1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:05,680
Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

2
00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:09,960
Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a

3
00:00:10,039 --> 00:00:13,360
Speaker 1: show that rounds the basis of history one day at

4
00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:18,320
Speaker 1: a time. I'm Gabe Lucier and in this episode we're

5
00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:22,720
Speaker 1: talking about in early milestone in TV broadcasting, the first

6
00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:33,239
Speaker 1: time that a professional sporting event aired on television. The

7
00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:38,440
Speaker 1: day was August twenty sixth, nineteen thirty nine. The first

8
00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:43,640
Speaker 1: televised professional baseball game was broadcast from an experimental TV

9
00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:48,080
Speaker 1: station in New York City. The game was a doubleheader

10
00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:51,640
Speaker 1: between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers, and it

11
00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:55,440
Speaker 1: was played at Epits Field in Brooklyn. The Reds won

12
00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:58,440
Speaker 1: the first game five to two, but the Dodgers came

13
00:00:58,480 --> 00:01:02,360
Speaker 1: back in the second, winning six to one. The big

14
00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:06,320
Speaker 1: broadcast took place during the very early days of television,

15
00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:11,759
Speaker 1: before there were established networks and regular programming schedules. At

16
00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:15,080
Speaker 1: the time, few people had ever seen a television set

17
00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:19,479
Speaker 1: in person, and even fewer actually owned one. In fact,

18
00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:22,479
Speaker 1: there were only about four hundred TVs in the whole

19
00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:25,560
Speaker 1: New York area when the game was broadcast, and many

20
00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:30,560
Speaker 1: of them sported tiny five inch screens. The television medium

21
00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:33,720
Speaker 1: didn't really catch on in the US until after World

22
00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:37,039
Speaker 1: War Two, and it was until the mid nineteen fifties

23
00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:41,080
Speaker 1: that owning a TV set became more common. But in

24
00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:44,880
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine, an exhibit at the New York World's

25
00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:48,640
Speaker 1: Fair gave Americans an early look at the new technology.

26
00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:54,720
Speaker 1: RCA was showcasing an all electronic, black and white television system,

27
00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:58,880
Speaker 1: and the fairs organizers thought that televising and upcoming baseball

28
00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:02,120
Speaker 1: game would be the perfect way to stoke the public's interest.

29
00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:06,960
Speaker 1: After all, baseball was America's favorite pastime, and up to

30
00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,280
Speaker 1: that point, the only way to experience a game without

31
00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:15,040
Speaker 1: physically attending was to listen in on the radio. TV

32
00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:18,360
Speaker 1: offered a whole new level of immersion, and people queued

33
00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:22,000
Speaker 1: up by the thousands to see it for themselves. The

34
00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:26,280
Speaker 1: filming and broadcast of the Dodgers Reds doubleheader was handled

35
00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:31,680
Speaker 1: by a local experimental station called W two XBS, which

36
00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:37,200
Speaker 1: later became w NBC TV. It wasn't actually the first

37
00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:41,600
Speaker 1: time baseball had been televised by NBC. One year earlier,

38
00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:45,840
Speaker 1: the station had broadcast a college game between Princeton and Columbia,

39
00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:49,160
Speaker 1: but the video quality had left a lot to be desired.

40
00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:52,440
Speaker 1: The game had been filmed with just a single camera

41
00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:55,840
Speaker 1: placed about fifty feet from home plate, and the resulting

42
00:02:55,880 --> 00:02:59,440
Speaker 1: image was said to be very dark and blurry. The

43
00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:03,480
Speaker 1: station made considerable improvements over the following year and was

44
00:03:03,600 --> 00:03:07,720
Speaker 1: much better prepared for broadcasting the first professional baseball game

45
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:13,840
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty nine. This time, they positioned two stationary cameras,

46
00:03:14,320 --> 00:03:18,120
Speaker 1: one aimed down the third baseline to record infield throws

47
00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:21,560
Speaker 1: to first, and the other high above home plate to

48
00:03:21,639 --> 00:03:25,360
Speaker 1: give a wide view of the field. As you might imagine,

49
00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:28,120
Speaker 1: it was hard to capture all the action at Ebbitts

50
00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:32,240
Speaker 1: Field from just those two angles, and for the game's announcer,

51
00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:36,200
Speaker 1: future Baseball Hall of Famer Red Barber, it was equally

52
00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:40,200
Speaker 1: tough to call the action. That's because he didn't have

53
00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:43,280
Speaker 1: a monitor to see what the cameras were seeing, or

54
00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:46,119
Speaker 1: to even know which angle the viewers were currently being

55
00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:50,000
Speaker 1: shown at home. Red later recalled the challenge of that

56
00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:53,480
Speaker 1: first broadcast, saying, quote, I had to watch to see

57
00:03:53,520 --> 00:03:57,240
Speaker 1: which camera's red light was on, then guess its direction.

58
00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:01,520
Speaker 1: The stands at Ebbitt's Field were filled with thirty three

59
00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:05,440
Speaker 1: thousand people that day, but an additional three thousand fans

60
00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:07,840
Speaker 1: tuned in to watch the game at the fair or

61
00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:10,640
Speaker 1: in their own homes, some from as far away as

62
00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:15,680
Speaker 1: fifty miles. The video coverage they saw was spotty at best,

63
00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:20,119
Speaker 1: especially since the early cameras had trouble capturing fast moving

64
00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:23,880
Speaker 1: objects like a bat being swung or a ball being thrown,

65
00:04:24,440 --> 00:04:28,839
Speaker 1: you know, the key components of baseball. Still, it hardly

66
00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:31,720
Speaker 1: mattered whether you could see the ball or distinguish one

67
00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:34,800
Speaker 1: player from another. For the first time ever, it was

68
00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:38,720
Speaker 1: possible to watch a Major League baseball game without actually

69
00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:42,919
Speaker 1: going to the stadium. The novelty alone probably would have

70
00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:45,480
Speaker 1: been enough to keep some fans glued to the screen

71
00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:49,680
Speaker 1: no matter what, but as the technology steadily improved, there

72
00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:53,359
Speaker 1: was more and more reason to tune in. At first,

73
00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:57,760
Speaker 1: club owners worried that televising games would lead to empty stadiums.

74
00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:01,279
Speaker 1: But when those fears proved unfair, and when the first

75
00:05:01,320 --> 00:05:05,560
Speaker 1: advertising checks came in, professional baseball hopped on board the

76
00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:10,680
Speaker 1: TV bandwagon and never looked back. Other professional sports leagues

77
00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:14,480
Speaker 1: quickly followed suit, and today what was once a promising

78
00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:19,320
Speaker 1: novelty is now a multi billion dollar industry. To talk

79
00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:27,279
Speaker 1: about a home run, I'm gay, blues, gay, and hopefully

80
00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:30,720
Speaker 1: you now know a little more about history today than

81
00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:33,599
Speaker 1: you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with

82
00:05:33,640 --> 00:05:36,359
Speaker 1: the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and

83
00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:40,800
Speaker 1: Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have any

84
00:05:40,839 --> 00:05:43,760
Speaker 1: comments or suggestions, feel free to send them my way

85
00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:48,640
Speaker 1: by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks

86
00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:51,520
Speaker 1: to Kasby Bias for producing the show, and thanks to

87
00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:54,480
Speaker 1: you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow

88
00:05:54,640 --> 00:06:00,760
Speaker 1: for another day in history class, just the