Channelized for Your Viewing Pleasure

After I made the posting of 'Stationized' radio dials last week, this Hoffman television came up on eBay.  Hoffman was a postwar California radio and television manufacturer. 

Having never seen this model before, I studied it and the description---not noticing any particularly interesting about it until I saw a word in the accompanying ad copy: "Channelized".

Looking closer at the channel selector, I then noticed it had but two numbers out of 12, and those two numbers were accompanied by call letters.

I've never heard of let alone seen this before, but it's not all that surprising since Hoffman was derived from the prewar Mission Bell radio company, and they did at times 'Stationize' their dials.  I have one from circa 1938.

Both Channelized stations are in San Francisco. This television was located in Pleasanton, CA---an interior East Bay city---so it never went far in its lifetime. That there are only two stations instead of three tells us that this set was actually sold in the fall of 1949 because Channel 4 KRON-TV is not represented.  It didn't start broadcasting until Novemeber 15, 1949.  KGO-TV started broadcasting on May 5th, 1949, while KPIX was the first commercial television station in the Bay Area, having started broadcasts on December 22, 1948.

I'm curious about this dial plate.  Was it meant to be embossed with new channels as they came on?  Did the factory supply the local dealer with pre-embossed rings or did the factory supply some sort of stamping machine so they could to it themselves?  That this one was never stamped with KRON suggests they were stamped at the factory---or this set never went back to the dealer for servicing. 

Hoffman's main gimmick was their EasyVision screen filter---which offered a jaundiced view of the world.  Rather unpleasant color aside, it did increase the contrast of the image in an era where television was more in shades of gray than black and white.