One of the first test broadcasts of Dutch TV

It was clearly a special afternoon, April 4, 1948. The unnamed reporter from the Algemeen Handelsblad wrote that “perhaps the beginning of a new period” was being heralded. He is sitting in front of the television.

Now that may seem old-fashioned, but leaf through the old newspapers in the NRC archives from the late 1940s and early 1950s and you will sense how exciting this new medium was found to be. The reporter has to explain what he sees, he compares it with the popular pre-war science fiction book ‘The Wild Goose Chase’ by Rex Warner: “A visual and at the same time somewhat frightening world, in which technology is supreme.”

At the same time: “A wonderful sensation, being able to sit quietly on a chair in a room and watch images and events from the outside world.” According to him, Philips’ experiment was a success: image and sound “stand out because of clarity.”

The broadcast, lasting an hour and a half, starts with announcer Bep Schaefer addressing the viewers. There is no word yet for viewers: the Handelsblad reporter suggests ‘viewers’ or ‘viewers’, variations on listeners and eavesdroppers. So he still thinks in radio terms.

There is advertising, a performance, a film about the Wieringermeer, some music, news, a flower arranging demonstration. The sensation is not much different than in a cinema. But then: Bep Schaefer picks up the phone and turns the dial. In the golf club in Valkenswaard where the reporter is watching, the telephone rings. “For a moment one doubts its reality and becomes aware of the wonder of technology.” Schaefer laughs and says: “I think it went well.”

Outdoor shot

Philips continues to experiment, including with the first open-air recording in 1950, the match between PSV and Eindhoven. The company would have preferred not to have “the prying eyes of the press” involved, because it could have failed.

Once again, Handelsblad is enthusiastic and dismisses any hesitations that people are no longer going to the stadium. “It is our firm impression that television has no harm to the sport, just as the fear has been justified that radio would harm newspapers, the concert hall or the gramophone.”

Nevertheless, television in the Netherlands is not doing very well. The broadcasters, churches and politicians are constantly meeting about the desirability of this new medium. The Algemeen Handelsblad is critical: the equipment is there, and the knowledge. In 1949, Philips supplied televisions to England (50,000 receivers) and the US (two million!), but in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe a transmitter system had to be decided first.

It would not be until 1951 that the first real broadcasts took place. How people responded to this cannot be found in the NRC archives. The month October 1951 is (still) missing.

Millionth recipient

But how quickly television influences society can be read ten years later. One million households, a third of the total, already have a TV. The millionth connection, with Mr JHJ Milius, business advisor in Deventer, is reason for an article in the newspaper. Unfortunately he is not at home, but Mrs. Milius says that they like to watch operas and operettas.

The television editor of NRC, W. Hijmans, “muses” that “there is nothing [is] to which a man quickly gets used to as a miracle. The TV has “become an object for domestic use,” he writes. “Today’s children will, in ten years’ time (..) be furnishing their homes with a TV set that is just as much a part of it as a washing machine and a refrigerator, and that – and this is the most important thing – they have learned to operate just as sensibly.”