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Bay Area Television History

AMATEUR TELEVISION PIONEER CLARENCE WOLFE JR., W6JDI-TV

Yes, the first Bay Area television station was in Burlingame. It was "Ham TV" and its creator was Clarence Wolfe Jr.

AMATEUR TELEVISION IN THE BAY AREA, CIRCA 1948 on W6JDI-TV

Bay Area radio ham and Radio-TV repair shop owner Clarence Wolfe Jr. of Burlingame CA was one of the first if not the first to broadcast television on the amateur band.

In newspaper accounts in 1948, WWII veteran Wolfe was "on the air" with simple TV pictures 6 months before the first licensed commercial TV station, KPIX-5, began broadcasting in late December 1949.

CHRS member John Staples, W6BM, has researched this story, scanned the photo record, and has obtained, for display at KRE, the original technology from the late Mr. Wolfe's estate.

Clarence Wolfe Jr., W6JDI, died on September 18, 2002 at the age of 89. Mr. Wolfe in 1948 used the device below to transmit a single image to a small Bay Area "audience"

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