Radio & Television Museum
Have you been lusting over one of the latest high-def, wide-screen, uber high-tech plasma televisions?
Less than one hundred years ago, people looked at home radios the same way.
Want to see where it all started? At the Radio and Television Museum in suburban Bowie, Maryland, you can step back in time and see some of the earliest home radios and televisions.
In the early 1900s, inventors tested and played with technology that would transmit not just sound, but also an image over the air. It took another 20 years to learn to transmit a signal with enough quality that it could even be considered commercially usable.
In 1928, the first regularly scheduled television service in the U.S. originated from a station on the outskirts of Washington. Motion picture pioneer C.F. Jenkins broadcast television pictures from his experimental station in suburban Wheaton, Maryland. Jenkins broadcast used 48-line images, providing grainy, fuzzy images. Contrasted with today’s broadcasts, standard-definition uses 480 visible lines of detail, while HD or high-definition broadcasts use up to 1,080 lines.
Color television was first tested by the broadcast networks in the U.S. in 1941. But due to World War II, manufacturers were not allowed to produce new consumer televisions. Color TV had to wait until after the war.
The first color television programming in the U.S. was also a local event, being broadcast by Washington, DC station, WOIC, an CBS affiliate in 1945. But without color televisions in homes, color programing could only be watched on eight 16-inch color televisions located in the lobby of the building. And not unlike high-def broadcasts of today, color broadcasts were limited to only a few programs or time slots per day.
To experience the early days of radio and TV, take a visit to the museum. It has a collection of vintage radios and televisions on display. Some days, they revisit the Golden Era of network television with free retrospectives of old television shows. You can also listen to or watch old shows from their small but representative collection.
The small museum is located about 30 minutes (20 miles) from Washington, DC, in a turn-of-the century farm house.
Radio and Television Museum
2608 Mitchellville Road, at Mt Oak Road
Bowie, MD (map it)
301-390-1020
Dates and Times - Fridays - 10:00 - 5:00 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Admission - FREE, but donations are accepted.
Nearest Metro Subway Station - line, then a block walk or use the DC Circulator.
Parking -
Images - courtesy of Radio and Television Museum, except the Toshiba
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