One of my favorite TV shows is Sunday Morning on CBS; it's been on my list since back in the Charles Kuralt days. One segment on today's show caught my ear and my fancy so much that I thought all of you would appreciate hearing about it, too.
Sixty-six years ago, Tuesday, July 1, 1941, the FCC granted NBC and CBS the first commercial television licenses. New York City NBC affiliate WNBT took the ball and ran with it by running the first legal television commercial that same afternoon. Sponsored by the Bulova Watch company, the commercial aired at 2:29:50 PM and lasted for 10 seconds.
At 2:30 PM, after that historic 10 seconds, play-by-play announcer, Ray Forrest, took the baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies to 4,000 TV sets. The Phillies won, 6 - 4.
Compared to today's commercials, the first wasn't much. It was a picture of a Bulova watch over a map of the United States, superimposed on the test pattern. A voiceover announced the company's slogan, "America runs on Bulova time!"
Compared to the price of today's commercials, the first wasn't much. Bulova paid $9.00 for that piece of history.
Source: World's First Television Commercial, The longest list of the longest stuff at the longest domain name at long last
Source: Fun Video Factoids, Videomaker
Source: Chronomedia, Terra Media
Source: Broadcast Firsts, TV Acres
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