film or theatre or music. People go to the movies to see the move and then they go home. And they go to the theatre to see the play and then go home or listen to a record to hear the music and that's it. But here in the States we go to television for everything. So that we go there for our politics, for our popular literature, for our religion, for our news, commerce. So that television has become a kind of analogue to what the medieval church was in say the 14th or 15th centuries. For anything to be legitimate it has to come through television. And in that sense we have become a television people. Sometimes when I go to the places and people ask me what ah what Americans are like, I say well what we do is watch television. That's our job here. And indeed you have to watch television in a sense to be an American because in order to make contact with whatever is happening in the culture you have to be familiar with what's on television.
SO THE LESSON THERE IS THAT IF THE TECHNOLOGY IS THERE WE FEEL WE MUST USE IT.
It takes charge. That's what I mean by the technological imperative. That's what Jacques Eluel means by it and what I mean by technopoly is a culture that is no longer addressing the question, do - what use do we wish to make of this that would preserve the best in our culture and at the same time maximize what the technology could do. You see, if people had this kind of awareness, Peter, here's what would happen. Let's suppose it was 1903 and we really knew back then what we know now about the combustion engine. Then someone could say to us, look, we've invented this automobile. Here are some of the things that the automobile will do for us. There are many good things obviously. Here are some of the bad things. Well it will poison our air; it will make our cities congested; will destroy much of the beauty of a natural landscape; will create the suburbs. Now so here's some good things, here's some bad things. Let's vote on it. Well suppose we had a plebiscite. I know what we'd vote - how the vote would go in the States. We'd say ah let's do it. But even if we said let's do it the next remark would be, could we do - could we have automobiles but at the same time remove or limit some of the negative consequences. Well there are a lot of things we could have thought of in 1903 if we had this sort of insight. We might have done the same thing with television. Said look here are some of the terrific things with television, but here are some of the dangerous things - we may lose our concept of childhood, we may redefine what we mean by politics in these ways. Now what do you want to do? Well Americans would say, let's do it, but is there something we could do to minimize the negative consequences? Well we didn't ask that in 1948-49 and '50 when television was starting. Everyone said let's just do it, because we believe in technology. With computers, now the same damn thing is happening. Everyone wants to talk about all the good things computers will bring and there will be some. Anyone who wants to talk about some of the things computers will undo is thought to be a grouch or worse, is called a Luddite, someone who wants to bust up - well I mean who wants to bust up - we don't want to bust up a catscan machine or bust up computers.
WHY DO YOU THINK IT'S A MISTAKE FOR TELEVISION TO TRY TO BE SERIOUS?
Well ah because by serious here I mean that ah when we talk about ideas ah we have to realize that ideas are essentially words. I was asked before about whether or not I approved or enjoyed the Bronowski Ascent of Man Series. Here's an interesting point about the Bronowski series. If you read the book, The Ascent of Man, which actually was the television script printed, you realized the Bronowski actually has a theory of social change. And almost anyone who read the book could be asked a question about whether or not they think they agree with Bronowski's theory of social change. If you would ask this question of people who only saw Ascent of Man on television, they would say what theory? The theory disappeared on television even though Bronowski actually uses the words that would appear in the book. Why does the theory disappear? Because the program, being good television, is filled with exotic, interesting, exciting images. The images overwhelm the words. And therefore this is the strength of television. Now when television shows what's happening in Tianamnen Square, that's serious. And can give us an image, I think of that young Chinese student in front of the tank. I mean that is so powerful as to be almost overwhelming and that is television as its best. And that is serious. But when ah but for the most part pictures are representations of experience, not commentary about experience. For commentary about experience we have language and television - it's not television's fault - this is what television is. It shows pictures and shows moving pictures and that's what it does best so that it amplifies the importance of that symbolic form and tends to de-emphasize the role of language. So it's ah I mean ah you should know better than I that most TV directors are very uneasy when they have talking heads like on this program. I don't know who would watch this program now as I'm speaking unless there's nothing else on. But I probably wouldn't watch it. Even if you had a lot smarter person than I am.
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Television
As early as 1946, the ABC 'watched with close interest the development overseas of new techniques' in television.
In June 1949, six months before the Labour government lost office, Prime Minister Chifley pledged his Government to introducing television as soon as possible. The new Menzies Government allowed the ABC to plan experimentally for one television station, in Sydney. Under a Bill introduced by the Government, the Postmaster General was also given the power to grant licences for commercial television stations.
A Television Act was passed in 1953, providing for a national network of television channels and the issuing of licences to commercial television stations.The ABC was appointed the national television authority on the recommendation of a Royal Commission set up to implement the 1953 Act. The Commission's recommendation that Sydney and Melbourne, as the first two cities to receive television should have two commercial licences as well, was also adopted.
From 1954 the ABC began planning for the introduction of the national television service. Land was acquired, accommodation built, and studios set up. Staff training courses were conducted in both Sydney and Melbourne, and tutors were brought from overseas to assist in the training.
The first television broadcast in Australia was by the commercial station TCN-9, in September, 1956. Just over a month later, on November 5 in Sydney, the Prime Minister, R G Menzies, inaugurated the ABC's first television broadcast. The first broadcast from Melbourne's television studios took place two weeks later, on 19 November, just in time for ABC-TV's coverage of the 1956 Olympic Games.
ABC television service was introduced to the other States by the end of June, 1960. (Brisbane on 2 November, 1959, and in 1960, Adelaide on 11 March, Perth on 7 May and Hobart on 4 June.) As in the early days of radio, television broadcasts did not yet extend from early morning until late at night.
In the early days of television, there were no relay facilities for programs to the various States. In radio, through landlines, news bulletins could be broadcast nationally 13 times a day. In television, all news had to be sent to the capital cities by teleprinter, so that news bulletins could be prepared and presented separately in each capital city. Copies had to be made of filmed material which was then sent individually to each State. In 1960, videotape, where both vision and sound are recorded on magnetic tape, was still in the experimental stage. It was not until 1962, that videotape recording equipment had been installed in all capitals.
A range of television programs was developed. The popular Six O'Clock Rock with rock star Johnny O'Keefe was started in 1959, lasting almost three years. The highly popular children's program Mr Squiggle began in 1959. (Over 30 years later, it is now the longest running children's program in Australia.) The education program University of the Air was started in 1961. By June 1964, less than eight years since the beginnings of television in Australia, of the 212 plays produced live in Australia for television, 185 had been produced by the ABC (48 of which were by Australian authors). All 31 operas produced live in that period were produced by the ABC, and of the 95 ballets shown, 90 were produced by the ABC.
The History of Cable Television
The Early Days
Cable television, formerly known as Community Antenna Television or CATV, was born in the mountains of Pennsylvania in the late 1940's. During this time, there were only a few television stations, located mostly in larger cities like Philadelphia. People who didn't live in a city, or in a location where signals could be received easily, were unable to see television. John Walson, an appliance store owner in the small town of Mahanoy City, had difficulty selling television sets to local residents because reception in the area was so poor. The problem seemed to be the location of the town in a valley and nearly 90 air miles from the Philadelphia television transmitters. Naturally, the signals could not pass through the mountain, and clear reception was virtually impossible, except on the ridges ourside of town. To solve his problem, Mr. Walson put an antenna on top of a large utility pole and installed it on the top of a nearby mountain. Television signals were received, and transported over twin lead antenna wire down to his store. Once people saw these early results, television sales soared. It became his responsibility to improve the picture quality by using coaxial cable and self-manufactured "boosters" (amplifiers) to bring CATV to the homes of customers who bought television sets. And so, cable television was born in June 1948. In the early 1950's television was still fairly new. Though it had not yet become popular, city department stores displayed many different models for sale. And, like an apartment house where every resident had his or her own television, the roofs of the stores were beginning to resemble forests of TV antennas. Milton Jerrold Shapp, who later became governor of Pennsylvania,...
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