W6XYZ received its construction permit in 1939, and went
on the air in 1942. It was owned by Paramount Pictures, who hired Klaus
Landsberg, a refugee from Hitler's Germany, to put the station on the air. They apparently broadcast mechanical television in 1928.
Landsberg worked on televising the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Farnsworth Television hired him as television development engineer in
Philadelphia in 1938, shortly after he arrived in the United States. In
1939 he went to New York to work for the National Broadcasting Company
television division. It was during this period that Landsberg participated
in NBC's introduction of TV at the 1939 New York World's Fair.
Allen B. DuMont recognized Landsberg's abilities, and
hired him as television design and development engineer for the New York
DuMont Laboratories. Here he supervised technical operations of the
television unit at the U.S. Army Maneuvers in Cantons N.Y. and developed
DuMont's automatic synchronizing circuits.
Paramount was a major DuMont stockholder at that time and
Landsberg was sent to Hollywood to organize W6XYZ for Paramount Pictures
in 1941. Landsberg brought two DuMont iconoscope cameras with him, and
built the transmitter, which operated on channel 4. In 1947 W6XYZ became commercial station KTLA.
This is a picture, from 1942, of W6XYZ's visual transmitting antenna
Steve Dichter, a collector of early color
television equipment, worked for KTLA for 16 years starting in 1965.
He kindly provided these rare photographs of the early days of W6XYZ and
KTLA. Here is a 4 part interview with Dick Lane, an announcer hired by W6XYZ in 1942 (courtesy of Steve Dichter).
W6XYZ logo card
W6XYZ remote truck during a 1943 telecast in downtown Los Angeles.
Cameras are DuMont Iconoscope types. When
not using the truck and cameras on remote locations, W6XYZ originated
studio programs from a small sound stage on the Paramount lot. Telecasts
were also done from other Paramount stages where various motion pictures
were being shot. Stars of the period such as Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake
were interviewed, live of course, for the several hundred viewers who
might be tuning in. This filled program time and gave Paramount some
insight into television's potential as an entertainment medium by
requesting viewer's comments on both programming and picture reception. |
Klaus Landsberg, founder of W6XYZ at the controls in the W6XYZ truck.
Pre-1947.
Klaus Landsberg posed with a W6XYZ DuMont Iconoscope camera.
Klaus Landsberg pictured with large W6XYZ logo card in 1942.
| W6XYZ claimed that their
telecast in 1943 of the Sheriff's Rodeo from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
was the first on the west coast. However, Don Lee's W6XAO is known to have telecast the 1940
Rose Bowl parade.
A total of 100 television sets were able to receive the W6XYZ broadcast. |
1944 remote telecast
1944 telecast
Small sound stage, (called the "test stage"), located on the
Paramount Pictures lot occupied by W6XYZ until 1947
| Cameraman Eddie Resnick, who Steve Dichter worked with when he
started at KTLA in 1965 was seen here in 1946. The show: "Shopping at Home" with host,
Keith Hetherington (r). This was an early version of QVC. |
| Another shot of Eddie Resnick, and another camera operator atop the
W6XYZ remote truck. Looks like a cold day in Los Angeles. This must
be late '46 because the Paramount logo has replaced the W6XYZ logo on
the camera. |
| Klaus Lansberg chats with Paramount stars Alan Ladd & Veronica Lake
as W6XYZ broadcasts from a Paramount sound stage during movie
production of "The Glass Key" (1942). |
1944 Los Angeles phone listing
January 22, 1947. Premier broadcast of KTLA as W6XYZ changes to
commercial station KTLA and a channel change from 4 to 5. Note that
at least 4 DuMont Iconoscope cameras are now in use. RCA cameras
would replace the DuMonts withn the year. |
| Program Schedules from 1944 and 1945. During World War Two, television
broadcasting was very limited. At that time there were only a few
hundred television sets in the Los Angeles area. |
Christmas card from 1945
Here is a 1947 test pattern
Courtesy of Steve Dichter
A 1947 sign-on after the station became KTLA. Here is the audio that accompanied the sign-on
Bob Hope emcees the premier telecast of KTLA Jan. 22, 1947. A total
of
322 televisions are in the Los Angeles Viewing area.
1948 Station Card
Courtesy of Steve Owen
The following is from Al Germond:
Under "Active Experimental Stations" in the 1944
Annual [p. 944] W6XYZ is lised as having 1 kW aural/1kW visual on
channel 4 [78-84 mc], studio/office/transmitter-/antenna at 5451
Marathon St, [this was on the Paramount Lot]. Time on air 6 hours
per week. Klaus Landsberg is station director.
"W6XYZ has operated regularly since February 1
[1943] each Wednesday and Friday night and has been producing a
weekly total of four to six hours of live talent programs. These
programs were entirely dedicated to the training of Civilian
Defense volunteers until the Summer of 1943, since which time
entertainment as well as educational programs have been aired.
These programs include gymnastic courses, museum visits, varietry
shows, dramatic skits and one act plays..."
Facilities: Equipment includes complete
apparatus for studio as well as field operation. Cameras and
transmitters were built by Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, Inc, and
many additional units including electronic special effect equipment
were designed and built by Television Productions, Inc. A relay
transmitter W6XLA to operate in conjunction with W6XYZ was also
developed and constructed by the company. A special antenna system
combining a double-cone type of antenna for video and a special
four dipole antenna for audio of its own design and construction
are used. Studio facilities also include a flexible lighting
arrangement and background projection apparatus and screens.
|
Los Angeles advertising rate cards - 1950
1951 remote
| In 1952, KTLA broadcast an atomic bomb blast live from Yucca Flat. Here is a story from a 1986 book from the Museum of Broadcasting about that event (courtesy of Richard Hess) |
KTLA's original color unit was a custom built Fruehauf trailer designed by KTLA's engineering dept. in 1954. In the early '70's, after being stored for many years, it was converted to house our new Norelco
color cameras. Pictured above is that original KTLA color unit seen on Jan. 1, 1956 at the Rose Parade. It used a CT-100 as it's only color
monitor. The CT-100 was still sitting in the stored trailer in the late 1960's. KTLA quit live color broadcasts in 1958. It continued with limited film color broadcasts. KTLA aquired TK-41 color equipment in 1964 with the purchase of Red Skelton's Red-EO vision Crown Coach color
buses. (comments courtesy of Steve Dichter). |
John Silva, the chief engineer at KTLA, was the first to use a helicopter for news coverage. In 1958 he rented a Bell helicopter and installed a camera and transmitter.
Here is a screen shot from a modern video game using the W6XYZ mobile van
Van used to televise the 1955 Rose Bowl parade
Courtesy of Steve Dichter
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