1949: A secretary at the Federal Communications Commission sends a letter to cable pioneer Ed Parsons in Astoria, Oregon, asking him to explain his community-antenna television system. It’s the first-known FCC involvement in cable TV.
Parsons was a radio engineer and station owner who’d worked in Alaska, Washington and Oregon. He and his wife saw television demonstrated at a broadcasters’ convention in Chicago in 1947. Mrs. Parsons wanted one of the new-fangled gizmos, and Ed bought one when Seattle’s KRSC-TV, Channel 5, announced plans in the spring of 1948 to go on the air.
Parsons had to figure out a way to receive the TV signals from Seattle 120 miles away to Astoria, near the mouth of the Columbia River. He rigged a large antenna atop the Astoria Hotel and ran a coaxial cable across the street to his apartment. He got it working November 25. Problem solved.
Problem created: The apartment was […]
Original post by Randy Alfred
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