TVSquad

Life was simpler back in the early 1940's (before World War Two, that is.):  parents stayed married, children were kind, Hershey bars only cost five cents, and Britney Spears wasn't even a glimmer in someone's eye yet. Winters were snowy, summers were steamy, and each evening's sunset was even more beautiful than the previous one. Then, one day, commercial television was invented and screwed it all up. Well, at least some people say that. We at TV Squad are damn glad that the first commercial television program began broadcasting on July 1st, 1941. If it didn't, we'd be writing in a blog called Radio Squad.

Sixty-five years ago this week the first commercial program was broadcast on television by the National Broadcasting Company (what we all know now as NBC) from the Empire State Building in New York City. The program, which appeared on Channel 1, premiered a scant two months after the Federal Communications Commission (what we know as the FCC, and to others as Satan) granted a commercial television license to NBC and nine other stations. Its glory was short-lived, though, as World War Two interrupted any further development for five years. However, once the war was over the networks got right back in the saddle. Now, there are almost 1,350 commercial television stations operating across the country.

So, raise your glass in a salute to commercial television; may it continue to reign supreme!