Dumont's New TV Studio

A photo on the radio page show the cast and director of "Experience," a dramatic fantasy to be presented as part of a two-hour live television show being broadcast Monday at 8 PM on station WABD. This was the debut of Dumont's new studio at John Wanamaker's department store in the Village.

Television was just emerging and only a few thousand sets were in operation in the city. Broadcasts were designed to lure consumers into buying sets more than to draw tune in. People watched in store windows or neighborhood bars rather than at home. It was still a novelty. A department store was a logical place for a broadcast studio as it might entice some of the show's live audience to stroll on to the sales floor.

Budgets were small and production values consequently were rudimentary. It was more like cable access programming than the slick shows of today. None of the cast pictured in "Experience" were recognizable names.

As in the early days of cable, boxing fans were a major early adopter target . TV would take off fast enough for The Times to institute regular coverage in 1948.