TV, Radio & Me
TV in Baltimore’s Museum of Industry
Believe it or not, there was a time in my life without television! I have vivid memories of sitting with my parents in our living room listening to the radio, mostly KIJV, because we had no television! And the radio was huge! My dad was always into sound and the radio set we had was consistent with his acoustic desires. For the life of me, I don’t remember the shows we listened to at night. I do remember the big round, compass like dial on that radio.
One day, I came home from school and right there in the middle of the living room was a television. I was six. I’d seen televisions…other people had them, but not us. To say that I was excited was an understatement. Of course, I had no idea what made a TV work and demanded that it be turned on NOW…there was a show I really wanted to watch. Dad said he had to put the antennae up. What?
We went out to the side of the house and he showed me this contraption of poles and rods, and screws and nails and wires and, well, lots of stuff. He put a ladder up, climbed to the roof, and mom handed all that stuff up to him. Lots of hammering and swearing and up and down the ladder and hammering and swearing and…at last he attached a flat, strange looking wire to the back of the TV. We turned it on, and waited. And waited. I remember the humming and then the screen would slowly start to glow. But no picture! Dad climbed back onto the roof and was turning the antennae to and fro while mom was hollering about the picture. At last we had something to see! It was nothing I was interested in but it was TV, TV in my house!
The next day I came home from school, mom turned the TV on and I watched “Captain 11” on Channel 11, KELO-Land TV. Do you remember: “One man in each century is given the power to control time. The man chosen to receive this power is carefully selected. He must be kind. He must be fair. He must be brave. You have fulfilled these requirements; and, we of the Outer Galaxies designate to you the wisdom of Solomonand the strength of Atlas. You are Captain 11!”
I desperately wanted to be on that show with all those kids but some things are better hoped for than actually done. At least that’s what I told myself, I was never on the show. Dave Dedrick was Captain 11 from 1955 to 1996, a huge run! Maybe the longest running children’s show in America. I also religiously watched the “Walt Disney Show” every Sunday afternoon. I outgrew Captain 11 eventually and migrated to “Paladin,” “Wanted Dead or Alive,” etc., but I still do Disney, especially now. When we moved to our house on 14th Street, we got a color TV! That was very exciting but quite frankly, not as exciting as the huge window air conditioner we got, that was very cool. Literally.
Ironically, as a teenager my attention turned back to the radio. I had a little transistor radio, the size of a cigarette pack. Each night I would tune it to WLS or KOMA, the 50,000 watt stations that were the lifeblood of midwestern teens in the early 60s. I could only listen to them at night because the signal wasn’t strong enough in the daytime. I am guessing that they weren’t allowed to broadcast at 50,000 watts while the little stations were on the air during the day. Maybe. Who knows.
It just dawned on me…there was one other time in my life without TV…when I lived in Iceland. We had something we called A-Farts. Armed Forces Radio & Television Station. No one watched it.
p.s. Thanks for all of the birthday wishes. It’s great to hear from everyone…it kicks off many memories! Thank you!!!