NAB Looks Back at 75 Years of Broadcasting The National Association of Broadcasters is 75 (some of these dates will surprise you!) 1920 - Commercial radio broadcasting begins. 1923 - Complete TV system including kinescope (or picture tube) demonstrated. NAB (national association of broadcasters) formed. Patent of iconoscope (TV camera tube) applied for. 1924 - Armstrong invents the superheterodyne circuit and later sells the circuit to RCA.Loudspeakers replace earphones. AC radio receivers made to plug into electric outlets introduced. 1927 - Television is broadcast for the first time, by wire, from New York to Washington, D.C.. Patent applied for on electronic television. First experimental TV station permits issued by federal government. 1928 - auto's get radios. First successful trial of video delivery through telephone lines. 1930 - First FDR fireside chat broadcast to the country on radio. 1934 - Communication Act established. FM radio invented. FCC established. 1939 - Orson Welles sends panic along the east coast with radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds". Television introduced at NY World's Fair. The first TV sets are offered for sale in US by 5 manufacturers. 1941 - FDR'S Declaration of War broadcast on all radio stations. 1945 - First magnetic tape recorders sold. 1947 - President Truman's inauguration is first to be televised. Commercial-supported television debuts. 1948 - First pagers introduced. Magnetic videotape recorder demonstrated. Cable TV introduced. 1949 - TV set sales increase more than 500% over 1947 level. 1950 - Network TV available to 114 stations in 71 cities. 1953 - Final assembly of early RCA color camera. NTSC-compatible TV is successfully demonstrated. 1954 - Portable TV era begins. Color TV broadcasting begins. 1955 - First mass-market transistor pocket radio introduced. Commercial\videotape recorder introduced by Ampex. 1957 - Stereo records and phonographs introduced. Magnetic tape used for color television recording. 1960 - Nixon/Kennedy debates televised all over the country. First rectangular TV screen introduced. 1961 - FM radio becomes stereo for the first time. 1962 - First telephone answering device available to consumers. First battery-operated transistorized TV for sale. Launch of Telstar brings broadcasting into the satellite age. Introduction of the audio cassette by Philips. 1963 - First televised program beamed by satellite to U.S. & Europe. A shocked nation watches televised events surrounding President Kennedy's assassination. 1964 - The Beatles appear on 'The Ed Sullivan Show.' 1965 - Integrated circuits introduced into calculators and electronic watches. 1966 - First home color videotape recorders. 1967 - Portable and color TV cameras demonstrated. 1971 - First home video games, played through TV receivers, marketed. 1972 - First home computer kits sold. 1973 - Giant screen projection TV's introduced. 1975 - First VHS VCR introduced. 1977 - Apple Computer introduces the first personal computer. Home color video cameras sold. 1978 - Laserdisc players marketed. 1979 - Personal portable headset audio introduced 1980 - ENG (electronic news-gathering) vans with microwave antennae replace unwieldy remote-production trailers. Closed captioning decoders first sold. High speed fax machines marketed. 1981 - Surround sound is introduced for home use by Dolby. VHS-C videotape format (miniVHS) introduced. 1982 - First compact disc (CD) players for sale in U.S.. 8mm video format standards set. 1983 - Cellular phone service introduced. First stereo TV broadcasting begins. First color TV's with all-digital signal processing marketed. Satellite news gathering greatly expands a reporter's range. 1985 - Color TV's with 35 inch picture tube marketed. 1986 - 8mm video home VCR decks and software introduced. First consumer video telephone marketed. Scrambling of satellite-fed cable TV programming starts sale of decoders and home dish owning. 1987 - Higher resolution VCR's and camcorders introduced (S-VHS and ED-Beta). Compact Disc Video (CD-V) introduced. 1988 - Recordable CD's demonstrated. 1990 - First digital audio tape recorders introduced. 1991 - U.S. testing of HDTV begins. MiniDisc (MD) first marketed. 1991 - Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) first marketed. 1993 - 19:9 aspect ratio (widescreen) TV sets marketed. 64-bit electronic games introduced. Video CD adopted as a 5" optical disc standard. 1994 - 900 MHz cordless telephones introduced. Pentium and PowerPC microprocessor chips introduced. 1995 - First TV show ('Computer Chronicles') delivered via Internet. Digital Video Disc (DVD) standards introduced. Internet and commercial online usage explodes. Set-top boxes plug into TV & phone, allowing viewers to surf the World Wide Web. 1996 - Flat-screen plasma display TV introduced. FCC adopts the ATSC standard for digital television. 56 kbps modems hit the market. 1997 - DVD players debut in U.S. U.S. Supreme Court affirms that cable must carry local broadcast stations. TV broadcasters are loaned additional spectrum, opening the way for digital and high definition TV. Debut of new Intel Pentium processors with MMX technology. 1998 - HDTV receivers reborn.   Excerpted from the NAB publication "On The Verge".   Reprinted from The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter Vol. 19, No. 5 - September/October 1998   Guild Home | Newsletter Home | Top of Page   Copyright © 1998, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 776