Subject Signals in Clay: The Broadcast Age Lives On at 420 Taylor
Subject Signals in Clay: The Broadcast Age Lives On at 420 Taylor
Tucked just off Market Street, on a stretch of San Francisco that has quietly witnessed the rise and reinvention of media for nearly a century, a towering ceramic mural still speaks in the language of early television. Mounted high on the façade of the former KBHK-TV studios at 420 Taylor Street, it is easy to miss at street level — and yet impossible to ignore once you truly look up.
The mural, often referred to as The World of Communications, is a vivid artifact of mid-century optimism. Created when television was still a daring experiment rather than an everyday companion, it captures a moment when San Francisco stood at the forefront of broadcast innovation.
Rendered in glazed ceramic tile, the work glows even under gray skies, its colors resilient against time and weather. The style blends the civic ambition of WPA-era murals with the streamlined modernism of the 1950s. Figures populate the composition from top to bottom: performers, technicians, and symbolic characters representing music, news, drama, and the arts. They gather around a central vertical current — a ribbon of color rising like a broadcast signal — suggesting that ideas, images, and voices travel upward into the invisible airwaves.
At the base, the imagery leans into the mechanics of television itself: stylized cameras, studio lights, and geometric forms hint at the machinery behind the magic. Above them, dancers, musicians, and storytellers seem to emerge from that technological foundation, a reminder that while equipment may evolve, creativity remains the driving force of communication.
Standing beneath the mural today, one feels the echo of a transitional era. This was a time when San Francisco was not merely consuming culture but inventing new ways to share it — when cinema palaces still dominated Market Street, radio was reinventing itself, and television promised to bring the world into the living room. The mural’s message feels especially resonant now, as media once again reshapes itself in the digital age.
What fascinates me most is how the piece bridges generations of storytelling. It belongs to the same civic impulse that gave us Coit Tower’s murals, the grand theatrical façades of Market Street, and the vibrant public art that still defines our city. Yet it also points forward, toward an era when performance, journalism, and technology would merge into something entirely new.
The former KBHK building may have changed hands and purpose over the years, but the mural remains — a vertical chronicle in tile and color, quietly reminding passersby that San Francisco has long been a place where signals begin, stories travel, and culture finds new forms.
Look up the next time you pass 420 Taylor. You may just hear the hum of an earlier broadcast age, still radiating from the wall.
