The Latest And Greatest In Tape…RCA’s TCR 100, 1970
I think this was one of the first times RCA beat Ampex to the punch in videotape innovations. Here’s a look at the RCA sales demo of their new quad videotape cassette unit, the TCR 100.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM_2upiGUO0
RCA TCR-100 Videotape Cartridge System, Sales Reel
From the original 2″ quad sales reel – converted to PAL, advertising the new RCA TCR-100 cartridge system to networks in Australia.
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WDCA in Washington DC had TCR-100, the only one in the Washington – Baltimore markets. One afternoon a group of video tape techs from the ABC Washington Bureau came by to observe the machine. One of the techs, in order to get a better view, pulled out his handy pocket flashlight and showed it in the cabinet back. For those unfamiliar with the TCR100, tape pathing was signaled using a number of photo cells. The flashlight caused the machine to go wacky. It started ejecting carts that were still loaded around the heads, then moved the carousel to find the next cart. What a mess! Future tours were banned from entering the room with a flashlight.
I made a lot of money assembling split :30 commercials into two per reel because of the :17 second recycle routine on these beasts…
Then, RCA failed to make a 1″ machine, purchasing them from SONY instead. That marked the end of RCA.
But the AMPEX Version could play ten second spots back to back. A free week at Disney to anyone who can identify the RCA equipment in the rack in the the lower right. Oops, that offer expired yesterday but try anyway.
I wasn’t sure if the presentation was a satire at least by the production values. Goofy hair even for 1970, way way too much headroom , her voice, the lighting. AMPEX would have hired a real Hollywood production company because image and presentation were so important to them.
RCA’s presentation style and equipment style was always so… RCA. Might as well been Western Electric.
Started my career at a CBS station that had 2 of these, they were mechanical masterpieces, and real workhorses. I can still hear all the sounds, it was great, no matter how occupied you were, you always new what was happening by the sounds.
We had 2 at WPVI in Philly. I had the pleasure of working with them
during my brief stay as a night projectionist. We had 2. The 2nd one loaded with :10’s. I’ll never forget the sucking sound they made.
NBC NY had 5 of them and a broomstick – this was used in case of a jam to coax the cart to load.
We had Murphy’s Laws taped on the front of the one we had at WSPA. The RCA rep didn’t think it was funny when he visited.
I prefer the Ampex ACR cart!
The ACR25 was my home though two stations and thousands of breaks. Even “edited” many a local commercial in the early 80’s on one at KNTV in San Jose.
At KTLA, we edited news clips on an ACR-25. NBC Burbank called their TCR the tractor.
Boy could we have used this on The Now Explosion, which was made up of individual hit songs about 3 min. each on small reels of 2″ quad. Our show went on the air in spring of 1970 so just missed this modern marvel. Thanks for sharing.
The “cart-a-saurus.” We had one at KWWL-TV in Waterloo, Iowa. The station didn’t have enough carts to handle the spot load at Christmas and the engineers had to pull carts out and constantly re dub them with different spots from reel to reel quad.
I worked at three different stations 1974-79 and all had TCRs that worked well … most of the time. Now to identify the “mystery device.”. Is it a TEP-Tape Edit Programmer?
I remember that machine all too well… WMTV Madison, NBC Burbank…
I was at WDCA-20 where the prototype TCR-100 was field tested. I can still hear the sound it made when the heads got hungry and shredded a tape.
We had two at KGW-TV; one for dubbing (and on-air backup) and the other for dedicated airplay. Certainly kept us VERY busy between operations and maintenance. 🙂
Iremember the sounds it made as the carts went around the carousel, were inserted in the a or b deck, it stretched the tape out over the heads and transport, and finally cued up (booop) 🙂
Dennis Degan’s photo of NBC Cartland. A sign above the door read, “Cartland: Abandon hope all those who enter.” You can imagine the workout these machines got running every network and local commercial, plus rehearsals and dubbing.
ABC Hollywood had the Apex models used only for KABC. West Coast on air rolled commercials off tape. Doing the cart machines was a money maker assignment.
I worked for a station in Gainesville, Florida in the early-mid 1980s and we had this TCR. Seems it broke down more than it worked! Got so bad we made a dub reel of all our commercials for the nightly news so we wouldn’t risk losing a spot.
They may have beat them to the punch, but Ampex smoked them with the ACR25. I worked at a station where our TCR100 broke down so much, get ready for it, they bought a second one as a backup. I begged them to get us an ACR. Nope.
In this photo from 1977 one of the RBS-TV’s RCA TCR-100. RBS-TV is the affiliate of Rede Globo (Globo-TV Network) in the southern states of Brazil.