Few Could Afford TVs In Its Early Days

This is part two of a series on the history of Canadian television. You can read part one about the most popular and long-running shows here.

I must confess, in the past, I have been prone to watching too much television, more than was likely good for me. Today, I tend to watch primarily sporting events and a little local news. I still look back with a sense of nostalgia to those early television programs that led me to research the story of early broadcasting in Canada for my NewmarketToday series. 

I hope that you, too, look back nostalgically at your early TV experiences as we travel back to those early days of Canadian TV.

Ever wonder who was the first person to appear on TV in Canada? According to the CRTC archives, Percy Saltzman was the first person to appear on Canada’s inaugural television broadcast in 1952 and the country’s first TV weatherman. He was the first live talking Canadian face to be seen on television when CBC television launched its English-language service on Sept.  8, 1952. 

Saltzman would go on to pioneer early TV during his 20-year career at CBC and other networks.

The first dramatic anthology series was First Person that aired on CBC from 1960 to 1961, consisting of adapted and original stories. 

Prior to 1952, there had been some earlier experimental TV broadcasts in Canada, such as from the station VE9EC in Montreal from 1932-1935, but these were short-lived. The arrival of the Second World War had put a halt to further television development in Canada.

The first Canadian television channel is usually reported as English-language service, which launched on Sept. 8, 1952, CBLT in Toronto. The inaugural broadcast featured an upside-down station identifier logo, followed by a weather forecast by Saltzman, a puppet show, and some other variety acts.

However, I discovered that the French-language Radio-Canada station CBFT in Montreal had preceded CBLT Toronto by two days, launching on Sept. 6, 1952, as the true first TV station in Canada. 

Its inaugural broadcast included a newsreel, a bilingual variety show, a documentary about Montreal, a film about television itself called Kaleidoscope and a French production of the play Oedipus Rex. Both CBLT Toronto and CBFT Montreal were operated by the CBC as it had a monopoly on Canadian TV broadcasting in the early years.

The television industry and programming in Canada was heavily influenced by the United States. Thousands of homes near the border received U.S.-based television signals between 1946 and 1953.

In the early years, the two CBC stations together offered only about 18 hours of programming per week, as they were just starting out. The programming mix included news, sports, dramas, documentaries, and other variety shows aimed at serving both English and French-Canadian audiences.

The inaugural broadcasts of Canada’s first television channels in 1952 had a relatively limited viewership initially, as television was still a new technology. Here are some key details about the early viewership:

• When CBFT Montreal launched, it could only reach about 30 per cent of Canadian households at first. 
• When CBLT Toronto launched, the two CBC stations together could reach that same 30 per cent of Canadians, a figure that exceeded the number of Canadians who owned TV sets at the time. 
• By 1953, with the addition of some private affiliate stations to the CBC network, the potential viewership had increased to approximately 66 per cent of Canadians.

In 1950, before TV broadcasting began, only around 30,000 TV sets had been purchased in Canada by people who were primarily picking up U.S. border signals. My grandparents had one of those sets and we visited frequently.

Television set sales would spike to around 40,000 more in 1951 in anticipation, I suppose, of a launch of Canadian TV. The arrival of CBC channels in 1952 would further drive set sales.

In 1952, when the services launched, it was estimated only around 85,000 TV sets were owned across the country, with 95 per cent concentrated in Ontario due to its proximity to the U.S. signals.

The actual viewership in our area was relatively modest initially. There were still only a very limited number of Canadian channels available in the 1950s, as the technology and infrastructure was just being built out across the country.

The first television sets available for commercial purchase were:

• Baird Televisor, which became the first television sold commercially in 1929. This early mechanical TV set used reflected light to create a low-resolution image the size of a postage stamp.
• Marconi 702, which went on sale as one of the first electric TV sets available to consumers in the mid-1930s. It had a 12-inch screen and was very expensive, costing around half of the average annual salary at the time, making it a luxury item affordable only to the wealthy.

Television technology and adoption by households then accelerated through the 1940s and the 1950s as sets became more affordable.

Here are some additional details on the early availability and adoption of television sets for purchase by consumers:

• 1920s – The first experimental mechanical television sets were incredibly primitive, with tiny two-inch screens and low resolutions. They were not really intended for home use.
• 1930s – In 1936, the German company Telefunken introduced the first mass-produced TV set, though it was still very expensive at around $445 (equivalent to over $8,000 today). In 1939, the first mass-produced TV sets went on sale in the United States from RCA, with a five-inch screen and price tag of $199 (around $3,700 today). 
• 1940s – TV sales were slowed by the Second World War but picked up after the war ended in 1945. In 1947, there were around 44,000 TV households in the U.S. In 1949, over 1 million TV sets had been sold in the U.S. as prices dropped and programming increased. 
• 1950s – TV sales boomed in the 1950s as the technology improved and became more affordable for middle-class families.

While early mechanical TV units were made in the late 1920s, it wasn’t until the late 1930s that the first mass-produced electric television sets became available for purchase, though still expensive. More affordable TVs appeared significantly in the late 1940s and especially the 1950s.

Some of the most popular and notable shows on Canada’s first television channels in 1952 when they launched were:

• On CBC’s English-language CBLT channel in Toronto:
  • Hockey Night in Canada (1952-present) – premiered on Nov.  1, 1952, and has remained one of the longest-running and most popular shows on Canadian TV.
  • The C.G.E. Show (1952-1959) – An early variety series sponsored by Canadian General Electric. 
  • CBC News Magazine (1952-1981) – One of CBC’s first regular news programs.
  • Open House (1952-1962) – A long-running talk show and variety series.
• On Radio-Canada’s French CBFT channel in Montreal:
  • Pépinot et Capucine (1952-1954) – A popular children’s puppet show.

While viewership was still relatively limited in 1952 with only around 85,000 TV households across Canada, those pioneering shows helped establish CBC as the nation’s public broadcaster and paved the way for future Canadian television programming. Other notable programs that debut in 1952 included:

• The Big Revue variety show,
• the Sunshine Sketches comedy series,
• and the first televised Grey Cup football championship on Nov. 29. 

As for the first commercially licensed television station in the U.S., it was W3XK, owned by inventor Charles Francis Jenkins. It began broadcasting “radio movies” to the public in Washington D.C. on July 2, 1928.

On April 30, 1939, the first presidential speech was televised when Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to appear on TV at the opening of the New York World’s Fair.

The first official, paid television advertisement was broadcast on July 1, 1941, over New York station WNBT (now WNBC) before a baseball game. It was a Bulova watch ad displaying a test pattern modified to look like a clock.

The first live coast-to-coast commercial television broadcast in the U.S. took place on Nov. 18, 1951, during the premiere of CBS’s See It Now, showing a split-screen view of the Brooklyn Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge.

One of the earliest regular TV programs was The Marriage sitcom, which had the first colour broadcast episode on July 8, 1954.

Sources:

• First Person (1960 TV series)
• Percy Saltzman, Canada’s first TV weatherman, dies | CBC News
• Civilization.ca – Watching TV – Television in Canada, the early years
• History of television
• 1st American TV station begins broadcasting, July 2, 1928 – EDN
• Television in the United States
• Television in Canada – statistics & facts – Statista
• Television in Canada
• Through the Decades: The Evolution of Television Sets
• History: Television begins in Canada, Sept.06, 1952
• The roots of Canadian Television – Broadcaster Magazine
• CBC Television Network – The History of Canadian Broadcasting
• Television | The Canadian Encyclopedia

Newmarket resident Richard MacLeod, the History Hound, has been a local historian for more than 40 years. He writes a weekly feature about our town’s history in partnership with NewmarketToday, conducts heritage lectures and walking tours of local interest, and leads local oral history interviews.