Is It Hot In Here Or Is It Just Me?
Here’s an RCA TK11 with all it’s doors open to cool off. This shot is from CBS Television City from around 1956 and taken on Stage 43 where ‘Climax’ was done. It was an anthology show with different live dramas each week and was much like ‘Play House 90’ and ‘General Electric Theater’. Unlike local station cameras, network cameras were on 8 to 10 hours a day and the tubes put out more heat which could cause the viewfinder to go out.
NBC Director Max Schindler’s Day….November 22, 1963 At the link is our friend Max Schindler’s account of the arrival of President Kennedy and President Johnson from Dallas. He was the director sent to cover the arrival for NBC in Washington, and as it turns out, for CBS and ABC too, as his truck was the […]
November 29, 1929…The NBC Chimes Sound For The First Time In July of 1921, RCA bought WJZ from Westinghouse, and five years later, in July of 1926, they bought WEAF from AT&T. The National Broadcasting Company was incorporated by RCA on September 8, 1926, and two months later, on November 15, the NBC Radio Network […]
The EMI 203 Camera In Action Although EMI cameras were ultra rare in the US, they were quite common many other countries, and staples at the BBC. Debuting in 1960, the 203 was a five lens monochrome camera that could use either 4.5 or 3 inch Image Orthicons and make pictures for 405, 525 or […]
Television’s Forgotten Pioneer…The Amazing Captain Bill Eddy Frankly, my head exploded this morning when I sat down to write what I thought would be an interesting piece on the revolutionary television camera that Eddy patented on this day, February 28, 1942, BUT…as it turns out, that is one of his least accomplishments! While preparing the […]
cool off the cameras and a chance to have a smoke
I read that if the Orthicons are overheated, you have a loss of picture resolution…
Same thing happened with the TK42s during a telethon in the early 70s at WBTV in Charlotte, NC. A few hours into the telethon (Jerry’s kids, I believe), the cameras all started misbehaving. We had to open the covers to keep them operating.
This happened in both studios where we had one studio with the telethon and the other with the entertainment acts.
wow
Take note of the CBS built custom viewfinder hood. CBS. like many, did not like the RCA snout VF hood. I have made one similar to this one for my TK-11B.
Still a common problem.