ETF - W5AGO Ft. Worth

W5AGO - Fort Worth

W5AGO began television transmission using mechanical scanning equipment in March, 1934 in Ft. Worth, Texas. Since all FCC-licensed experimental TV stations had an X in their call sign, W5AGO was probably an amateur radio call sign. According to Mike Shannon, who has written about Dallas television history, the television equipment cost $1500, a substantial investment. By 1934 virtually all mechanical stations in the United States were off the air, so the startup of a mechanical station in 1934 is unusual. Click for more about more early television in Texas or for television at the 1936 Texas Exposition.

The station was built by Truett Kimzey, a radio and television pioneer in Dallas. Kimzey was one of the first radio/TV engineers in Texas, and his successful career included station ownership and operating a TV repair shop in Fort Worth for many years. His son John Paul currently co-owns the Crouse-Kimzey Company in Fort Worth, a distributor of commercial audio and video equipment.

A search of the archives of the Dallas Daily News turned up nothing, though there were articles about several other TV demonstrations and stations from 1930 to 1935.

If you have any information on this station or Truettt Kimzey, please contact us.

(Thanks to Steve Dichter for the above information)

The following is from the book Texas Signs On, The Early Days of Radio and Television, by Richard Schroder:

John Paul Kimzey, Truett Kimzey's son, wrote this:

A friend passed on to me the "early television.org" site and story about my father. My father was Truett Kimzey. Most of what you have said is true. Two things I would like to correct are that we are from Fort Worth, not Dallas. My uncle and business partner was John Robert "Buddy" Crouse, your spelling is not correct. If you would like any additional information I will try to provide it. My father was truly a pioneer in broadcasting and I am very proud of him. He passed away in January of 1968 of cancer.