Bluefield Daily Telegraph
WHIS-TV Presents First Local Telecast To Area; Tests Continue This Week
August 1, 1955
Bluefield Station WHIS-TV telecast its first two films last night, and spontaneous telephone calls from television owners reported "perfect reception" all over the area.
The studio telephone was busy "constantly" all during the hour that the two films were transmitted, a station spokesman said. And all of them - from Pulaski, Welch and Pocahontas, among other locations - said the picture was the best on their sets, the spokesman stated.
The station sent out its test pattern at 6:30 p.m. and put the first half-hour film on the air at 7 p.m. The movies, both public service films used for testing, were entitled "Research Acres," a farm picture, and "A Nation on Wheels," a film describing the automobile industry.
The station intends to televise films each evening from now on until it starts receiving network programs. The films, all for testing purposes, will be broadcast "about 6:30 p.m." each day, a station spokesman said.
An estimated 100 calls came in during the hour between 7 and 8 p.m. from Davy, West Graham, Duhring, Princeton, Richlands, Pulaski, Pocahontas and from every section of Bluefield.
A station spokesman said a Saturday night report from Burlington, N. C. - the station's Federal Communications Commission monitoring point - was that a better picture was received there from Bluefield than from Richmond, Va. The report was based on early telecasts of the station's test pattern.