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| CBS broadcasted the first experimental color TV shows in 1950, using a system incompatible with existing B&W sets, using a motorized spinning colored disc in front of a special monochrome picture tube. It was quickly discontinued. .. back to the drawing board.
RCA had developed a 100% electronic and 100% backward and forward compatible COLOR system (color signals show in B&W on mono sets, and old B&W shows can be received on color sets ). Broadcasting started in New York City in early 1954, by NBC (owned by RCA, the Radio Corporation of America). Surviving sets from this era can still pick up and show broadcasts today (and at least for a few more months, then it's over).
The very first Westinghouse color TV's available at this time were ridiculously expensive at $1295. And only one station broadcast in color at first and that was only for a few hours a week. They sold a few hundred to the rich "early adopters" of the kind that just had to have the lastest high tech gadget to impress their friends. After that sales dried up and they had to cut the price in half to try to move the sets out of the dealers. Color broadcasting languished as a novelty for the next decade, and still took quite a few years before sales of color passed B&W sets.
Edited by BrentOntario 3/1/2009 22:16
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When did Television starts in the USA?
