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Moments in history captured for the world to see

Love it or hate it, you have to admit that TV is one of the most powerful forms of mass media in the Western world. Not everyone sees billboards, and readers can turn the page to avoid magazine ads. And while the Internet may be a pervasive force in modern culture, it's so vast and diverse that online messages can get lost in the ocean of content.

But TV, even seven decades after its first appearance in the consumer marketplace, is still a phenomenally powerful communication tool. Millions upon millions of viewers tune in every week to their favorite shows - and absorb the associated ads that break into the programming every 15 minutes. Hundreds of millions of people from around the world tune in at the same moment to capture live broadcasts of world-changing events. And the news that broadcasters transmit every night influences the next day's actions for countless people around the globe.

The debate over the positive and negative effects of television programming continues to swing back and forth, but it would be very hard to deny that TV has produced world-changing events.

Disney's Wonderful World of Color
The advent of colour TV in the 1950s was striking to viewers. Families used to imagining colour as they watched black-and-white images suddenly found themselves transported into the vibrant, living worlds on their home screens. Colour technology was beginning to develop as early as the 1920s, but it took the standardisation of the National Television System Committee in the early 1940s to make widespread, affordable colour TV a reality. The technology was only half the equation, though. Without quality, easily available colour broadcasts, home viewers wouldn't have a reason to spend the extra money for colour sets to replace their trusty black-and-white models. Enter Walt Disney. The media mogul embraced colour TV and committed to programming for the new technology. Launched in October 1954, Disney's Wonderful World of Color was a family-friendly variety programme that mixed iconic cartoons, drama and documentary programming with promotional updates on the then-under-construction Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California. Viewers welcomed the famous host into their homes, and serial dramas, such as the programme's Davy Crockett trilogy, became nationwide marketing successes.

The First Televised Presidential Debate
Political historians and media experts alike agree that the televised presidential debate between Republican Vice President Richard Nixon and his relatively unknown challenger, Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy, on Sept. 26, 1960, changed the face of presidential elections. For the first time, American voters didn't just hear candidates speak about their policies, platforms and competitors' weaknesses; viewers could now see the candidates present their arguments. The change made for an opinion landslide in Kennedy's favour: The young, handsome politician appeared with a level of suave confidence that overshadowed the pale, unhealthy-looking Nixon. The debate marked a shift in how Americans consumed news. Radio listeners spoke highly of Nixon, estimating that he came out ahead in the debate. But TVviewers - a growing majority of the media public at that point - pointed to Kennedy as the winner. The TV majority proved to reflect public sentiment: Kennedy won the election. The debate marked a turning point in the race for the White House. Candidates could no longer rely solely on their speaking abilities or the strengths of their platforms. Political campaigning became an image game - confident posture, demeanour and an attractive, authoritative appearance all became major factors in public perception of candidates.

Bulova Watch Commercial
The American TV audience that tuned in to see the Brooklyn Dodgers take on the Philadelphia Phillies on July 1, 1941, likely didn't realise they were about to witness TV history. But when a 20-second scene of a Bulova clock face appeared on their screens, overdubbed with the phrase, "The world runs on Bulova time," the estimated 4,000 viewers witnessed a milestone: the first paid TV commercial. As anyone who watches modern TV knows, commercials are an integral part of television broadcasting. The advertisements have not only changed the way we shop, but they've also changed the way TV broadcasts are produced. TV dramas often break for commercials at high-tension moments, compelling viewers to sit through the commercials to see what happens next. And the production of TV commercials has become a high-stakes business that commands as much influence as the broadcast programming itself. New York-based Bulova Watch Company reportedly paid $9 for that 1941 commercial, an infinitely small sum compared to the millions of dollars spent on commercials that run during modern events like the Super Bowl. The small ad was just the tip of a broadcasting iceberg, and one has to wonder if the Bulova advertising representatives - or the broadcaster who sold the ad - had any idea what would evolve from that brief broadcasting moment.

Response to the 2004 Indonesia Tsunami
On Dec. 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake with an estimated 9.0 magnitude sparked a massive tidal wave, or tsunami, in the Pacific. The wave hit Indonesia with little advance warning, wiping out entire communities and killing an estimated 280,000 people. Television news stations broadcast jaw-dropping images of the disaster and its aftermath, interspersed with graphics and commentary that explained the "how" of the disaster to viewers across the globe. And those viewers responded. Within days, scores of charities and aid groups were flooded with donations and offers of help. Highly advertised fundraisers and celebrity telethon events made people aware of both the disaster and the generous donations to its victims. While the diversity of the international response makes it impossible to know exactly how much was raised, estimates put the amount of financial and material aid somewhere near $14 billion. Without live international broadcasts and widespread viewership of cable news programming, it's possible that word of the tsunami's devastating effects would have taken much longer to reach across the world, slowing the aid response. Television may receive a bad rap for promoting a sedentary lifestyle and exposing people to violent or misleading images, but it can also be a powerful instigator for positive change.

The Apollo 11 Lunar Landing
There may be few - if any - TV moments that fired the world's imagination like the televised broadcast the night of July 20, 1969, when astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Ed "Buzz" Aldrin landed on the moon. For the first time in history, humans set foot on another celestial body. And the world was there with them. Nasa pilots and astronauts, and their counterparts in the USSR, had already accomplished a number of feats: breaking the sound barrier, flying into space and performing work in orbit. But the lunar landing was one of the most significant undertakings in the space race, and Nasa wanted to make sure that the event was broadcast to as wide an audience as possible.

COPS
Reality TV programmes are an extremely popular segment of modern TV broadcasting. But in the late 1980s, the concept of TVwith no scripts, no "real" actors and no plot beyond a general theme was a foreign idea. Barbour-Langley Productions, a TV production company that focused on nonfiction programming, was looking for an opportunity to expand off its successful series of crime and police-themed documentaries. In 1988, Fox Broadcasting bought into the production company's concept for a new kind of show: one that would follow real police as they patrolled their communities and fought crime. The show, simply titled Cops would go on to change the face of TV broadcasting and help launch FOX as a major TV network. The Cops formula laid the groundwork for modern reality TV: Instead of actors playing out a script, the characters were real people. The show focused on the more dramatic aspects of police work, like car chases, violent arrests and offbeat characters. Shaky, handheld camera work, intense situations and impromptu interviews in which the subjects reflected on the incidents made Cops an addictive hit. More significantly, the reality formula inspired a new genre of television, and critics and supporters alike admit that reality programming has changed the face of modern TV.

The Opening Ceremonies of the 1939 World's Fair
In terms of broadcast TV history, this is where the story begins. In the late 1920s, manufacturers such as Radio Corporation of America (RCA) were producing consumer-grade TVs that, while expensive and considered luxuries, began appearing in more and more households in America and Europe. But the other half of the TV equation - regular broadcasts - hadn't yet caught up with television set technology. If there was nothing worth watching, the manufacturers would have a hard time selling televisions. RCA moved to remedy this situation in the late 1930s with the development of the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), its TV broadcast initiative. NBC developed and acquired broadcasting and transmission technology, and in 1939 was ready to make the leap into regular TV broadcasting. NBC launched in grand style. On April 30, 1939, its TV crews arrived at the World's Fair in New York City with broadcast vans packed with the latest TV technology. NBC's cameras were rolling as President Franklin D. Roosevelt opened the fair; the signals moved from the mobile broadcasting trucks to a tower atop the Empire State Building for aerial transmission, and early technology adopters in the region watched the first live TV broadcast. Other manufacturers launched TV sets and receivers at the World's Fair, and the market grew rapidly; by the 1940 World's Fair, space delegated for TV technology displays had doubled, and television was on its way to becoming a world-changing medium.

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