The sentiments expressed here are the sum of the feelings and emotions of the entire Museum of Broadcast Technology family:
Looking back only a few decades, as the roaring twenties witnessed the birth and rapid expansion of commercial Radio Broadcasting, forward-looking experimenters, scientists, engineers and their companies were already dreaming, dabbling, developing and deploying the first prototype Television systems: We can recall a few: Rosing, Baird, Jenkins, Tyhani, Sanabria, Farnsworth, Lubcke, Blumlein, Zworykin, Kell, and many other contributors – All were dedicated problem solvers whose names are now sadly relegated to the dustbin of history.
Therein lies the reason for Bobby Ellerbee’s extraordinary passion:
As Electronic Television moved from the laboratory to the appliance store, the post-war era of the 1950s witnessed the same explosive growth for TV as Radio had enjoyed some thirty years earlier…. No other technology before or since has had a room and a dinner named for it.
We sat in the TV room, with that TV dinner on our TV tray, all watching TV, electronically enthralled if not mesmerized.
In 2026, the brilliant folks who made early TV technology and programs happen, both nationally and in so many local cities and towns, are simply “signing off !”
Bobby has made it his mission with EYES OF A GENERATION to capture the memories, the lore, the images, and even the heady zeitgeist of the times when TV was young, and so were we all.
Our museum was created to help preserve the technical tools used to create television from the 1940s forward…
Bobby has created EOAG to preserve the people, passions and production skills of the Television industry. His many contributors of stories, pictures and anecdotes have made this multi-decade history of Television vibrant and compelling.
The entire family at the MBT extend our thanks and best wishes to Bobby and his team for their efforts and great successes in keeping the spirit and soul of Television alive for The Eyes of the Generation yet to be born.
Well done Sir Bobby! From the 2026 MBT Crew:
Tom, Henry, Paul, Peter, Marc, Jay, Dave, Carlo, George, Chuck and Cheryl.
