TV History

July 30, 1943…RCA Announces Sale Of NBC Blue Network To Ed Noble It would be October 12th before the FCC approved the deal, but July 30 was the day they agreed on the $8 million price, but would you believe that Noble actually only paid $7 million? It’s true, and here is the story.…

Rare Jack Paar Images…A Camera In A Limo? Yep, And MORE! On this Anniversary of Jack’s ascendance to host of the “Tonight” show, here are a few real pictorial rarities. ABOVE:  On July 29, 1957, Jack became the host of “TONIGHT”but before that he was a CBS man, starting in ’54, he had been…

Backstage With Jack Paar..”Tonight”, December 7, 1958 Today is the anniversary of Paar’s debut as host of the show and to help celebrate, here is a rare treat is in the form of a “New York Times” article by John Shanley gives us a look behind the scenes of “Tonight” with Paar as host.…

July 29, 1957…The Jack Paar Era Of “Tonight” Begins Location wise, the “Tonight” show with Jack Paar started where Steve Allen left off…in the Hudson Theater, but the final show from there came the week the 1950s ended. The first week of January 1960, the show’s new home would be NBC’s Studio 6B. The…

Jack Paar…Master Of Words – Storyteller Supreme Earlier today, I posted an article celebrating the 59th Anniversary of Jack Paar’s debut as host of the “Tonight” show, on July 29, 1959. To celebrate his unique ability as a communicator, I thought you may want to hear special something I found a couple of years…

The BEST Television History Book I Have Ever Read! The book is, “The Origins Of Television News In America”, by our friend Mike Conway. In TV news lingo, “unpacking” is what a reporter does when he or she lays out the facts and timeline of their story. Although I have read the book twice,…

CBS NY Master Studio List, New And Updated…1937- Present First compiled by David Schwartz in April 1999, here is the updated list with some new revisions on July 26, 2016. Enjoy, comment, share and SAVE! -Bobby Ellerbee _____________________________________________________ CBS Studios 1937 – 1964 Radio Studios, 485 Madison Ave. The original radio studios were number…

On July 26, 1964, the first broadcast finally originated from a building CBS had owned since 1952. From ’52, until that first top-of-hour CBS Radio newscast, the facility had been designated the CBS Production Center, and was mostly used to store and build scenery, and provide office space for shows that worked from CBS…

(Photo above: CBS News Studio 9 with Murrow in suit and the short man in the background is news director Paul White. On the right, Douglas Edwards looking at wire copy.) On September 18, 1927, the CBS Radio Network, with 18 affiliates went on the air from their studios in The Steinway Building near…

July 25, 1959…Nixon-Khrushchev “KItchen Debate” Tape Airs In US The Kitchen Debate was a series of impromptu exchanges (through interpreters) between then U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in the “kitchen of a modern American home” on display at the opening of the American National Exhibition at Sokolniki Park in…

In a spirit of cooperation, competitors RCA, GE and Philco teamed with AT&T to televise the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. It was a television first in more ways that one. Not only was this the first time TV had covered a political convention – this was also the first ever network to cover…

On a Monday afternoon on this date in 1962, CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite entered NBC’s studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza to co-host this historic broadcast with NBC’s Chet Huntley. ABC’s Howard K. Smith was at the UN Building. The twenty minute broadcast from the US to Europe was slated to start at 3…

1936 & 2016…Convention Coverage Eerily Similar For NBC & CBS Believe it or not, the Republicans held their convention in Cleveland in mid June of 1936, and the Democrats held theirs in Philadelphia in late July. Sound familiar? http://fadedsignals.com/post/147634247368/from-1936-the-nbc-radio-facilities-at-the In Cleveland, Alf Landon was the GOP candidate selected, and Franklin Roosevelt was the democrats…

Remembering The VCR…RIP, The End Is Near The last VCR will be manufactured this month R.I.P., VCR. Funai Electric, the world’s last known VCR manufacturer, will cease production of video-cassette recorders this month. Source

Rare Color Film…5 “Colgate Comedy Hour” Stars At El Capitan At the link, you will see Eddie Cantor, Bud Abbott & Lou Costello and Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis arriving at NBC’s El Capitan Theater in Hollywood in 1953. This is a short, but sweet color home movie shot on the south side of…

You Mean They Used Color Cameras For B/W Broadcasts? Yes, they did and WICU was not alone…so did WSB in Atlanta, and many other local stations in the mid ’60s. This photo is one I recently found, and it reminded me of a the disbelief many young people had on an article I did…

Exclusive! Soupy Sales Returns To WXYZ, Detroit For A Visit! Thanks to Barry Mitchell, here is a 1982 video of Soupy returning to where it all started…WXYZ TV in Detroit. Good tales from old timers and some of the tricks they pulled on each other, plus a few pies in the face. Enjoy and…

The bottom video starts at 1:24, which is the first few minutes of the debut, which is acknowledged after the headline billboard. The stories and events they will be covering are similar to the ones we are watching today…the political conventions, the upcoming Atlanta Olympics, Russia’s president, and more, as reported from some very…

See Anyone You Know? 1984 Pool Cameramen Shoot Each Other With the Republican National Convention coming next week, here’s a look back at the very end of the 1984 version, when Thomson cameras were in vogue at CBS. At 3:35, I see our friend Charlie Huntley. This video came from producer Phil Savenick, who…