America’s First TV Station hits the airwaves, July 2nd 1928

On July 2nd, 1928 W3XK became the first American TV station, broadcasting from suburban Washington, D.C.

Originally called “radiovision” signals were broadcast by Charles Francis Jenkins who was trying to devise a way to transmit pictures over the airwaves.  He sold several thousand receiving sets, and, after receiving permission to start an experimental TV transmitting station, aired programming five nights a week until until it was ultimately shut down in 1932.

The interest for programming sent directly to the homes of many consumers because something the general public could not forget.  Jenkin’s experiment may have died,  but it led to the birth of the networks we watch to this very day.

Next time you are watching your favorite program on your flat screen HDTV, think back to a simpler time when just a 3 inch screen TV was more than enough.