TV Receiver

1 Pages 224 Words

The programs that we watch on television have had a major sociological impact on us particularly from the 1960’s to the 1990’s. However this programming would have had little impact on us without the continued development of the television receiver and it’s associated peripherals and technology developments.

Television receivers have been called “idiot boxes”, “boob tubes”, and other less than flattering names. But do these names apply to the device itself or to the programming shown on these devices?

In order to understand the impact of these devices, it is best to review a short history of the invention and development of television.


The first television was invented by Philo Farnsworth in 1928. This TV was based on the same technology we utilize today, the cathode ray tube. In 1936, at the New York Worlds Fair, RCA Corporation demonstrated the first commercial broadcast of TV with the remarks of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the Worlds Fair opening ceremony. At that time there were less than 2000 televisions in the broadcast area around the New York metropolitan area, most of those in the hands of RCA executives or wealthy private individuals.

Beginning in 1940, RCA began production of the first commercially available TV receivers, but was forced to halt production in 1942 because the materials used in the manufacturing of TV’s were required for the war effort....