How TV Came to Panther Valley

Did you hear that television has come to Lansford?

No, I don’t mean that you just ran to Walmart and picked one up; I’m referring to the time that the Panther Valley area—not counting Summit Hill, but we’ll get to that in a moment—was finally able to receive boob-tube transmissions from the city of brotherly love.

It was, essentially, the birth of cable television as we know it, and it came about because the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania were prohibiting television transmissions from reaching the local valley areas, namely the towns of Mauch Chunk, Nesquehoning, Lansford, Coaldale, and Tamaqua. Summit Hill lucked out because of their location atop a mountain, so they were able to watch their favorite channels—all three of them.

For a full explanation of what had happened and how it was fixed, there exists a story from a now-defunct magazine entitled Radio & Television News. In their March 1951 issue, author E.D. Lucas, Jr., gives a “detailed report on America’s first community aerial system” and “how five men of initiative brought television to what was once an isolated TV area.”

Found below are scanned images of the magazine, which were graciously posted online by AmericanRadioHistory.com. I’m hoping that it’s permissible to republish these images, as it states that the publication in question is no longer under copyright protection and I’m making it fully aware that the original scans were not done by me. In addition, neither this blog nor AmericanRadioHistory.com are commercial endeavors. AmericanRadioHistory.com posts information on radio and television history to keep the history alive, and I attempt to do something similar here with regard to some of the small towns in Pennsylvania’s anthracite region. If you’re interested in broadcasting history, or simply history in general, this Website is worth bookmarking.

I’m including a few paragraphs from the magazine’s story verbatim so that they are picked up in Google searches that might be done.

This is the story of how communities beyond the fringe of television reception now receive clear, strong television signals from transmitters 75 to 125 airline miles away. It is the exciting story of the first “community aerial”—telling how a single master TV antenna system can serve an entire city, just as one master aerial brings television reception to all the tenants of a large apartment building.

[…]

This case history of how good television reception has come to Panther Valley tells of the initiative of a group of small-town businessmen, four radio dealers and a lawyer, and how they have solved the variety of problems, technical, legal, political, financial, which confronted them in building a community aerial system. Such information has already proved useful to other towns planning their own community aerials and will, we hope, be helpful to many other communities now TV-blind. For here is the story of how television can reach new audiences by the million, just as television has come to Panther Valley.

[…]

For instance, at Summit Hill, a village less than a mile up the mountain from the much larger town of Lansford, the people on the hill could enjoy television. Their much more numerous neighbors down in Panther Valley felt as if nature—and television—had discriminated against them. As Mayor Evan H. Whildin of Lansford expressed it, “The signals used to go right over our heads.”
The radio dealers of Lansford were doubly irked about this situation. They couldn’t watch television and, even worse, they couldn’t sell TV sets in the valley. So they decided to do something about it.

Panther Valley Television Company founders: (from left) Rudolph Dubosky, George Bright, William Z. Scott, Robert J. Tarlton, and William McDonald.

One of these dealers, Robert J. Tarlton, remembered reading about master antenna systems for apartments, hotels and other multiple-set installations. Tarlton went into a huddle with the other three radio and appliance dealers in Lansford, William McDonald, Rudolph Dubosky, and George Bright, vice-president of Bright’s Stores, Inc., [a] leading department store in Panther Valley. The group agreed to do some experimenting. They got a truck with an antenna that could be extended to a height of about 40 feet. They also bought some equipment, including master control and amplifier units, distribution outlets, and several hundred feet of cable.

The rest of the story explains the specifics of the set-up, which is worth a read whether you’re into the technical aspects of the situation or not. Below you will find full magazine screenshots.

Then and Now: The Lansford Silk Mill

The Lansford silk mill was originally built in 1910 and was officially known as the Century Throwing Mill. According to the book Lansford: The First One Hundred Years by Richard J. Hoben, the mill was turned into a factory in 1934, as noted in the sign which hangs atop the windows in the recent photo below. From what I was told, Mr. Hoben’s book was a one-time printing to celebrate Lansford’s centennial in 1976 and is now only available as used copies from online sellers. I’ve posted these two upper photos for informational purposes only and no infringement is intended. If you’re interested in local history, the book is a worthwhile purchase.

The blurry object in front of the silk mill at the bottom of the photograph is a trolley rounding the corner from Cortright Street onto West Bertsch Street. The West Ward school is the building to the right of the mill. The area where the school used to be is now a parking lot.