By Dr. Curtis Varnell
Television is one of the most used appliances in the American home, so much so that most homes are equipped with huge wall-covering sets in almost every room. From watching news in the early morning to the late show and sports in the evening, most homes have one of more of the sets running constantly. They keep us entertained, informed, and sometimes just serve as background noise from dawn to bedtime. It’s difficult to believe that television has been around only a couple of generations.
The first television stations broadcasting began in 1928 but was experimental and limited to a small region near Washington D.C. It was 1939 before the first company (NBC) began regular broadcasting and, even then, it was limited to a small audience of less than 10,000 New Yorkers. The television sets were expensive, running from $200-$500 per set, a huge sum in comparison to the typical yearly salary of $1,368. Once WWII ended, mass production of the T.V. and the increase in wages lead to a rapid increase in the number of homes containing a T.V. Ownership of a television became a status symbol; so much so that some individuals who couldn’t afford the television, set up antennas to impress neighbors. By 1951, 12 million Americans owned a set.
Television came to Arkansas on April, 5, 1953 when Little Rock KRTV began broadcasting as a UHF station. UHF was soon supplanted by the VHF stations whose signal could carry for a longer distance and required a much less sophisticated antenna. KARK, Channel 4 in Little Rock, began business on April 15, 1954 and is still in operation. It was followed by Channel 5, KFSM in Fort Smith and other regional stations.
The first T.V.s were vastly different than the sleek, two-inch-thick wall-hanging sets of today. A true piece of furniture, nice sets were composed of decorative wood paneling concealing a massive picture tube surrounded by electrical circuits. In many homes, if the picture tube went out, the home owner would keep the old TV and use it as a decorative table or as a base for the small plastic replacement TV. Like my generation adapting to the cell phone and internet, there was reluctance on the part of older people acclimating to the new appliance. One grandparent felt they were the work of the devil (she may have been right) and the other felt that “if I can see them, they can see me.” Eventually, both succumbed to temptation, watched a few episodes of Andy Griffith and Bonanza and were hooked. We still had to be fully dressed to watch TV in grandparent number two’s home.
My father purchased a cheap plastic enclosed set in 1964 and a larger color T.V. set a year later. You could buy a used car for the price paid for a new color T.V. There was little argument between the kids in the family about what we would watch since KFSM Fort Smith and PBS were the only stations we could receive with clarity. As a part of the T.V. generation, we learned quickly how to manipulate the set to obtain the best picture. Watching the Little Rock station required someone going outside, turning the antenna just right, and then watching a program through what seemed a massive snow storm. Turning the TV set on in the early morning required a five-minute delay as the picture tube “warmed up” enough to broadcast. My kids would never believe that the stations turned off transmission at 12 A.M. and the test pattern came on for the rest of the night.
Cities developed cable TV which allowed a wider range of available programming but the next real development in reception came with the satellite dishes. It is hard to believe today that people would purchase a ten-foot circular apparatus that looked like something from a space movie and set it up in their yard, but thousands did so. Again, it required the entire family’s participation to locate the razorback football game. One family member would go outside in the cold, move the antennae across the sky to pinpoint the right satellite, while the information was relayed from one family member to another until received by the person watching the TV. Many more stations were available but you had to be careful for some of the channels were definitely not PG, lending credence to my grandmother’s original opinion.
Today, streaming TV stations bring hundreds of programs into the home. We have yahoo, Netflix, Disney, ESPN, and a host of others. A common refrain from my kids, “there is just nothing on TV.” I don’t worry about it too much, I just watch reruns of Andy Griffin and Bonanza.
Interested in Arkansas TV, visit the Fort Smith Museum of History, 320 Rogers Avenue Fort Smith, Arkansas 72901 [email protected]