Television viewers today might find it hard to believe that at one time color television was banned in the United States, but in November of 1951, implementation of color television was blocked by the FCC.
In 1951, there were four television networks in the U.S. ABC and DuMont were the smaller and less viewed networks, while CBS and NBC were the major players in a relatively new industry that televised programs in black and white. Color transmission had been achieved in the laboratory, but the system required a major retooling of the NTSC television system which was the standard that all receivers in the U.S. were designed to receive. NBC had been developing a compatible system that allowed the color information to “ride” on the back of the existing monochrome signal, but the live pictures still lacked quality, having a gooey, blobby characteristic that was quite annoying when moving images were televised live.
CBS, the rival to NBC in star power and affiliate stations, likewise wanted to dominate the technology of color television which up until that time was solely the province of NBC’s parent company, RCA. The CBS R&D engineers came up with what appeared to be a quick fix: The CBS Field Sequential Color Television System. The system used a color filter wheel (Think 50’s aluminum Christmas tree) spinning at several thousand RPM in front of a monochrome pickup tube with red, green and blue segments creating three color fields. A synchronized color filter at the receiver, recovered the three discreet images, and the persistence of vision in the human eye blended them together.
While in theory, the system seemed adequate to the task, it had drawbacks of its own: Fast moving images would cause color fringing at the edges of the moving objects, and the transmission standard of 405 lines/144 fields per second was not compatible with the 10 million receivers then in use in the U.S. Color Television was considered the next frontier of entertainment, and both CBS and RCA-NBC wanted to be first to plant their flag in that new territory. A battle ensued between the two TV giants that was waged in the press, the courts and the corporate boardrooms of major TV advertisers.
On July 11, 1949, the Federal Communications Commission called for hearings to determine the feasibility of introducing color service. Hearings began on September 26, 1949, and were to last until May 26, 1950, with 10,000 pages of testimony and 265 exhibits submitted for the record. Three competing methods of color were proposed: the Field Sequential method by CBS; the Dot Sequential approach of RCA; and the Line Sequential System proposed by Color Television Incorporated.
CBS had first tested its Field Sequential Color System as early as August 28, 1940. They had suggested that their field sequential standards be adopted in 1941 and 1946. Had the proposal been accepted at these first attempts, the adoption of the CBS system might have been feasible because there were few black and white receivers in the hands of the public. However, RCA, with its substantial clout prevented the CBS system from being adopted. CBS continued to promote its color system. Their 1949 Color System was the third field sequential approach to be proposed to the FCC for adoption. In terms of quality, the CBS Field Sequential Color System was of slightly better quality than the RCA Compatible system.
At the conclusion of the color hearings in 1950, there was much pressure by the color television proponents for the FCC to immediately adopt a color standard. On September 1, 1950, the FCC issued its First Report on Color Television Issues (Public Notice 50-1064) in which it deferred the adoption of a standard. The FCC declared that the poor performance of color fidelity, interfering dot and line crawl patterns, poor registration, and high studio and receiver equipment costs associated with the RCA and CTI systems, precluded their adoption. The compatibility problem of the CBS system was acknowledged.
However, the FCC reasoned that if manufacturers would build black and white receivers that could handle both RCA monochrome and CBS Color scanning standards, time could be allowed for the development of an acceptable compatible system. If the set makers could not provide this "bracket standard" reception capability, then the FCC would be forced to adopt the CBS system immediately to avert the continually growing compatibility problem. The FCC reasoned that, at the 5 to 6 million receiver annual sales rate, 40 percent of the sets in use could receive the CBS broadcasts within one year. Television manufacturers, however, put in their own veto of Field Sequential Color by refusing to build a hybrid receiver because the cost of the sets would increase substantially while the capability to receive color programming would be nil since only CBS was only one of four TV programming services.
Therefore, the FCC in its October 11,1950 Second Report on Color Television Issues (Public Notice 50-1224), formally adopted the CBS system as the USA standard for color television. RCA, on October 17, 1950, brought suit against the FCC in the Federal District Court in Chicago to halt the start of CBS colorcasts. After the court upheld the FCC order, RCA appealed to the Supreme Court which, on May 28, 1951, affirmed the lower court ruling in favor of CBS. RCA attorneys effectively delayed the initiation of the CBS system, allowing the continued sale of even more black and white sets which could not receive the CBS signals.
On June 25, 1951, regularly scheduled commercial colorcasts began by CBS on a five-station East Coast network. More than 10.5 million monochrome sets in the U.S. were blind to these telecasts. The CBS colorcasts were stillborn. The RCA delaying tactic successfully dealt a fatal blow to the CBS Color System.
With most of the manufacturing industry against adoption of the field sequential system, CBS was forced to purchase Hytron Radio and Electronics Corporation with its Air-King receiver manufacturing subsidiary. The acquisition was done, according to Frank Stanton President of CBS, "to assure at least some source for color receivers to the public".
On September 20, 1951, production began of its first (and only) commercial color television set - the CBS-Columbia Model 12CC2. Sales of the set began by Gimbels and Davega in New York for $499.95. According to Allen B. DuMont, 200 of these sets were shipped and 100 were sold. The CBS set could switch between the 525-line/60-HZ monochrome or 405-line/144-Hz field rate color standard.
Viewer and advertising industry interest in the CBS system was disappointing. No sponsors were found as the schedule increased from 4 1/2 hours for the week of June 21, then to 7 1/2 hours for the week of September 24, and 12 hours for the week of October 15th. Actually, CBS did not fully commit to their system as colorcasts were only scheduled in the evening before prime-time telecasts. In less than a month after sales of this first receiver first began, Charles E. Wilson of the Defense Production Administration asked CBS to suspend production of color receivers, "to conserve materials for defense." The Korean Police Action had begun. This, according to Allan B. DuMont was, "a move to take Columbia off the hook." CBS announced that it would stop colorcasts and recalled and destroyed the few color sets that had been sold. The last CBS Color System broadcast was the North Carolina-Maryland football game on October 20, 1951.
On November 20, 1951, the National Production Authority issued Order M-90 prohibiting the manufacturing of color sets for public sale. This order was deemed a necessity as America was once again at war in South Korea. Field Sequential Color lasted only 2 months.
During the two-year period when color TV set production was banned, RCA improved its compatible color TV system such that no new set would be required to view a program. Viewers with the color receivers would see color, and viewers with their current black and white set would see the program in black and white. When the wartime production ban was lifted in 1953, CBS did not challenge the adoption of the RCA-NTSC Compatible Color TV System which became the United States broadcast standard for 56 years and is still the basis for many cable systems and other video applications.
