WMAR-TV, the first station to sign on in Baltimore, started broadcasting on Oct. 27, 1947, and soon after that sets appeared in Cecil County. For example, on Jan. 15, 1948, MacMillan and Sons in Elkton invited the public to visit the North Street Hotel to see the large screen television in operation there. It was sold, serviced and guaranteed by the retailer. By the time Christmas rolled around that year local appliance dealers advertised an array of consoles.
Jim Nicholson, whose family established the North Street Hotel, remembered the dawn of television here. This popular Elkton spot was the first place in town to have a television he noted, and that shortly before they installed a receiver the Swiss Inn outside town on Route 40 had hooked one up for patrons. Nicholson remarked that he was charged with looking out for the big set and taking care of the complex adjustments. It brought a crowd and Saturday night was a big one as boxing was on the air. People from throughout the community came to see this new source of entertainment on the screen, he recalled
The Korean war slowed the advancement of televisions in homes, but as soon as the war was over retailers across the county acquired a fine selection of consoles for customers to consider. This signaled a big shift in entertainment as more homeowners bought a black and white
Soon RC started manufacturing color sets and cable arrived with more channels for the living room, each of these innovations marking another important milestone in modern entertainment. Shows like The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, Ozzie
Cable TV in Elkton & North East
Suburban Cablevision, a subsidiary of Suburban Propane Gas Corp of New Jersey brought the first pay community access television network to Elkton and North East in February 1971. And soon subscribers were able to tune in to a slightly larger array of information and entertainment channels. For Washington’s Birthday, Suburban had a deal, 12 channels including one dedicated to time and weather for $5.45
Supplementing this small cluster of broadcast channels, a local show started producing original, Cecil County programming, going live from its studio in downtown Elkton on Sept. 5, 1973. The county’s first television show, produced and aired by Head of Elk Productions Inc., was on the air one hour a day in black and white. Soon color was added and local programming increased.
Harry Shivery, the founder and president, was, according to Morning News reporter Robin Brown, a “television star; a newscaster; often a newsmaker; a scriptwriter; set designer and builder; ad salesman and producer; cameraman and crew; programmer; and handyman. He was everything a studio needed, but his versatility was a matter of necessity.”
On that first show “Mary Maloney was worried about her lipstick, and Harry Shivery forgot to take the coffeepot off the burner, but otherwise things moved along just fine when local television came to Cecil County,” the News Journal reported on Sept. 5, 1973. Things went so well that it wasn’t a minute after the first local “telecast had become history that one of the county’s true celebrities, Rodeo Earl Smith, called in his congratulations.” Maloney, then the president of the Board of County Commissioners, “came off like an old pro on camera,” with Shivery introducing her “as the First Lady of Cecil County,” according to The News Journal.
For the 2,500 customers in the two towns, the flood of uninterrupted movies, 24-hours news weather, and sports, and endless reruns of old, old shows was still years in the future. But the industry had started convincing people to pay for what had once arrived over the airwaves for free. They were connected and plugged in and the channels would grow.
