But not every American could get in on the act, even if he or she bought a TV. As of January 1, 1950, only ninety-eight television stations were on the air. Many cities had no television, and even entire states, including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Colorado, had no stations within their borders. In the face of tremendous demand for more TV, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had frozen the television licensing process in late 1948 to revise its plan for allocating stations. No new licenses would be issued until 1952. SO APPLIANCE DEALERS READ WITH interest a report in the November 1949 issue of Sylvania News about L. E. (“Ed”) Parsons, of Astoria, Oregon, and his new system for delivering television to areas outside the range of reliable reception. Five months later the readers of Popular Mechanics learned how Parsons was able to pick up a station 125 miles away on the far side of a 4,000-foot mountain range. - Joe Fullman