July 2, 1928: America's First TV Station Goes on the Air: "The picture is grainy and the technology won't last, but TV programming is here to stay.
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1928: W3XK, the first American TV station, begins broadcasting from suburban Washington, D.C.
The station was an outgrowth of the work done by Charles Francis Jenkins in devising a way to transmit pictures over the airwaves, a process he called "radiovision." He sold several thousand receiving sets, mostly to hobbyists, and, after receiving permission to start an experimental TV transmitting station, aired programming five nights a week until shutting down in 1932.
Jenkins essentially brought the wrong technology to the field: His receiving sets relied on a 48-line image projected onto a 6-inch-square mirror to create the picture, rather than using electronics, the technology that determined the future of television.
An interesting aside: Jenkins was also the first to air a television commercial. He was fined by the government for doing so, a practice that was discontinued, unfortunately, as the medium matured.
(Source: The Center for the Study of Technology and Society, tvhistory.tv)
(Read Original Article - Via Wired News.)
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