The DuMont Television Network was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being first overall in the United States. It was owned by Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, a television equipment and set manufacturer, and began operation on April 13, 1940.
Allen Balcom DuMont, also spelled Du Mont, was an American electronics engineer, scientist and inventor best known for improvements to the cathode ray tube in 1931 for use in television receivers. Seven years later he manufactured and sold the first commercially practical television set to the public. In June 1938, his Model 180 television receiver was the first all-electronic television set ever sold to the public, a few months prior to RCA's first set in April 1939. In 1946, DuMont founded the first television network to be licensed, the DuMont Television Network, initially by linking station WABD in New York City to station W3XWT, which later became WTTG, in Washington, D.C. DuMont's successes in television picture tubes, TV sets and components and his involvement in commercial TV broadcasting made him the first millionaire in the business.
John Werner Kluge was a German-American entrepreneur who became a television industry mogul in the United States. At one time he was the richest person in the U.S.
Metromedia was an American media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMont Television Network ceased operations and its owned-and-operated stations were spun off into a separate company. Metromedia sold its television stations to News Corporation in 1985, and spun off its radio stations into a separate company in 1986. Metromedia then acquired ownership stakes in various film studios, including controlling ownership in Orion. In 1997, Metromedia closed down and sold its media assets to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
WNYW is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Secaucus, New Jersey–licensed MyNetworkTV flagship WWOR-TV. Both stations share studios at the Fox Television Center on East 67th Street in Manhattan's Lenox Hill neighborhood, while WNYW's transmitter is located at One World Trade Center.
KDKA-TV is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the market's CBS outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Jeannette-licensed CW affiliate WPCW. Both stations share studios at the Gateway Center in downtown Pittsburgh, while KDKA-TV's transmitter is located in the city's Perry North neighborhood. KDKA-TV, along with sister station KYW-TV in Philadelphia, are the only CBS-affiliated stations east of the Mississippi River with "K" call signs.
Fox Television Stations, LLC, also known as FTS and Fox Television Stations Group, LLC, is a group of television stations in the United States owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the Fox Corporation.
In the United States, there are three major traditional commercial broadcast television networks — NBC, CBS, and ABC — that due to their longevity and ratings success are informally referred to as the "Big Three." They dominated American television until the 1990s and are still considered major U.S. broadcast companies to this day.
WTTG is a television station in Washington, D.C., serving as the market's Fox network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV station WDCA. WTTG and WDCA share studios on Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, Maryland. Through a channel sharing agreement, the stations transmit using WTTG's spectrum from a tower also located in Bethesda on River Road at the site of WDCA's former studio facilities.
WHOI is a television station in Peoria, Illinois, United States, broadcasting the digital multicast network TBD. Owned and operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains a transmitter on Springfield Road in East Peoria, a section of Groveland Township, Tazewell County. WHOI was the ABC affiliate for the market until 2016.
Klaus Landsberg was a pioneering German-American electrical engineer who made history with early telecasts, and after emigrating to the United States helped pave the way for today's television networks.
The Paramount Television Network was a venture by American film corporation Paramount Pictures to organize a television network in the late 1940s. The company built television stations KTLA in Los Angeles and WBKB in Chicago; it also invested $400,000 in the DuMont Television Network, which operated stations WABD in New York City, WTTG in Washington, D.C., and WDTV in Pittsburgh. Escalating disputes between Paramount and DuMont concerning breaches of contract, company control, and network competition erupted regularly between 1940 and 1956, and culminated in the dismantling of the DuMont Network. Television historian Timothy White called the clash between the two companies "one of the most unfortunate and dramatic episodes in the early history of the television industry."
Thomas Toliver Goldsmith Jr. was an American television pioneer, the co-inventor of the cathode-ray tube amusement device, and a professor of physics at Furman University.
The DuMont Building is a 532-foot high, 42-story building located at 53rd Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan.
Elder Michaux is a religious TV show that aired on the DuMont Television Network, hosted by evangelist Lightfoot Solomon Michaux.
In American television terminology, a fourth network is a reference to a fourth commercial broadcast (over-the-air) television network, as opposed to the Big Three television networks that dominated U.S. television from the 1950s to the 1980s: ABC, CBS and NBC.
Ethel Barrymore Theatre was a half-hour anthology television series hosted by Ethel Barrymore and the last series produced by the DuMont Television Network.
Jazz Party, also known as Art Ford's Jazz Party, is a TV series featuring jazz musicians on WNTA-TV in New York City, which aired on Thursdays at 9pm ET from May 8, 1958, to December 25, 1958. It was a music-focused continuation of Art Ford's Greenwich Village Party, arguably the last series to appear on the DuMont Television Network, which ceased operations on August 6, 1956, though only broadcast on WABD as that station was becoming WNEW-TV after the sale of the DuMont-owned stations to Metromedia.
Theodore Gerard Bergmann was an American television and radio producer, screenwriter, announcer, network and advertising executive. He worked for the Dumont Television Network in the 1940s and 1950s. He worked as a writer for the CBS-TV series The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour starting in 1967 and worked as producer and production manager for several other TV series from the 1970s through the 1990s.
Frank Bunetta was an American television director and producer.
