In 1935, two years after Radio City opened, NBC Radio Studio 3H was converted to RCA Television Studio 3H. Technically it would remain an RCA domain until the opening of the 1939 World’s Fair, at which time W2XBS, and this studio were put under the control of NBC Television.

On July 7, 1936, Studio 3H became the home of the first publicly announced black and white experimental broadcasts from its tower atop the Empire State Building.

The three cameras in 3H all used a 220 line resolution Iconoscope tube, until June of 1938, at which time the world’s first “high definition” conversion took place. That month, these cameras were retrofitted with new 441 line resolution Iconoscope tubes, as RCA’s new reciver sets went to market with the new upgrade.

In May of 1941, television went to the new 525 line resolution system, and once again, these cameras were retrofitted with new Iconoscope tubes.

I think this is when the color of the cameras went from umber gray to silver, and the previously unnamed cameras became the RCA A500 model. Does anyone have any information on this?

On the cameras themselves, one of the big surprises to most is the very discombobulating viewfinder set up, as you can see here, but there is another surprise… a nice one; these first studio pedestals had an electronic up and down center column that was operated by a foot switch on the ped base, that you can see in the first image. Enjoy and share. -Bobby Ellerbee

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