Sarnoff, David

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David Sarnoff

Television Statement to Press

Delivered November 6, 1936

Text reprinted from the Restelli Collection at History TV Net, available at http://framemaster.tripod.com/index5.html

The earliest television technology grew out of the work of numerous inventors, scientists, and engineers at the beginning of the twentieth century. The first public demonstration of the new technology took place in 1927, when U.S. secretary of commerce Herbert Hoover (who later became president of the United States) made a speech in Washington, D.C., that was broadcast live to a group of journalists located two hundred miles away in New York City. The New York Times reported that seeing Hoover's moving image on a television screen was as amazing "as if a photograph had suddenly come to life and begun to talk."

One of the leading companies in the development of television technology in the United States was the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). RCA was formed in 1919 and soon became a top manufacturer of radios, operator of radio stations, and broadcaster of radio programs. It got involved in television research under the visionary leadership of David Sarnoff.

"Ten years ago the National Broadcasting Company began a national service of sound broadcasting. Now it enters upon its second decade of service by contributing its facilities and experience to the new art of television."

Sarnoff was born in Russia in 1891 and came to the United States in 1900. He went to work selling newspapers at an early age to help support his family. During his teen years he became a telegraph operator. Always good at attracting publicity, Sarnoff became famous in 1912 by claiming to be the sole telegraph operator to receive distress calls from the luxury ocean liner Titanic after it hit an iceberg in the northern Atlantic Ocean. In reality, a number of wireless operators had received the messages and informed authorities about the sinking ship.

Sarnoff joined RCA shortly after its formation in 1919 and quickly began rising through the ranks of the company. In 1926, he played an important role in creating RCA's broadcasting division, called the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and increasing the company's involvement in commercial radio broadcasting. The following year Sarnoff was elected to RCA's board of directors, and in 1930—at the age of thirty-nine—he became president of the company.

Sarnoff had been interested in television from the first time he had heard descriptions of the technology. By the time he became the head of RCA, he was convinced that television would be the future of mass communications. Determined to make RCA the leader in television technology Sarnoff held a meeting with an engineer named Vladimir Zworykin (1889–1982; see Chapter 9). Several years earlier, Zworykin had applied for patents (a form of legal protection for an invention) on a television camera he called the Iconoscope and a television display screen he called the Kinescope. Following their meeting, Sarnoff hired Zworykin to develop an electronic television system for RCA. Over the next few years, Sarnoff also bought the patents for TV-related technologies from several other inventors.

In 1936, RCA launched a million-dollar research program aimed at producing affordable electronic television systems for American homes. Sarnoff came up with a three-part plan for RCA to follow in order to increase demand for TV technology. This plan involved mass-producing TV sets to make them more affordable for consumers, expanding entertainment programming on NBC to make TV ownership more appealing, and organizing public demonstrations of television to expose more people to the possibilities of the exciting new technology.

On November 6, 1936, Sarnoff gave one of these demonstrations at a press conference. In his statement to reporters, which is excerpted below, he provides current information on RCAs progress in developing television broadcasting systems. Sarnoff explains that his researchers have managed to transmit TV programs from the top of the Empire State Building in New York City to receiver sets located forty-five miles away. In the process, he says that they have learned a great deal about the behavior of television signals and confirmed that they were working on a promising technical system. Sarnoff also notes that RCA is using its experience in radio broadcasting to develop new types of television programming. Finally, he says that one of his goals for the future is establishing a network of television broadcasting facilities across the country.

Things to remember while reading David Sarnoff's "Television Statement to Press":

Television signals, like other forms of wireless electronic communication, are carried by radio waves. Radio waves are a form of electromagnetic energy that travels through the air. The waves exist in a range of frequencies called the radio spectrum. In 1936, when David Sarnoff made his speech, RCA and other companies were testing the capacity of different frequencies to carry television broadcasts. Sarnoff mentions experiments involving ultra-short waves and micro-waves, which are types of electromagnetic signals that have very short wavelengths.
In his speech, Sarnoff mentions the need to establish basic rules or guidelines for television transmission. He wants the Federal Communications Commission (the government agency responsible for regulating television) to set industry-wide standards for television broadcasting. A number of different companies were working to develop TV technology around this time, and each one came up with different kinds of equipment for sending and receiving television signals. While many companies in the industry supported the idea of government standards, they all wanted the standards to favor their own technology. As a result, many competitors fought against the adoption of RCA technology as an industry standard. Disagreements between various companies eventually led the Radio Manufacturers Association to set up a technical committee to recommend industry-wide standards to the FCC. The FCC finally adopted technical standards for television transmission in 1941. These rules said that all television sets produced in the United States would divide images into 525 horizontal lines, each of which would be scanned by the TV camera and reproduced on the TV screen 30 times per second.
Several other countries—most notably Great Britain and Germany—developed television technology around the same time as the United States. In his speech, Sarnoff claims that American technology is superior to that being developed in other parts of the world. He says this is because the U.S. government allowed private companies to develop TV as a profit-making business enterprise. Under the British system of broadcasting, in contrast, the government owned all television and radio stations and financed their operations through taxes. RCA stood to make a great deal of money from television, so Sarnoff had a strong interest in preserving the American system of broadcasting.
Sarnoff also mentions that his goal is to establish a "television service to the public which will supplement and not supplant the present service of broadcasting." RCA was already a leader in radio broadcasting, and he does not want to lose this advantage. So he emphasizes the idea that television broadcasting should merely add to, rather than replace, existing facilities and services.

"Television Statement to Press"

In view of the public interest in the promise of sight as well as sound through the air, we have invited you here today to witness an experimental television test so that the progress in this new and promising art may be reflected to the public factually rather than through the haze of conjecture or speculation.
You will recall that our field tests in television began only on June 29 of this year. That date marked the beginning in this country of organized television experiments between a regular transmitting station and a number of homes. Since then we have advanced and are continuing to advance simultaneously along the three broad fronts of television development—research which must point the road to effective transmission and reception; technical progress which must translate into practical sets for the home the achievements of our laboratories; and field tests to determine the needs and possibilities of a public service that will ultimately enable us to see as well as to hear programs through the air. On all these fronts our work has made definite progress and has brought us nearer the desired goal.
First and as of immediate interest, let me tell you the progress of our field tests. As you know, we have been transmitting from our television station on top of the Empire State Building in New York City which is controlled from the NBC television studios in the RCA Building. We have observed and measured these transmissions through a number of experimental receivers located in the metropolitan area and adjacent suburbs. The results thus far have been encouraging, and instructive. As we anticipated, many needs that must be met by a commercial service have been made clear by these tests.
We have successfully transmitted through the air, motion pictures as well as talent before the televisor. The distance over which these television programs have been received has exceeded our immediate expectations. In one favorable location due to extreme height of our transmitter, we have consistently received transmissions as far as 45 miles from the Empire State Building.
The tests have been very instructive in that we have learned a great deal more about the behavior of ultra short waves and how to handle them. We know more about interferences, most of which are man made and susceptible of elimination. We have surmounted the difficulties of making apparatus function outside of the laboratory. We have confirmed the soundness of the technical fundamentals of our system, and the experience gained through these tests enables us to chart the needs of a practical television service.
We shall now proceed to expand our field test in a number of ways. First, we shall increase the number of observation points in the service area. Next we will raise the standards of transmission.
In our present field tests we are using a 343 line definition. Radio Corporation of America and the radio industry have, through the Radio Manufacturers Association, recommended to the Federal Communications Commission the adoption of 441 line definition as a standard for commercial operation. Our New York transmitter will be rearranged to conform to the recommended standards. That also means building synchronized receivers to conform to the new standards of the transmitter. Synchronization of transmitting and receiving equipment is a requirement of television that imposes responsibilities upon those who would furnish a satisfactory product and render a useful service to the public. On the one hand, standards cannot be frozen prematurely or progress would be prevented, while on the other hand, frequently changing standards means rapid obsolescence of television equipment.
Basic research is a continuing process in our laboratories not only that the problems of television may be solved but also to develop other uses of the ultra short and micro waves which possess such vast potentialities in this new domain of the ether.
While we have thus proceeded on the technical front of television, the construction and operation of television studios have enabled us to coordinate our technical advance with the program technique that a service to the home will ultimately require. Today, you are the guests of RCA's broadcasting unit—the National Broadcasting Company. Under the direction of its president, Mr. Lenox Lohr, the NBC has instituted a series of television program tests in which we have sought to ascertain initial requirements.
Ten years ago the National Broadcasting Company began a national service of sound broadcasting. Now it enters upon its second decade of service by contributing its facilities and experience to the new art of television.
One of the major problems in television is that of network syndication. Our present facilities for distribution of sound broadcasting cover the vast area of the United States and serve its 128,000,000 people. Similar coverage for television programs, in the present state of the television art, would require a multiplicity of transmitters and network interconnection by wire or radio facilities still to be developed.
Our program is three fold: first we must develop suitable commercial equipment for television and reception; second, we must develop a program service suitable for network syndication; third, we must also develop a sound economic base to support a television service.
From the standpoint of research, laboratory development, and technical demonstration, television progress in the United States continues to give us an unquestioned position of leadership in the development of the art. In whatever form such progress may be evident in other countries, we lead in the research which is daily extending the radio horizon, and in technical developments that have made possible a transmitting and receiving system that meets the highest standards thus far obtainable in field demonstration.
We are now engaged in the development of studio and program techniques that will touch upon every possibility within the growing progress of the art. The distinction between television in this country and abroad is the distinction between experimental public services undertaken under government subsidy in countries of vastly smaller extent, and the progressive stages of commercial development undertaken by the free initiative, enterprise and capital of those who have pioneered the art in the United States.
While the problems of television are formidable, I firmly believe they be solved. With the establishment of a television service to the public which will supplement and not supplant the present service of broadcasting, a new industry and new opportunities will have been created.

What happened next …

Following several more years of development and testing, RCA officially began offering television services to the public in 1939. Sarnoff marked this historic occasion with a speech called "The Birth of an Industry." He gave the speech on April 20, 1939, at the opening of the RCA pavilion (a large exhibit) at the New York World's Fair. World's Fairs were major events during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Held in large cities around the world, the fairs gave people an opportunity to see and experience new technologies as they developed.

Sarnoff's speech was captured on television cameras at the fair and transmitted to the RCA Building eight miles away, where reporters watched it on television screens. He announced that "now we add radio sight to sound. It is with a feeling of humbleness that I come to this moment of announcing the birth in this country of a new art so important in its implications that it is bound to affect all of society." Ten days later, RCA launched its first regular television broadcast with an address by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945; served 1933–45). The president's speech was sent from a mobile TV van at the World's Fair to the NBC transmitter at the top of the Empire State Building. From there, it was broadcast across the city and surrounding area.

Although only about two hundred people owned television sets that could receive the broadcasts, the new technology still created a sensation. RCA set up dozens of sets inside its pavilion at the fair, and huge crowds of people lined up to get their first glimpse of television. Each day of the fair, NBC broadcast different types of programs to appeal to a wide audience, including cartoons, puppet shows, a circus, sporting events, cooking demonstrations, fashion shows, and musical acts. Visitors to the RCA pavilion could even step in front of a television camera and see themselves on a nearby TV set. Afterward, they received cards that said "I was televised," as souvenirs of the experience.

RCA offered four types of TV receiver sets for sale to the public in 1939. The price of the sets ranged from $200 to $600, or the equivalent of about two months' salary for an average worker. Partly due to the high cost, only about 10,000 TV sets were sold over the next two years. Television development and most broadcasting came to a halt when the United States entered World War II in 1941. During the war, Sarnoff joined the military with the rank of brigadier general and served as a communications consultant to General Dwight Eisenhower (1890–1969). Commercial television broadcasting began after the war ended in 1945, and RCA emerged as the industry leader. Sarnoff was named chairman of the company's board of directors in 1947 and remained in that position until his death in 1971.

Did you know …

At the historic 1929 meeting between RCA head David Sarnoff and television engineer Vladimir Zworykin, Sarnoff asked the inventor what it would take to develop a marketable TV system. Zworykin replied that he would need "$100,000 and a year and a half." But his prediction turned out to be overly optimistic. It ended up taking RCA ten years and $50 million to introduce television broadcasting at the 1939 World's Fair. Of course, the technology eventually proved so profitable for the company that Sarnoff never complained.
In 1936, the year that Sarnoff held his press conference, television equipment manufactured by RCA was used to broadcast the Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. Very few German citizens owned TV sets, so the German government set up 25 large screens around the city so that residents could watch the athletic events.
In his 1936 statement to the press, Sarnoff boasted that RCA engineers were able to broadcast television signals over a distance of forty-five miles. By the time he died in 1971, satellite technology made it possible for television viewers to see live footage of events taking place around the world—or even in outer space.

Consider the following …

Imagine if television technology had never been perfected, and the American people still received their news and entertainment from radio broadcasts, newspapers, magazines, and telegraph messages. How would the world be different today?
Visitors to the RCA pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair were amazed to see moving images reproduced on television. But their reaction seems amazing now, when television is an ordinary part of daily life. Can you think of a technology that you found amazing when it was first introduced, but that now seems commonplace or even outdated? Can you think of one that has maintained your original level of interest over time? What do your responses tell you about the evolution of technology?

For More Information

BOOKS

Bilby, Kenneth. The General: David Sarnoff and the Rise of the Communications Industry. New York: Harper and Row, 1986.

Lewis, Thomas S. W. Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio. New York: Edward Burlingame Books, 1991.

PERIODICALS

Baird, Iain. "Television in the World of Tomorrow." Echoes, Winter 1997.

"David Sarnoff of RCA Is Dead: Visionary Broadcast Pioneer." New York Times, December 13, 1971.

WEB SITES

"The Birth of an Industry." Museum of Television. http://www.mztv.com/birth.html (accessed on July 26, 2006).

"The Birth of Live Entertainment and Music on Television." The Restelli Collection at History TV Net, http://framemaster.tripod.com/index5.html (accessed on July 26, 2006).

"David Sarnoff." Museum of Broadcast Communications. http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/sarnoffdavi/sarnoffdavi.htm (accessed on July 26, 2006).

Podrazik, Walter J. "TV's Debut at the 1939 World's Fair." 1939 World's Fair. http://home.flash.net/&thksim;podrazik/WorldsFair.htm (accessed on July 26, 2006).

"Television in the World of Tomorrow." Museum of Television. http://www.mztv.com/worldhome.html (accessed on July 26, 2006).

"A World's Fair for the Information Age." The Internet 1996 World Exposition. http://park.org/Pavilions/WorldExpositions/new_york2.html (accessed on July 26, 2006).

Conjecture: Guessing.

Speculation: Making assumptions or predictions.

Field tests: Experiments that take place outside a laboratory, in the place where a technology will actually be used.

Transmission: Sending or broadcasting of television signals.

Reception: Receiving of television signals.

Metropolitan area: A large city.

Adjacent: Nearby or surrounding.

Commercial: Engaged in business activities for the purpose of earning profits.

Talent: Performers or entertainers.

Televisor: Television camera or transmitting device.

Ultra short waves: Electromagnetic signals with an extremely short wavelength.

Interferences: A problem that occurs when radio waves of similar frequencies interact with each other.

Surmounted: Overcome.

Apparatus: Equipment or devices.

Observation points: Places where the quality of television reception is monitored.

Standards: Basic levels.

Definition: The sharpness of a televised image, based on the number of lines scanned by the camera and reproduced on the receiver screen per second.

Synchronized: Working together in unison.

Prematurely: Too early.

Obsolescence: Becoming out of date; useless.

Micro waves: Electromagnetic signals with a somewhat short wavelength.

Potentialities: Possibilities.

Domain: Area of activity.

Ether: Part of Earth's atmosphere that transmits radio waves.

Program technique: Process of creating television shows.

Network syndication: Development of a large number of local broadcast facilities that can be linked together.

Multiplicity: Large number.

Radio horizon: Reach of radio technology.

Abroad: Overseas; in other countries.