This profile of Bill Kastner on KSN.com tells about his experience in developing a closed captioning decoder back when he worked for Texas Instruments over 30 years ago. The interesting part is when he tells what the very first decoded closed caption was.
Meet a "Father" of Closed Captioning
From Jamie Berke, About.com GuideFebruary 25, 2009
Explore Deafness
Nice little article! However, am disappointed that the KSN channel didn’t put up caption on the interview video… strange to see an interview on the man who came up with closed caption without it being captioned.
I ALSO WAS SURPRISED (AND DISAPPOINTED) TO FIND THAT THE INTERVIEW WAS NOT CAPTIONED. RATHER STRANGE, THAT. I BOUGHT A CAPTIONING DECODER FROM SEARS BACK IN THE EARLY TO MID-80′S. I HAD QUIT WATCHING TV BY THAT TIME, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF WHEEL OF FORTUNE. THAT WAS THE ONLY PROGRAM THAT I REALLY UNDERSTOOD. THE DECODER WAS A WONDERFUL THING TO HAVE. I USED IT FOR QUITE A FEW YEARS B/4 TV’S HAD THE CAPTIONING BUILT IN.