#153 NYC and the Birth of Television

It's the beginning of The Bowery Boys Summer TV Mini-Series, three podcasts devoted to New York City's illustrious history with broadcast television -- from Sarnoff to Seinfeld!

In our first show, we go back to the start of the invention of the television and the city's role in both the creation of the complicated technology and the early formation of programming. We begin with the Electro Importing Co. and the imagination of one of the greatest names in science fiction.

Then head into scientific realities -- the failures of mechnical televisions and the brutal patent wars between RCA's David Sarnoff and one of the great inventors of television, Philo Farnsworth.

In victory, Sarnoff claimed the mantel of 'father of television' at the 1939 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens. It's but one of many great New York City's beloved landmarks with ties to television's early history, from the heights of the Empire State Building to even a floor at Wanamaker's Department Store. And we even go drinking at McSorley's Old Ale House!

ALSO: Why is Greg singing Cole Porter?

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