Most people on the board know the first coast-to-coast TV broadcasts happened in 1951, when the networks started using the new AT&T long lines system. But clearly there were networks before then; NBC had a eastern and midwestern networks that joined up in 1949. Were these linked by completed portions of the long lines system, or were they totally seperate? Did anyone besides the "big three" use long lines for TV distribution? And when was the long lines system abandoned by the networks? It must have been after 1979, because a TV Guide article about network transmissions mentions long lines.
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History of network relays
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FredLeonard
Guest
AT&T Long Lines was the division of the Bell System which handled long distance, in contrast to the Bell Operating Companies (BOCs) which handled local service. AT&T Long Lines had handled connections for the radio networks (NBC, CBS and Mutual) back to the 1920s.
In 1951 what was new was coaxial cable which provided enough bandwidth for coast to coast audio and video. Prior to that, TV stations in the Northeast and Midwest were interconnected, as were some stations in the West. Even after 1951, many regions did not have access to coaxial cable and continued through the 50s to get TV shows on delay via kinescope or film.
Throughout the 50s, it was common for network programs to make announcements welcoming new stations (and markets) to the network as coaxial cable reached into new regions.
Dumont also used coaxial cable (it was the "big four" in the early 50s), as did connections set up on an ad hoc basis for things like sporting events or specials.
The first network to go to satellite distribution was HBO followed by other cable networks (early cable television used on-air relay or microwave relay to send signals between markets). The first terrestrial network was PBS. By 1984, the major networks had gone to satellite.
In 1951 what was new was coaxial cable which provided enough bandwidth for coast to coast audio and video. Prior to that, TV stations in the Northeast and Midwest were interconnected, as were some stations in the West. Even after 1951, many regions did not have access to coaxial cable and continued through the 50s to get TV shows on delay via kinescope or film.
Throughout the 50s, it was common for network programs to make announcements welcoming new stations (and markets) to the network as coaxial cable reached into new regions.
Dumont also used coaxial cable (it was the "big four" in the early 50s), as did connections set up on an ad hoc basis for things like sporting events or specials.
The first network to go to satellite distribution was HBO followed by other cable networks (early cable television used on-air relay or microwave relay to send signals between markets). The first terrestrial network was PBS. By 1984, the major networks had gone to satellite.
Prior to the major nets going to the bird, they finally got a marked improvement in audio quality from the Telco lines. Around 1978, AT&T changed the way the audio was transmitted which boosted it from 5 kHz to 15 kHz. So all affiliates then "sounded" (while on the network) as good as if you were watching in NYC or El Lay.
The AT&T Telco lines were a major cost through the years. I remember reading that the demise of the United Network's Las Vegas Show (late night, 1967) was at least partially caused by the price of the network lines. I guess they didn't get a discount from AT&T just for two hours a night.
The AT&T Telco lines were a major cost through the years. I remember reading that the demise of the United Network's Las Vegas Show (late night, 1967) was at least partially caused by the price of the network lines. I guess they didn't get a discount from AT&T just for two hours a night.
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FredLeonard
Guest
The audio standard on network lines was the same used for network radio, which was based on the audio capabilities of AM radio. It was the sound quality everyone was used to. And TV manufacturers didn't spend a lot of money on speakers and audio capability any way. But TV audio was FM, not AM, and by the late 70s a lot of people were getting used to FM radio sound.
Radio network affiliates got 5KHz (Class A) audio only if they were on the network trunk lines. Otherwise they had to make do with Class C audio, with even more limited range.
Line charges were a major expense for broadcasters.
Radio network affiliates got 5KHz (Class A) audio only if they were on the network trunk lines. Otherwise they had to make do with Class C audio, with even more limited range.
Line charges were a major expense for broadcasters.
Did Jerry Lewis?
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FredLeonard
Guest
Did Jerry Lewis what?
I would assume that customers who leased coaxial cable for something like 18 hours a day, seven days a week (plus special hook-ups) got a lower hourly rate than somebody who leased two hours a day. Whatever the rate, rates were highly regulated back then and the same rate structure would have applied to all users. Including the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
I would assume that customers who leased coaxial cable for something like 18 hours a day, seven days a week (plus special hook-ups) got a lower hourly rate than somebody who leased two hours a day. Whatever the rate, rates were highly regulated back then and the same rate structure would have applied to all users. Including the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Great topic. I'd love to know more of the history, and which lines went where.
For instance, I know AT&T distributed NBC. But, at least in my area of north and east Texas, CBS & ABC were distributed via Western Union.
I know the two systems were interconnected, since at one affiliate, Western Union could switch me to an AT&T line for NBC. It always came to me via the same line as our ABC programming.
I can only imagine how intricate the system must have been. On a Sunday afternoon for football, there were multiple NBC and CBS feeds to be distributed across the nation. When, as a CBS affiliate in Sherman-Ardmore, we were running a noon game but the NFL required us to switch to a Dallas Cowboys game at 3:00, a Western Union operator in Dallas made the switch for us.
I know the Jerry Lewis telethon came to us in Tyler via our Western Union lines. In Sherman, we got it via KXAS in Fort Worth (which is also where we got our NBC feed). Our engineer always had to make a trip to a little shack behind KXAS and move a patch to get the right feed. But he'd have to stay to switch us back to NBC after the telethon and before the Tonight Show that night.
For instance, I know AT&T distributed NBC. But, at least in my area of north and east Texas, CBS & ABC were distributed via Western Union.
I know the two systems were interconnected, since at one affiliate, Western Union could switch me to an AT&T line for NBC. It always came to me via the same line as our ABC programming.
I can only imagine how intricate the system must have been. On a Sunday afternoon for football, there were multiple NBC and CBS feeds to be distributed across the nation. When, as a CBS affiliate in Sherman-Ardmore, we were running a noon game but the NFL required us to switch to a Dallas Cowboys game at 3:00, a Western Union operator in Dallas made the switch for us.
I know the Jerry Lewis telethon came to us in Tyler via our Western Union lines. In Sherman, we got it via KXAS in Fort Worth (which is also where we got our NBC feed). Our engineer always had to make a trip to a little shack behind KXAS and move a patch to get the right feed. But he'd have to stay to switch us back to NBC after the telethon and before the Tonight Show that night.
A bit of trivia: when the two coasts were joined on September 4, 1951, there were 107 stations on the air (the last pre-freeze licensee, Atlanta's Ch. 11, then WLTV Ch. 8, would sign on Sept. 30). One station, however, was not linked into the system: KOB Albuquerque, and I don't know when it was. To mark the occasion, President Harry S Truman addressed the UN, then still headquartered in San Francisco, and Douglas Edwards began using his longtime opening, "Good evening everyone, from coast to coast." Still, there was some crazy scheduling in those early days; I once posted a retro for San Francisco for a Monday in 1951; KPIX carried the live feed of "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" at 5:30 (PT)/8:30 (ET), while Los Angeles saw it on "fast kine" three hours later (or someone at the station made the kinescope during the live feed).
Somebody mentioned the practice of welcoming new stations to a broadcast; sometimes that was the biggest news of the day, and the networks (particularly ABC) wanted to promote their steady expansion. I still remember Aug. 1, 1962, the day WRAL switched from NBC to ABC and became the second fulltime ABC affiliate in North Carolina (after WLOS); it was mentioned on three daytime shows, "Yours For A Song" with Bert Parks, "Camouflage" with Don Morrow, and "American Bandstand," all of which were live. And even when ABC began picking off other networks' affiliates in the '70s and '80s, the practice continued; I remember the morning in 1990 when WHAS Louisville joined ABC and Charlie Gibson acted delighted that one of the oldest and most prestigious stations in the country had moved from CBS to ABC.
It's still probably a hassle to switch football games; CBS went to bonus coverage of the Browns-Titans game yesterday, but both WCBS and KCBS had to cut away by NFL rules to show the Jets-Chargers game in its entirety. WFMY and WRAL, my local CBS affiliates, stayed with the Browns-Titans game to the end.
But this discussion is otherwise getting too technical for me; all I know is that the first live network broadcast we got in North Carolina came in 1950, before I was born; WFMY carried DuMont's telecast of the North Carolina-Notre Dame football game on the day live network programming was extended southward from Richmond at least to Birmingham. I do have some insight now as to how, if in the '50s I had worked at a station that carried both Jackie Gleason (CBS) and Sid Caesar (NBC) on Saturday nights, I could have switched from CBS to NBC at 9, when Gleason went off and Caesar came on, to use one example (or in the '60s, how CBS/ABC affiliate WMAZ Macon, GA could go directly from Gleason to Lawrence Welk (ABC) at 8:30).
Somebody mentioned the practice of welcoming new stations to a broadcast; sometimes that was the biggest news of the day, and the networks (particularly ABC) wanted to promote their steady expansion. I still remember Aug. 1, 1962, the day WRAL switched from NBC to ABC and became the second fulltime ABC affiliate in North Carolina (after WLOS); it was mentioned on three daytime shows, "Yours For A Song" with Bert Parks, "Camouflage" with Don Morrow, and "American Bandstand," all of which were live. And even when ABC began picking off other networks' affiliates in the '70s and '80s, the practice continued; I remember the morning in 1990 when WHAS Louisville joined ABC and Charlie Gibson acted delighted that one of the oldest and most prestigious stations in the country had moved from CBS to ABC.
It's still probably a hassle to switch football games; CBS went to bonus coverage of the Browns-Titans game yesterday, but both WCBS and KCBS had to cut away by NFL rules to show the Jets-Chargers game in its entirety. WFMY and WRAL, my local CBS affiliates, stayed with the Browns-Titans game to the end.
But this discussion is otherwise getting too technical for me; all I know is that the first live network broadcast we got in North Carolina came in 1950, before I was born; WFMY carried DuMont's telecast of the North Carolina-Notre Dame football game on the day live network programming was extended southward from Richmond at least to Birmingham. I do have some insight now as to how, if in the '50s I had worked at a station that carried both Jackie Gleason (CBS) and Sid Caesar (NBC) on Saturday nights, I could have switched from CBS to NBC at 9, when Gleason went off and Caesar came on, to use one example (or in the '60s, how CBS/ABC affiliate WMAZ Macon, GA could go directly from Gleason to Lawrence Welk (ABC) at 8:30).
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K.M. Richards
Guest
Having recently done a considerable amount of research for an article on the Overmyer/United Network, I can tell you that they were required to pay for six hours a day of network line time from AT&T and it was a major factor in their demise.
Wasn't it also a reason for DuMont's failure too? I have read DuMont were forced to pay the same as the "big three" even though a lot of their programs went to just a few stations. For that matter, DuMont had to pay for network radio long lines fees--of course, DuMont didn't have a radio network.
Prior to 1978, network video and audio were fed separately, although synchronized. I recall a few extremely rare instances where there would be a significant lag between the two due to routing errors, or you would accidentally have the video of one network running with the audio from another.
The further you got from NYC the worse the audio sounded. I recall visiting upstate New York in 1970 and being amazed at how good the network audio sounded (just like local.) In Texas, it sounded like AM radio.
(Should also point out that by the late 60's/early70's microwave distribution had replaced much, if not most of the coax.)
In early 1978 the distribution method was updated so that the audio was multiplexed on the video signal, so there was a common line as well as full frequency range. Also made switching feeds much easier--computer control had come along by that time. Super Bowl XII on CBS was one of the first major broadcasts distributed with the improved audio, and it sounded amazing compared to what we were used to.
I've long wondered if any recordings of the "Las Vegas Show" still exist. Would be a fascinating window into United Network's mostly forgotten effort in television history. Lots of DuMont material survives, however.
For CBS at least, AT&T did much if not most of the long haul distribution to various hubs around the country, but in some places, other companies such as Western Union would be responsible for the last several hundred miles. For instance, AT&T fed the networks into Dallas, but WU then fed stations in East and South Texas. West Texas stations had AT&T all the way.
At some of the more remote stations, particularly in the Mountain Time Zone, the "network feed" was actually the complete program output of a larger station, and the small local station had to cover up the larger station's commercials during network breaks.
A lot of planning was required in the old days for NFL distribution. During times when there was no network programming or feeds on the lines, the AT&T engineers would have a closed circuit conference on the feed explaining to other AT&T staff all the connections and hops they would have to make for distributing the various regional NFL games. All this is now fed by satellite, with the networks remotely controlling the receivers at the affiliated stations.
The Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon was distributed by the Hughes Television Network on AT&T long lines in the 1970's. Stations had their network distributor switch the incoming feed to Hughes from whatever the normal network was. For the station master control staff, it all came in on the "usual" line. Same thing for other so-called "special networks" such as Mizlou, TVS, etc.
Not really. Everything is fed by satellite, and the different games (and alternate feeds for stations that have to make a game change or deal with blackouts) are all on different transponders. The satellite receivers are remotely controlled by the network, and each network is capable of many different feeds out of New York (CBS) or Los Angeles (Fox.)
The network controls are capable of folding various game feeds together for "bonus coverage" depending on market.
Decades ago CBS could only feed two games out of New York, while other games had regional "control stations" that would take the truck feed from the stadium, insert the network commercials, and feed it to a regional network of stations. For instance, KDFW (then a CBS affiliate) would often be the control station for Cowboys games, distributing them to a regional network of CBS affiliates across Texas and the southwest. NBC had a similar arrangement, IIRC.
I've wondered if the expansion of better quality sound happened nationwide all at once or if it expanded to different areas over time. I remember when I visited relatives in Nashville that the sound quality seemed to be better there than it was when was watching the Memphis area stations at home. I used to think that may have been because of the differences in TV sets, but I wonder now if the sound quality coming from the networks may have been better, at least for a time, in Nashville compared to Memphis. Or could it have been a combination of both?
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FredLeonard
Guest
They paid under the same rate structure but having few cities would mean fewer interconnections. NBC and CBS had full daytime schedules in the 50s, so more hours meant a higher total on their AT&T bill.
The audio upgrade happened "over time" but I don't know over how short or long a period. I do know that KOLD-TV (CBS) Tucson got its upgrade at least a few days before KOOL-TV (then CBS, now KSAZ-TV Fox) Phoenix, which was/is a larger market. A bit odd perhaps; I remember seeing the national CBS Telco lines map and the feed coming into AZ from the east had a split near a small town called Kelvin--the split went to Tucson and the "main" line continued into Phoenix, on its way to El Lay. Of course, the CBS Telco feed for Tucson had only been in place since the summer of 1977--it had been discontinued circa 1959 (the old coaxial cable) when KOLD decided to use (then co-owned) KOOL as its network feed point via a private microwave link. I say "network feed" loosely, as it was normally just a "dirty" feed from KOOL's master control switcher which included all of the local KOOL breaks, KOOL-TV legal ID fonts, etc. But KOOL-TV did all the tape-delaying, and a limited airing of 16mm film prints, of CBS (Mountain Time Zone, remember).
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K.M. Richards
Guest
Well, as I said earlier, I did a lot of research on Overmyer/United (and hopefully the new website the article I wrote is for will be online soon so you can read it) and if any recordings exist they are in private hands and non-locatable, or we would have found them by now.
We did locate a still picture of Bill Dana on the set, including cameras and boom microphone ...
It was like this for a long time. Even dating into the late 1970s. 1978 was the breaking point when sound went to what it is today. Before that, unless you were in a major city, TV sound came through like AM radio.
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