I don't know about radiomakers and theatrepeople, but a common reaction of common John and Jane Does was "That televisionthing will melt your brain" or something along those lines. However, other people found it to be real fancy new thing: my mother often tells me that she and her siblings went to a neighbour on wednesday afternoons to gaze in awe at the childrens program on a tube the size of a stamp.

The Doctor Who episode "The idiot's lantern" is set in the fifties, and shows quite nicely how amazing and new tv was.