PRESIDENTS IN THE AGE OF TELEVISION   

With his fireside chats broadcast to the entire nation, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945) was considered to be a master of radio, the predominant broadcast media of his time. But few know that FDR appeared on television as well -- the first president ever to do so. The occasion was the New York World's Fair.

On the evening of April 30, 1939, FDR broadcast a short address to approximately 1,000 viewers then owning television sets. The New York Times reported that the signal was sent by RCA's mobile TV van to a transmitter atop the Empire State Building and rebroadcast to the tiny television audience. The picture was "clear and steady," the newspaper added. No one knew it at the time, but the president's broadcast was the beginning of a media revolution that would eventually transform American politics, particularly the presidency. But it would take a while. FDR's attention, and that of the nation at large, would soon be diverted by the outbreak of war in Europe, a conflict that would in time engulf the world, involving the United States and many other nations. Television was put on hold.

Even after World War II ended in 1945 -- during the presidency of Harry Truman (1945-1953) -- television was not a major player in politics. The dominant political media continued to be radio and the nation's vibrant print press. Television sales, which had ceased during the world conflict, were still small. As late as 1951, there were only 1.5 million television sets in the United States, according to the Media History Project. But this was a tenfold increase in one year and sales of sets would soon skyrocket.

By the time Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961) was inaugurated president in 1953, television sales had taken off. Millions of Americans were tuning into shows like, "I Love Lucy," starring Lucille Ball. On January 19, an episode of "I Love Lucy," portraying the birth of little Ricky, her on-screen son, was watched by 44 million Americans, more than had watched the president's inauguration the next day. "They liked Ike, but they loved Lucy," quipped the late actor Walter Matthau.

By the late 1950s, journalists and political scientists had recognized that television had changed everything in politics, including the presidency. Said Theodore White, chronicler of key postwar presidential campaigns, "Television is the political process; it's the playing field of politics. Today, the action is in the studios, not in the backrooms." For better or for worse, politicians knew that they would have to master the new medium.

Eisenhower, however, was personally not very comfortable with television and gave relatively few speeches specifically tailored to the television audience. His press conferences, for example, were televised, but not live -- and only after the filmed recording was edited. Little attention was paid to staging and background. The "photo op" lay in the future.

John F. Kennedy (1961-1963), who succeeded Eisenhower, was, however, considered a master of the infant medium -- the nation's first real television president. With his good looks, youth and vitality, Kennedy was a natural for the prying eye of the camera. The young president sensed the political power of the new medium almost instantly and set about exploiting it for his own purposes.

Kennedy was the first president to allow live coverage of news conferences, a critical vehicle for conveying the policies of his "New Frontier." He also allowed television to record meetings and discussions previously off limits through the then-new technique known as film or television verite. Television addresses to the nation, although not unprecedented, became more frequent and publicized, particularly Kennedy's televised speeches on the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 and on civil rights in June 1963.

Cameras also were allowed to cover the personal life of the president as never before. The American people saw their leader not only in formal settings, but also driving his car, swimming in the ocean and playing touch football. Kennedy instinctively knew that personal popularity and political approval were closely linked in this most personal of offices. He used television to achieve both.

Unfortunately, the same was not true of his successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson (1963-1969). Johnson, who was elected in his own right in a landslide election victory in 1964, was nervous and uncomfortable before television cameras. His somewhat awkward appearance seemed magnified by the television lens. Reporters, perhaps for the first time, sensed that television had now become, for better or for worse, so important in politics that presidents who could not master it, were doomed to ineffectiveness, if not outright failure.

Johnson's successor, Richard Nixon (1969-1973), was somewhat better than Johnson on television. Nixon, after all, had learned in his televised debates with John Kennedy in the 1960 election how important television had become in American politics. Polls showed that those Americans listening on radio to the debates thought that Nixon had won, or at least was even, with Kennedy. But those watching on television -- by 1960 far more than were listening on radio -- gave the edge to Kennedy, no doubt influenced by his suave appearance compared with Nixon.

Nixon had worn a gray suit, which blended into the background set. Worse, he had refused makeup. His heavy beard shadow made him look menacing and shifty to many in the audience. He learned the lesson the hard way -- that in politics in the television age, appearance was as important as message. By the time he became president in 1969, Nixon was much improved.

But the real successor to John Kennedy in terms of mastery of television was Ronald Reagan (1981-1989). A former movie star who also was familiar to television audiences as host of "Death Valley Days" and other shows, Reagan was a natural before the television camera. It was not long before journalists dubbed him, "the great communicator." His formal speeches and television addresses in particular, were expertly delivered with impeccable timing. He was less successful, however, at impromptu events such as news conferences.

In the current campaign for president, neither Republican candidate George W. Bush nor Democratic candidate Al Gore has scored a knockout against the other in terms of television skills. Each has had both successful and awkward moments. But the key television event in the campaign is yet to come -- their televised presidential debates in the fall. Whatever the outcome of the election, however, television is sure to play an important, if not critical, role.