In this week’s Phantom Dancer mix there is an obtuse mention of Mechanical TV.  (Hear the show online after the 20 Feb broadcast at radio 2ser.com)

An announcer from 1930, beginning the WENR Chicago broadcasting day (for two sessions starting 3pm), also mentions a callsign, W9XF Chicago.

That immediately brought to my mind, Mechanical TV. W9XR was a mechanical TV station. What is mechanical TV? Read on…

Here’s a 1926 photo of the person who put mechanical TV to air in the UK. John Logie Baird and I share a striking facial resemblance. Here he is…

Firstly, the Phantom Dancer is presented by authentic 1920s – 1930s singer, Greg Poppleton.

And when I first saw the picture of John Logie Baird above, I was gobsmacked. It was like I was looking at a photo of myself…

 

RADIO SHOW

The Phantom Dancer is your two hour non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s – 1960s radio and TV.

You can hear this edition online after the 20 Feb broadcast at radio 2ser.com

On this week’s Phantom Dancer, you’ll also hear sets of Miles Davis on 1950s radio, Artie Shaw on 1939 radio and trad jazz by Louis Armstrong, Bob Crosby and more from live 1940-50 radio.

 

MECHANICAL TV

Mechanical television uses a mechanical scanning device in a studio to scan a scene and produce the video signal. The receiver, called the televisor, uses similar mechanics to display the transmitted picture.

The mechanical scanning device can be a rotating disk with holes in it or a rotating mirror.

Mechanical TV was used to transmit TV signals from 1925 to 1936. The BBC broadcast a regular mechanical TV service in London. Mechanical TV stations also broadcast in the US, Italy, France, Russia and Japan.

Mechanical TV never produced images of good-enough quality to become popular. The first regular electronic TV service (Fernsender Paul Nipkow) began broadcasting in Berlin in 1935.

After side-by-side testing, the BBC dropped mechanical TV in 1936 for an electronic TV system that lasted into the 1960s.

 

BUILD YOUR OWN TV AND PHONOVISION

Mechanical TVs we’re offered for sale as ‘build-it-yourself’ home kits.

TV pioneer, John Logie Baird, who produced the BBC’s mechanical TV system, also experimented with colour mechanical TV and ‘Phonovision’.

Phonovision was a graphophone device for recording mechanical TV programs to disc – sort of like a 1920s microgroove videodisc.

A number of these one-sided discs survive. I played a recording of one on The Phantom Dancer way back in 1992.

One from 1928 famously shows a woman’s face in animated conversation. A search in 1993 identified the woman as Mabel Pounsford.

 

WHAT DOES A SHOW LOOK LIKE ON MECHANICAL TV?

Your Phantom Dancer ‘Video of the Week’ shows a working mechanical TV built by ‘TelevisionDk’.

It’s a short sequence showing ‘TelevisionDk’s’ home-built 32-line televisor in action.

Pictures are from the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest. Enjoy…

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #304 107.3 2SER Tuesday 20 February 2018 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 – 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) National Program: ArtSoundFM Canberra Sunday 7 – 8pm and early morning on 22 other stations. Set 1 1936-39 Radio Dance Bands Theme + A Shine On Your Shoes Johnny Green Orchestra (voc) Fred Astaire ‘Packard Hour Election Special’ WEAF NBC Red NY 11 Mar 1936 I Still Love To Kiss You Goodnight Hal Kemp Orchestra (voc) Bob Allen ‘Chesterfield Time’ KNX CBS LA 24 Dec 1937 Chant of the Jungle + Dipsy Doodle (theme) Larry Clinton Orchestra Streets of Paris International Casino WEAF NBC Red NY 1938 Set 2 Miles Davis on 1948-57 Radio Theme + Move Miles Davis Birdland WJZ ABC NY 16 May 1953 You Belong To Me, I Belong To You Miles Davis Nonet (voc) Royal Roost WMCA NY 4 Sep 1948 Nature Boy + Close Miles Davis Quartet ‘ABC Dancing Party’ Birdland WABC ABC NY 30 Oct 1957 Set 3 Dance Bands on 1940s Radio I’ve Got A Right To Sing The Blues (theme) + Shine Jack Teagarden Orchestra ’One Night Stand’ Coral Gables Weymouth, Mass. AFRS Re-broadcast 24 Sep 1944 Play, Fiddle, Play! Jan Garber Orchestra ’One Night Stand’ Palladium Ballroom Hollywood AFRS Re-broadcast 25 May 1944 All The Things You Are + Opus No.1 Harry James Orchestra ’Spotlight Bands’ AFRS-Rebroadcast Aug 1946 Set 4 1930s Radio and TV Sweeter Than Sweet Frank Weston Orchestra WENR and W9XF TV Great Lakes Broadcasting Chicago 1930 June In January Bill Thomas (voc) Valsanti Orchestra ‘Cocoanut Grove’ Radio Transcription Hollywood 1933 Walking On Air Anson Weeks Orchestra (voc) Rhythmsters Peacock Court Hotel Mark Hopkins KGO NBC San Francisco 1932 Set 5 Artie Shaw Swings on 1939 NBC Nightmare (theme) + You’re Mine, You Artie Shaw Orchestra Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania WEAF NBC Red NY 20 Oct 1939 One Foot In The Groove Artie Shaw Orchestra Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania WEAF NBC Red NY 19 Oct 1939 Last Two Weeks In July Artie Shaw Orchestra (voc) Helen Forrest Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania WEAF NBC Red NY 21 Oct 1939 Carioca + Nightmare (theme) Artie Shaw Orchestra Summer Terrace Ritz Carlton Hotel WNAC NBC Red Boston 19 Aug 1939 Set 6 Trad on the Wireless Head Rag Hop Romeo Nelson (piano) Tampa Red and Frankie Jason (speech) Comm Rec Chicago 23 Apr 1929 Jazz Me Blues Bob Crosby Bobcats Blackhawk Restaurant WGN Mutual Chicago 29 Apr 1940 Someday Louis Armstrong ‘New Orleans’ Movie Launch Wintergarden Theatre WNBC NBC NY 19 Jun 1947 Didn’t He Ramble? Papa Celestin ‘Dixieland Jambake’ WDSU ABC New Orleans 15 Feb 1950 Set 7 Tommy Dorsey, his Trombone and Orchestra Comedian I’m Getting Sentimental Over You (theme) Tommy Dorsey Orchestra ‘One Night Stand’ 400 Restaurant NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 30 Sep 1945 Hawaiian War Chant Tommy Dorsey Orchestra Palladium Ballroom KNX CBS LA 26 Nov 1940 Swing High Tommy Dorsey Orchestra ‘One Night Stand’ Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ AFRS Re-broadcast 3 Feb 1945 Not So Quiet, Please Tommy Dorsey Orchestra ‘Raleigh Kool Show’ WJSV CBS Washington DC 18 Aug 1942 Set 8 Latin Influences on 1939 – 1956 Jazz Vuelva Cab Calloway Orchestra Comm Rec New York City 17 Oct 1939 Frenesi Fats Waller Panther Room Hotel Sherman WMAQ NBC Red Chicago 10 Dec 1940 Mambo The Most Woody Herman’s Third Herd ‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Peony Park WOW NBC Omaha 1954 Tangorine Dizzy Gillespie Birdland WCBS CBS NY Jun 1956