Page 23 - All About History - Issue 18-14

Mass Media

rom the moment John Logie Baird demonstrated
The studio televised moving images in 1926 the medium
When the TV station ITV was created it was done so in of TV has gone from strength to strength.
such a hurry that many of the studios were converted While Baird is often held up as the inventor of
from buildings such as cinemas or even shops to ensure Fthe media, others before him also played a key
the new programmes could be made and then broadcast
to the nation. In England, most of the studios based role. One of these figures was the German inventor
themselves in London, apart from Granada, which built Paul Julius Gottlieb Nipkow, who invented a picture-
its main studio in Manchester. scanning method used until well into the 1930s.
Nipkow was so influential that Germany’s first public
television channel, started in Berlin in 1935, was
named Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow after him.
The British Broadcasting Company was established
in October 1922 but didn’t begin experimental TV
broadcasts until 1932 with regular – if limited –
broadcasts around two years later and more regular
service in 1936 broadcast from Alexandra Palace. In
Great Britain they were the only TV station until ITV
launched in 1954. In the United States the first TV
station, W3XK, began broadcasting in 1928.
By the 1950s the new medium was beginning to
become more affordable and became the dominant
form of home entertainment and news, with
Sound
The Mole-Richardson increasing numbers of families having a TV set in
Type 103B microphone their front room. For example, between 1949 and 1969,
boom was a familiar the number of households in the US with at least one
item in TV studios from TV set rose from less than a million to 44 million.
the 1940s until the end Television was here to stay.
of the 1970s. The boom
arm would extend to
approximately 5m (17ft)
and the base of the
equipment had wheels,
which were steered from
the rear. The operator
needed a good sense
balance to stay on their
feet and not fall off.

Director
While it was important that the director
ensured that the best shots were taken,
they would also help ensure that the
programme cut to advertising breaks
at the right time. By 1969 American
advertisers were spending an incredible
$1.5 billion on TV advertising a year,
meaning that the relationship between
shows and advertisers became closely
linked, with some shows being
sponsored by one product and the
© The Art Agency
presenter being seen to endorse this.

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