The year 1946 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events during 1946. The number of television programming was increasing after World War II.

List of years in television (table)
In radio
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
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Events

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  • February 4 – RCA demonstrates an all-electronic color television system.
  • February 18 – The first Washington, D.C.New York City telecast through AT&T corporation's coaxial cable, in which General Dwight Eisenhower places a wreath at the base of the statue in the Lincoln Memorial and others make brief speeches, is termed a success by engineers, although Time magazine calls it "as blurred as an early Chaplin movie."
  • February 25 – The prewar U.S. 18-channel VHF allocation is officially ended in favor of a new 13-channel VHF allocation due to the appropriation of some frequencies by the military and the relocation of FM radio. Only five of the old channels are the same as new channels in terms of frequency and none have the same number as before.
  • April 22 – CBS transmits a Technicolor movie short and color slides by coaxial cable from Manhattan to Washington (332 kilometers) and return.
  • June 7 – The BBC Television Service begins broadcasting again for the first time since 1939. The first words heard are "Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh?". Twenty minutes later, the Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey's Gala Premiere, last programme transmitted seven years earlier at the start of World War II, is reshown.
  • June 19 – The first televised heavyweight boxing title fight between Joe Louis and Billy Conn is broadcast from Yankee Stadium. The fight is seen by 141,000 people, the largest television audience to see a boxing match to this date.
  • July 7 – Broadcasting of the BBC's children's programme For The Children is resumed, one of the few pre-war programmes to resume after reintroduction of the service.
  • August 4 – Children's puppet "Muffin the Mule" debuts in an episode of the series For the Children. He is so popular he is given his own show later that same year.
  • September 6 – Chicago's WBKB-TV (now WBBM-TV) commences broadcasting as the first U.S. television station outside the Eastern Time Zone.
  • September 15 – DuMont Television Network begins broadcasting regularly in the United States.
  • October 2 – The first television network soap opera, Faraway Hill, is broadcast by DuMont.
  • October 22 – Telecrime, the first television crime series from the 1930s, is resumed by the BBC, retitled Telecrimes.
  • December 24 – The first Christmas church service is telecast, Grace Episcopal Church in New York, on WABD.
  • Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo founds a company, which would later become Sony.
  • Zoomar introduces the first professional zoom lens for television cameras.
  • The first postwar television sets are released by the companies RCA, DuMont, Crosley, and Belmont.

Debuts

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Television shows

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Series Debut Ended
Picture Page (UK) October 8, 1936 1939
1946 1952
Starlight (UK) November 3, 1936 1939
1946 1949
For The Children (UK) April 24, 1937 1939
July 7, 1946 1950
Telecrime (UK) August 10, 1938 July 25, 1939
October 22, 1946 November 25, 1946
Kaleidoscope (UK) November 2, 1946 1953
Pinwright's Progress (UK) November 29, 1946 May 16, 1947
Muffin the Mule (UK) 1946 1955
Paging You (UK) 1946 1948
Series Debut Ended Network
Boxing From St. Nicholas Arena 1946 1948 NBC
You Be the Judge 1946 194? CBS
See What You Know 1946 1949 CBS
Hour Glass May 9, 1946 March 1947 NBC
Face to Face June 9, 1946 January 26, 1947 NBC
Geographically Speaking June 9, 1946 October 1947 NBC
Cash and Carry June 20, 1946 July 1, 1947 Dumont
I Love to Eat August 30, 1946 1947 NBC
Play the Game September 24, 1946 December 17, 1946 Dumont
Faraway Hill October 2, 1946 December 18, 1946 Dumont
You Are an Artist November 1, 1946 1950 NBC
Gillette Cavalcade of Sports November 8, 1946 June 24, 1960 NBC
Let's Rhumba 1946 1947 NBC
Television Screen Magazine 1946 1949 NBC
Campus Hoopla 1946 1947 NBC
Western Movie 1946 1947 Dumont

Programs ending

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Date Show Debut
June 4 Thrills and Chills Everywhere August 27, 1941
November 25 Missus Goes a Shopping 1944
Telecrime (UK) 1938
December 17 Play the Game 1946
Unknown Paging You 1946

Births

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Deaths

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References

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  1. ^ Schrader, Marty (January 12, 1946). "You Be the Judge". Billboard. p. 11. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  2. ^ Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F. (2009). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present. Random House Publishing Group. p. 441. ISBN 9780307483201. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
  3. ^ Newcomb, Horace (3 February 2014). Encyclopedia of Television. Routledge. p. 1246. ISBN 978-1-135-19472-7.
  4. ^ "Laura Bush". HISTORY. 2018-09-12. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
  5. ^ "125th birthday of the inventor of television John Logie Baird". Hastings Observer. 2 September 2013. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  6. ^ "W.C. Fields, 66, Dies; Famed as Comedian – Mimicry Star of the Films Since 1924 Got Start as a $5-a-Week Juggler – Rarely Followed Script – Raspy Remarks and 'Know-It-All' Perspective Made Him Nation-Wide Character". New York Times. Associated Press. December 26, 1946. p. 25. Retrieved October 9, 2017.