History of Music and Technology

By Josh Ponsetto

  • Scotsman John Logie Baird

    Scotsman John Logie Baird invents mechanical television which he calls a "Televisor".

  • electric television

    Philo Farnsworth transmits the first "electric television" picture (about the size of a postage stamp, an inch and a half square) in his San Francisco Laboratory.

  • first broadcast of the expanded NBC

    the date of the first broadcast of the expanded NBC -- all the way
    to the West Coast, for a total of 47 stations in the chain.

  • Billboard

    Billboard magazine publishes its first music chart of performed songs.

  • The Edison Co.

    The Edison Co. ceases the manufacturing of sound recordings.

  • Fritz Schroeter

    To improve TV pictures, German scientist Fritz Schroeter applies for a patent on interlaced scanning.

  • Vladimir Zworykin

    Vladimir Zworykin applies for a patent on a TV camera vacuum tube he calls the "Iconoscope."

  • Drive-In Movie Theater

    Richard M. Hollingshead opened the first Drive-In Movie Theater in Camden, NJ on june 6.

  • singing telegram

    Western Union introduces the first "singing telegram" service.

  • Regular FM Radio

    Regular FM Radio broadcasting begins in New York City.

  • The National Television Standards Committee

    The National Television Standards Committee adopts the "NTSC standard" of
    525 interlaced horizontal scan lines for all U.S. commercial television broadcasts
    and just under 30 frames per second consisting of two interlaced fields.

  • magnetic tape recorders brought to the United States

    Captured German magnetic tape recorders brought to the United States which are copied
    for commercial use by A. M. Polikoff who founds AMPEX (he added "EX" for excellence.)

  • first cable tv

    The first cable TV systems appear (called Community Antenna TeleVision systems,
    or CATV) for carrying television signals by wire into areas that are geographically remote.

  • The AES

    The AES
    The Audio Engineering Society (The AES) is formed.

  • Hank McCune Hall

    A local Los Angeles filmed TV sitcom which will air in 1950 on the full NBC network
    called "Hank McCune Hall", about the life of a television variety show host, introduces
    the technique of "the laugh track" -- "canned laughter" -- edited in from other comedy
    shows, which unfortunately continues to plague sitcoms to this day...

  • RCA

    RCA finally gave in to market pressures and began producing 33 1/3 microgroove (1-mil)
    LPs to compete with Columbia and others.

  • sing-over

    sing-over
    The first ID jingle company to "sing-over" pre-recorded backgrounds - PAMS, Inc. is
    formed in Dallas, Texas by former radio studio musician Bill Meeks on August 20, 1951.

  • CBS Eye

    CBS Eye
    The "CBS Eye" network logo debuts on September 10, 1951, designed by network art
    director William Golden. An animated version debuted on the air on October 17th.

  • Coast-to-coast network TV

    Coast-to-coast network TV is a reality via telephone company coaxial cables.

  • irst pre-recorded reel-to-reel tape

    The first pre-recorded reel-to-reel tape (at 7 1/2 ips) is offered for sale.

  • transistor radio

    transistor radio
    The First "transistor radio" went on sale in the U.S. named The Regency TR-1
    (it had 4 transistors and cost $49.99.)

  • Larger 12" LP's overtake 10" LP's

    Larger 12" LP's overtake 10" LP's as the preferred size for long-playing records.

  • Ampex Co.

    Ampex Co. of Redwood City, CA demonstrates the first videotape system in February

  • Stereo disks

    Stereo disks
    Compatible Stereo disks and record players are offered for sale (33 1/3 and 45rpm.)

  • sony

    sony
    Sony introduces the first "solid-state" TV set, using transistors instead of vacuum tubes.

  • FM Stereo

    FM Stereo
    FM Stereo radio broadcasting begins and FM slowly starts to gain respect.

  • Multitrack analog tape recording

    Multitrack analog tape recording
    Multitrack analog tape recording starts being used in recording studios.

  • Computer Graphics

    Computer Graphics
    Ivan Sutherland does his M.I.T. Doctoral Thesis on Interactive Computer Graphics
    creating a "Sketchpad" program using an interactive light pen instead of a mouse;
    which leads to the first practical uses of interactive graphics on computers.

  • Dolby-A

    Dolby-A
    The "Dolby-A" professional noise reduction system is used in some recording studios

  • FCC

    FCC
    The FCC requires cable TV systems with more than 3500 subscribers to include
    locally-originated programming

  • Microprocessor

    Microprocessor
    The first Microprocessor (computer on a chip) is introduced by Intel -- the 4004

  • SNDMSG

    SNDMSG
    The first ARPANET (later Internet) EMail program called "SNDMSG" -- short for
    "Send Message" -- was created by Ray Tomlinson working at BBN Technologies
    (Called BBN because it was founded by Bolt, Beranek and Newman.)

  • Gloria Gaynor

    Gloria Gaynor
    Gloria Gaynor records "Never Can Say Goodbye" -- the first disco record on US radio

  • Atari

    Atari
    Atari of Santa Clara, CA develops "Pong" -- the first electronic computer arcade game.

  • The first all solid-state video cameras

    The first all solid-state video cameras
    The first all solid-state video cameras are introduced using Bell Labs "CCD"
    (charge-coupled device) instead of an Image Orthicon or Plumbicon camera tube

  • nbc monitor cancelled after 20 years

    NBC's weekend radio format MONITOR is cancelled after nearly 20 years --
    It's final broadcast airs on Sunday jan, 26

  • motion picture camera stabalizer

    Garrett Brown invents the gyroscopic Steadicam, a motion picture camera stabilizer
    mount, worn by the cameraman himself, first used in the movie "Rocky."