WWII on TV (during the war)

TV was not in wide use until after the war. There were newsreels in movie theaters, though.

When one of the Atomic bombs was dropped (not sure which), at least one of the DuMont stations did a telecast mentioning it.

I read that the stations (this was pre-network era) did "infomation" programs related to home life during WW2 (presumably stuff related to making most of limited resources and stuff like that), but I don't know much about this.

However, since kinscope recording was not invented until 1947, we are unlikely to see these telecasts, unless they are still floating outwards through space.


By comparison, the later Cold war was better represented on TV. Lots of programs related to it during the 1950s: Documentaries/propaganda, spy shows, "Life is Worth Living" mentions, etc etc.


They looked at me the wrong way...So they're gonna die!

Thanks that is interesting some homes did own boxes hence why I created the thread even through TV was not a mass medium at the time.

As you mention the cold war, I believe Vietnam is the first 'TV war' or something to that effect.

In the US at least TV services were shut down during the war, with the agreement they could resume broadcasting once the war ended. Before the war sets were horribly expensive, and not much programing was available anyway even if you owned one.

Programming was *reduced* in the US during WW2...but there was still a certain amount of TV broadcasting during the war. For example, on December 18 1944, DuMont's WABD-TV broadcast a RKO-produced TV movie (a 1-hour drama) called Talk Fast, Mister .

Per "TV obscurities" website:
Both WNBT and WCBW drastically cut their television output beginning in June of 1942. WNBT broadcast a series of Air Warden Basic Courses in June, while WCBW aired Red Cross programs on Thursdays.

"The Voice of Firestone Televues" is an example of an entertainment program broadcast during the war.


They looked at me the wrong way...So they're gonna die!

Very interesting, I suppose as a different way of approaching my original question is this.


When did News broadcasting start on TV?

I don't know much about the history of TV news, so I can't answer. The modern-style newscast didn't come until the late-1940s, though.


The oldest *surviving* US newscasts come from 1949 (oldest surviving UK newscasts, which were closer to a television newsreel, comes from around 1953 or so).

Here's a 1949 NBC newscast:
http://archive.org/details/NbcNews17march1949

Additionally, there are some surviving kinescope recordings of late-1940s current-affairs/discussion programs (the oldest that I know of is a 7 December 1948 episode of "The People's Platform").



They looked at me the wrong way...So they're gonna die!

I remember watching Douglas Edwards With the News on CBS in the late 1940's. The show was 15 minutes long.