[1] The possibility for merchants to show their goods through the world was the first usage of the "electroscope" (some kind of television apparatus) imagined by the author of the hoax published in the New York Sun, 30 March 1877.
[3][4] Due to technical issues, the format was dropped after five months, and the station eventually merged operations into co-owned WNAC, today known as WBIX.
Bob Circosta was America's first-ever TV home shopping host, becoming one of the most instantly recognizable salesmen in the United States.
[citation needed] (The story is disputed; there is some record of Paxson having unsuccessfully tried a similar format in 1969 on one of his earlier TV stations, WNYP in Jamestown, New York.
The Electronic Retailing Association, when totaling the combined revenues from all the home shopping companies, estimates that in 2005, the industry generated over 320 billion dollars.