Which came first, the TV stations or the viewers?
If there was no one watching TV, why did the TV stations start broadcasting. And if the TV stations weren’t broadcasting, why were people buying TVs?
There were sets first. Not a lot, but there were some.
Like a lot of technologies, different people with different methods of television (Baird, Farnsworth, Zworykin, the Japanese, the Germans) would set up experimental systems and invite people to see special programming. Eventually, some people bought sets. Eventually there was enough programming to keep people happy.
It’s not much different than how items like radios or VCRs or HDTVs have gotten a foothold.
On this timeline, CHICAGO TV AT A GLANCE, you’ll notice Zenith started an experimental station early on. You might want to look at other early manufacturers’ involvment with broadcasting.
Here’s one place to peruse: Television History - The First 75 Years.
TV broadcasting began with the stations. They were all experimental in nature; probably the entire early audience was made up of people who worked at the TV labs.
The stations began to broadcast things that people wanted to see (like the World Series in the U.S.). This built interest.
Another aspect was the display of TVs in storefronts in the U.S. People would gather to watch; those with a lot of money ended up buying.
Back before TV, we were always outdoors playing. I had no idea what a TV was until one day an older lady that lived in the neighborhood invited us in to watch a show. It was a puppet show called “Woodie Willow” (this was in Atlanta). For a few weeks, we spent 1/2 hour watching the show every afternoon. Then one of the boy’s parents got a TV and I would go to his house once a week to watch “The Lone Ranger”. Then they moved and my parents bought their TV. The first new TV my folks bought was a “Muntz” put out and advertised by “Mad Man Muntz”. This was all black and white, color would take a while.
Or putting it another way, some people invented TV reception, some invented TV transmission. Then some manufacturers (like GE and DuMont) who wanted to sell TV sets set up stations to transmit programming.