Telephone newspaper
Telephone Newspaper is a general term for telephone-based news and entertainment services, which were introduced beginning in the 1890s. These were the first electronic broadcasting systems, and offered a wide variety of programming, although only a relatively few systems were ever established. Moreover, the technical capabilities of this era meant that there were limited means for amplifying and transmitting telephone signals over long distances, so listeners had to wear headphones to receive the programs, and service areas were generally limited to a single city. During the time period telephones were still considered to be luxtury items, so the subscribers tended to be the wealthy elites of society. Although these systems predated the invention of radio, beginning in the 1920s they were largely supplanted by radio broadcasting stations, mainly due to the ability of radio signals to cover much wider areas with higher quality audio.
History
The electric telephone was introduced in the mid-1870s, and it was mostly used for personal communication. But the idea of distributing entertainment and news appeared soon thereafter, as many early demonstrations included the transmission of musical concerts. In a one particularly advanced exhibition, Clément Ader, at the 1881 Paris Electrical Exhibition, prepared a listening room where participants could hear, in stereo, performances from the Grand Opera at Paris. In 1888, Edward Bellamy's influence novel Looking Backward: 2000-1887 foresaw the establishment of entertainment transmitted by telephone lines to individual homes.
These demonstrations were eventually followed by the establishment of more organized services, which were generally called Telephone Newspapers, although all of the systems also included entertainment programming. Financing was normally done on a paid basis, including monthly subscriptions for home users, and by the use of coin-operated receivers, which provided short periods of listening for a set fee, in locations such as hotels. Some systems also accepted paid advertising. For their programs, the Telephone Newspapers initially drew upon a mixture of outside sources, including local live theaters, in addition to programs transmitted from their own studios. In later years, retransmitted radio programs were added.
Théâtrophone
The first organized telephone-based entertainment service appears to have been the Théâtrophone, which went into operation in Paris, France in 1890. This system received much of it programming from the Paris theaters, but also reportedly included regular five-minute news summaries. The Théâtrophone finally ceased operations in 1932.
Telefon Hirmondó
On February 15, 1893, the Telefon Hirmondó began operation in Budapest, Hungary. It would become the most prominent and longest-lived of the Telephone Newspaper systems, surviving in some fashion until 1944. The founder was inventor Tivadar Puskás, who died one month after the system went into operation. From the beginning the Telefon Hirmondó — which was generally translated into English as the "Telephone Newsteller" or "Telephone Herald" — provided an extensive programming service. Its schedule in 1907 was as follows:
A. M.
9:00 -- . .Exact astronomical time.
9:30 --10:00. .Reading of programme of Vienna and foreign news and of chief contents
of the official press.
10:00--10:30. .Local exchange quotations.
10:30--11:00. .Chief contents of local daily press.
11:00--11:15. .General news and finance.
11:15--11:30. .Local, theatrical, and sporting news.
11:30--11:45. .Vienna exchange news.
11:45--12:00. .Parliamentary, provincial, and foreign news.
12:00 noon . .Exact astronomical time.
P. M.
12:00--12:30. .Latest general news, news, parliamentary, court, political, and military.
12:30-- 1:00. .Midday exchange quotations.
1:00 -- 2:00. .Repetition of the half-day's most interesting news.
2:00 -- 2:30. .Foreign telegrams and latest general news.
2:30 -- 3:00. .Parliamentary and local news.
3:00 -- 3:15. .Latest exchange reports.
3:15 -- 4:00. .Weather, parliamentary, legal, theatrical, fashion and sporting news.
4:00 -- 4:30. .Latest exchange reports and general news.
4:30 -- 6:30. .Regimental bands.
7:00 -- 8:15. .Opera.
8:15(or after the first act of the opera). . Exchange news from New York, Frankfort,
Paris, Berlin, London, and other business centers.
8:30 -- 9:30. .Opera.
The limited means for amplification meant that the Telefon Hirmondó had to employ strong-voiced "stentors" to speak loudly into double-cased telephones, so that the programs could be heard throughout the system. At its peak, the service had thousands of subscribers.
Electrophone
In 1895, the Electrophone went into operation in London, England. Most of its programming came from live performances via special lines connected to local theaters. On a few special occasions, it also shared programs with the Paris Théâtrophone. The Electrophone ceased operations in 1925, unable to compete with radio. During the thirty years that it operated, the service never had more than a few hundred subscribers.
Telephone Herald and Araldo Telefonico
The operators of the Budapest Telefon Hirmondó were interested in licencing their technology to other sites. At least two related operations were established. One was in the United States, where Telephone Herald in Newark, New Jersey (a suburb of New York City) began operation in 1911, but shut down due to economic problems the next year. A second location, for which there is little information, was the Araldo Telefonico in Rome, Italy.