posted by Deborah D. McAdams / 01.14.2013 11:49AM
Jan. 13, 1928: First TV Sets Installed in Private Homes
Home broadcast test run by GE and RCA
WASHINGTONFrom the U.S.
Census Bureau: Couch potatoes can trace their roots to Jan. 13, 1928, when
three experimental television sets were installed in private homes in
Schenectady, New York. Not that there was much to see, the test broadcast
by General Electric and RCA being of a woman smoking, followed by a man playing
a ukulele.
The first home receivers screens were
only 1½ inches square; a far cry from today's theater-sized flat screens.
And in another departure from 1928, the percentage of U.S. households with TV
sets now has held steady for many years at over 98 percent. Even with
heavy foreign competition, U.S. manufacturers ship close to $1.2 billion worth
of TV sets annually.
The full story is available on WRGB-TV’s history page.