While researching the KXL history, ran across this ad from The Oregonian, Thursday September 21, 1939. Page 3. Keep in mind KPTV Channel 27, Oregon's First TV Station wouldn't take to the air until September 20, 1952.
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IT'S HERE!

You've heard about it!
You've been wondering about it!
You've been waiting for it!

FARNSWORTH ELECTRONIC TELEVISION

Complete Working Demonstrations Showing BOTH Sending and Receiving Operations! NO CHARGE!

Begins Monday 10 A.M.--Meier & Frank's Auditorium--Tenth Floor.

See and hear the living performers - professional entertainers and qualified amateurs - then see and hear them in Electronic TELEVISION through one of the new Farnsworth receivers! Inspect the equipment that is making radio and television history! Hear the lectures by Arthur Halloran, nationally recognized authority on TELEVISION.

FREE! If you wish to be televised, fill in the coupon (found elsewhere in this paper) and mail to Meier & Frank's Television Contest Manager, immediately. There is no obligation.

Meier & Frank Co. (logo)
Fifth, Sixth, Morrison And Alder

PORTLAND'S OWN STORE
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Philo T. Farnsworth's bio:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Taylor_Farnsworth

The coupon ad was found on the radio page. Ads were also featured in Friday, Saturday, Sunday & Monday additions of The Oregonian radio page. The ad is below:
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ARE YOU TELEGENIC?

We want one hundred amateur entertainers to be televised on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, September 25, 26 and 27. Not only will you be televised, but you will receive an Electronic Television Test Certificate.

We want instrumentalists, vocalists, announcers, ventriloquists, tap dancers, etc. Please inclose photo.

Mail this coupon to Meier & Frank Television Test Department.

Name.............................................
Address..........................................
Phone No. ......................................
Type of Talent.................................
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Full Page Ad in The Sunday Oregonian, section 1, page 9, below:
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IT'S HERE! TELEVISION AT MEIER & FRANK'S

History will be made at Meier & Franks beginning tomorrow morning when Farnsworth Mobile Electronic Television Unit is set in operation in our Tenth Floor Auditorium! Portland's Own Store takes pride in bringing this spectacular attraction - especially since it is the world premiere presentation and will give the people of Portland the 'first' opportunity to see and actually participate in the modern miracle of Television as developed by Farnsworth.

Mark this day on your calendar as one of singular importance - one to be compared in thrills to your first automobile or airplane ride - one to be compared in sheer delight with your first radio broadcast. Look ahead and think what it will mean to you to have been present at the FIRST public showing of 'Farnsworth' Television! You will hear and SEE programs originate in a fully equipped studio - and you will hear and SEE them Televised through one of the new Farnsworth studio controls some distance away and you may be Televised yourself, if you wish.

Meier & Frank's - first with the new - leads again with TELEVISION.

Beginning MONDAY You are invited to inspect this equipment - to see the performers in our Television Studio - to see them in Television - to be televised yourself - to hear the interesting lectures by Mr. Arthur Halloran, nationally known authority on the modern miracle , Television.

Performers Run Continuously from 10 A.M. until 5:30 P.M. -- NO ADMITTANCE CHARGE.

[TV screen with image, pictured]
Here a Television image is shown on the control panels of the Farnsworth Television Unite.

[TV Camera with two operators pictured]
R.B. Gamble, Director of the Farnsworth Mobile Television Unite and Mr. Bert ***rl engineer in charge of the spectacular demonstration.

(Note: **** = Microfilm could not capture "words" which were lost in the fold of the Original Oregonian bound book.)

(There was also pictures of Farnsworth Radios for sale.)

RADIO HEADQUARTERS -- Sixth Floor

Meier & Frank Co. (logo)
Fifth, Sixth, Morrison And Alder

PORTLAND'S OWN STORE
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The Sunday Oregonian September 24, 1939 section 1, page 18. Article with picture of TV Camera. Above the picture: "Television Coming To Portland". Article titled: "City To View Television" The article goes on to say: "several television transmitters now are operating in the east and others are projected for San Francisco and Los Angeles.

1939 Television Stations linked below:
http://members.aol.com/jeff570/1939tv.html

September 26, 1939 The Oregonian "Behind The Mike" column: "Don Kneass KGW, steps up before the camera and signs the show on the air". Pictured in the column is "Pat Sharp, KGW Hostess" behind the KGW mike and bright lights behind her.

Craig_adams: Thanks for the great post! Some pictures of early Farnsworth TV (and many other pre-war & historic post-war sets) can be found at this site:

http://www.earlytelevision.org/farnsworth.html

Thanks for the info Craig! I am wondering if CNN was there to cover it?

Was the TV studio and the TV set were both at M&F 10th floor? Was it transmitting aver the air? or just thru a cable?
Seems to me they could have put a TV set in one of the windows at street level.


Here is some info about television specs from 1930's
http://www.tech-notes.tv/History&Trivia/Channel%20One/Channel_1.htm

Having TV on the 10th floor was marketing genious for that day.

If it were in the window why would you ever need to walk through the entire store just to see it?

62kgw: From the picture in the ad, I believe Farnsworth had a mobile TV truck parked outside M&F with a cable to the auditorium and then back for viewing. There was no over the air broadcast that I could tell.

13 years for television to arrive after seeing the demo? Maybe HDTV didn't take so long after all!

"13 years for television to arrive after seeing the demo? Maybe HDTV didn't take so long after all!"

Actually, it took a lot longer than that. Farnsworth did not invent television, rather he pioneered "electronic" television.

German engineering student, Paul Nipkow, proposed and patented the world's first electromechanical television system in 1884.

Broadcast TV would have developed sooner, but it was put on hold during WW2. I think there was also a moratorium in effect for several years after the war while the technical standards were sorted out (Craig probably knows more about this).

Actually, the development of television with respect to standards was decided before Pearl Harbor. In May 1941 the FCC's National Television System Committee (NTSC) set standards at 525 lines, interlaced, and 30 frames per second. The war shifted the focus of wireless manufacturing in this country to FM transceivers and radar for the military. No one had the resources to seriously continue developing television receivers, certainly a key ingredient in the equation.

Nitefly & Andy you are correct.

On July 28, 2001 I posted a brief history on Wilbur Jerman's W7XAO titled "KWJJ Owner Held First TV License In Northwest".

This information was transferred to another website which has since disappeared. When I posted Mr. Jerman's obit last week I mentioned W7XAO, I was contacted by Steve McVoy of the Early Television Museum in Ohio. He had a link to the defunct site on his website so the information was lost. He asked me if I had any more information on W7XAO. I sent him an updated history and it's now on his website under "What's New" if your interested in Portland Television in the late 1920's.

http://www.earlytelevision.org

Did you try the internet archive for the defunct site?

No I didn't try. Steve wanted the information so I sent it to him. Plus it's been updated with the latest I've uncovered on W7XAO.

There were stations on in the east as early as 1941. What took so long in Portland was a freeze that I believe started in 1948, designed to study UHF transmission.

Portland was one of the last major markets to hop on the television bandwagon. I think that the other latecomers were Austin, TX and Denver, CO. Why was the introduction of TV delayed here?

Here is some info about the "freeze" that began in 1948 and ended in 1952. Several different reasons are cited to explain why the freeze, and why it lasted.
Of course it does not explain how come nobody in Portland obtained license in 1947.
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/freezeof1/freezeof1.htm

This list shows KGWG Channel 6 Oregonian, but what happened to that? (Craig?)

http://members.aol.com/jeff560/1947tv.html

Alfredo: Books!

62kgw: KGWG shows up on two old lists. In 1947 & 1949. What happened? The Oregonian had begun a reorganization in 1950 of KGW. Their radio entity became Pioneer Broadcasters for the upcoming sale which took place on February 21, 1951 when the station was sold to Samuel I. Newhouse.

The Oregonian had shut down KGW-FM January 31, 1950 for the upcoming sale. FM was faltering nation wide. The thought was KGW-FM would make it harder to sell KGW, so the ball was most likely dropped on the KGWG front and Newhouse didn't act on it either. I'm sure if The Oregonian had kept Pioneer, KGWG would have happened.

I have read that design of the 1946 Oregonian Building originally included TV studios.

It could have. KGW radio was there for awhile. It had one huge studio that I remember. High ceiling. I think it was on the third or fourth floor.... I don't remember anymore. I was a kid when I went up there and it had been recently vacated when I went through there. I had the old style "studio" doors that were prevalent at about that time. You see them in old pictures from early days of radio networks. KEX had them also when they were on 12th and Main. There were still some wires coming out of the walls and some log pages on the floor here and there. I suppose I should have kept them but I didn't know what significance it would have later at the time.

I also went up to the KOIN studios on the mezzanine of the Heathman hotel when they were there and also after they moved out. Same thing... some log pages on the floor and still some wires hanging loose (audio probably). Didn't pick them up either.

Never saved any hit lists of that era, either.