NEW YORK, NY — Most people think of youth as the time for uninhibited, devil-may-care behavior, but when it comes to television, the older it gets, the wilder it gets – much to the dismay of social conservatives who wish it would just grow up and act its age.On Saturday, July 1st, television celebrated it 65th birthday and chances are that the millions of viewers who tune in every day didn’t even know it think to buy it a card.
It was 1941 when Channel 1 began its first commercial broadcast day with the National Broadcasting Company beaming its signal from the tallest point in New York City: the Empire State Building.
A mere two months previous, the Federal Communications Commission had handed out its first commercial licenses to 10 stations. The entry of the United States into World War II a few short months later substantially slowed the development of the new entertainment medium for five years. By 1946 there were 30 stations broadcasting. A decade later, that number had risen to nearly 500.
Today, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that there are 1,349 commercial television stations throughout the nation. By 1960, 87-percent of all homes could boast a television. Today that number stands proudly at 98-percent, a number in the very near neighborhood to telephone service and complete plumbing. Televisions, like telephones, can now be found in automobiles, as well.
Color did not come on the scene until Mary 25th, 1954, when Radio Corporation of American’s Bloomington, IN factory released 5,000 12-inch screen CT-100 color receiver sets, allowing Americans to see their first burst of televised color during the Rose Bowl parade. Although popular, the $1,000 televisions (that’s $7,000 in modern American money) didn’t get used very much at first, since color telecasts were still very much in the minority.
By 1967 color televisions began to outsell black-and-white sets – and by 1973, more than half of American households had one. In 2001, there were 248 million television sets capturing the eager eyes of Americans, meaning that the average household had 2.4 sets available for use. If the Consumer Electronics Association’s projections are correct, this year more then 18 million color television sets will be sold – and another 150,000 black-and-white sets, presumably to the television purist.
Supplanting just about every other leisure-time activity, domestic adults watched about 1,669 hours of television in 2004 alone. That’s more than two months worth of channel clicking and couch slouching.
Although many New York City stations relocated their antennas to the World Trade Center after the towers were erected during the early 1970s, most are once again perched upon the Empire State Building today.
