Television broadcasts of the 1952 Democratic and Republican National Conventions

The two major party presidential nominating conventions of the 1952 United States presidential election (the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention) marked the first instance in which television networks broadcast live convention coverage across the continental United States. Accommodating and adapting to the advent of television coverage was a major consideration in the logistics of the two conventions, which were each held at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago during different weeks of July 1952 (Republicans convening July 7–11; Democrats convening July 21–26). Live convention coverage was nationally broadcast by each of the "Big Four" American terrestrial television networks at the time: ABC, CBS, DuMont, and NBC.

The introduction of the live television lens to their conventions motivated each party to make image-conscious adjustments to their convention staging. The Democrats, being second to hold their conventions made last-minute adjustments to their convention staging in order to improve upon shortfalls of the Republican Convention in regards to television presentation.

The broadcasts required a significant telecommunications infrastructure to be installed across Chicago.

Background

The conventions were the first political conventions to be televised live, coast-to-coast. Previously, since 1924, the primary means which Americans received gavel-to-gavel rolling coverage of presidential nominating conventions had been broadcast radio.

Precursor experiments in broadcasting of conventions had occurred previously, but 1952 was the first year in which networks carried nationwide coverage of political conventions. In the previous election (1948), regional television broadcasts had been trialed at the parties' conventions (both held in Philadelphia that year). Even earlier, experimental local television broadcasting of conventions was conducted during the parties' 1940 conventions.