Du Mont Television Advertisement
January 1948 Radio-Craft

January 1948 Radio-Craft [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio-Craft, published 1929 - 1953. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.

The Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories* was one of the earliest manufacturers of television sets for consumer purchase. They were in operation long before committees like the NTSC were formed to standardize television broadcast signal formats. There were various methods competing for reproducing the image at the receiver end - including electromechanical and purely electronic schemes. Regular readers of electronics magazines like this edition of Radio-Craft followed the evolution of TV with great, though somewhat guarded,  enthusiasm. As with many technologies that seemed at the time to have mostly commercial and consumer applications, development during the war years yielded to the needs of victory for the Allied forces. Television prices were relatively high even in the late 1940s, so most households still did not have a TV set; radios still ruled in the domestic entertainment realm. High-end combinations like this TV / radio / phonograph model unapologetically catered to the more affluent customers. Even so, the number of television broadcast stations was growing so rapidly and causing so much co-channel interference that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a moratorium on new station licenses from 1948 through 1952 while the government and industry worked out a plan to alleviate the problem. Television ownership in the U.S. grew from about 200,000 households in 1948 to more than a million in that timespan. Just as the market was able to satisfy the public's demand for affordable TVs, color was introduced (mid-to-late 1950s), once again setting off a new round of haves-versus-have-nots. For the record, I grew up in a have-not household ;-(

* Note that the company name included a space between "Du" and "Mont," whereas most mentions do not have it. It was the same with De Forest.

Du Mont Television Ad

A Fortunate Few Can Own Such a Television Receiver

Illustrated: Westminster model - with television, AM-FM radio, automatic phonograph. Cabinets designed by Herbert Rosengren.

Du Mont's Salon and Drawing Room models you will see television at its finest ... a brilliant picture on a large screen, clear and undistorted. Matching the picture quality is unsurpassed sound reproduction, whether on television, standard radio, FM, or radio-phonograph. Visit your nearest Du Mont dealer.

DU MONT

First with the Finest in Television

Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories, Inc. * General Television Sales Offices and Station WABD, 51 Madison Ave., New York 22, N.Y. * Home Offices and Plants, Passaic, N.J.

Posted January 6, 2020