Dumont was launching its new television studios with a two-hour "dramatic fantasy," called "Experience," airing at 8 PM Monday. Secretary of State Byrnes, Dr. Quo Tai-Chi, president of the UN Security Council. and Mayor William O'Dwyer were expected to attend.
Dumont manufactured television sets and equipment and began broadcasting experimentally in 1938. Commercial broadcasts began in 1944, originally on channel 4 but since the end of 1945 on channel 5. In 1946 it began network broadcasts, which ended ten years later. In 1946 NBC was also broadcasting a limited schedule of television shows. The goal for both companies at this point in time was the sale of TV sets, which were still a novelty item.
The new central studio was located within Wanamaker's department store and was large as a city lot and fifty feet high. Dumont formerly had "closet-sized facilities" at 515 Madison Avenue. The balcony of the main studio held 700 people. There were 11 TV cameras. Spectator tickets were required for broadcasts but the studios were open to visitors without tickets from 10 am to 5:30 PM, every day but Sundays. The entrance was under the famed Wanamaker’s bridge, just east of Broadway.
The new studio would serve as the production center and originating studio for new Dumont network. Initially, the Dumont New York station, WABD, would broadcast programming to the Dumont experimental station in Washington DC via a station in Philadelphia owned by TV manufacturer Philco.
This week Billboard reviewed a 10-minute television broadcast on WABD. The trade pub identified the show as being produced by ABC, The show was shot at the aviation trade show. Apparently, it was awful. The commentator's narration and the picture on the screen did not match up. "Every so often, the voice and the pic were out of sync." At times the camera focused on the wrong people. It was hard enough to make a trade show seem interesting, the publication noted, even without all these technical gaffes. This was prime time programming in 1946 when TV was still a novelty.
In a separate story, Billboard took note of the station's new lineup beginning April 15 when it would begin broadcasting from its new studio in Wanamaker's department store. The station aired programming from 8:00 to 9:30, Mondays through Friday. There was little change in the programming but Colgate-Palmolive-Peet and Lockheed Aircraft had joined the advertisers while Lever Brothers had dropped out. Pulitzer ties and Alexander Smith carpets continued as sponsors. Apparently some of the networks shows like "Famous Jury Trials" were being produced by ABC.
The Sunday Herald Tribune ran a profile of Allen B. Dumont that week in the business section.