WRGB: Historic In Many Ways

WRGB played a vital role in TV history.

Johnny Olson was invited to do an experimental telecast of his radio show “Ladies Be Seated” on WRGB. Here are excerpts from “Johnny Olson: A Voice in Time.” More at http://www.tvrandywest.com

Johnny recalled the WRGB experimental broadcast, “In 1944, I rode into the dawning world of television on a train. It was New York Central’s old Empire State Express, once the world’s fastest…[it] transported us swiftly along the lordly Hudson River to Albany and then a few miles west to Schenectady…At Schenectady, we walked under a cloudy sky from the New York Central station along State Street to the Van Curler Hotel, and then just across the street to the WRGB building.” Johnny explained that the station overlooked the Mohawk River, and before it was reconstructed into a television facility, it had been a clubhouse containing a dance floor, a bowling alley, and similar recreational facilities.

Johnny reported that he was welcomed by G. Emerson Markham, a veteran of GE broadcasting, who toured the Ladies Be Seated entourage through the building. He had the staff help unpack their props and set their Quaker Oats and Chef Boy-Ar-Dee commercial art cards on easels. Johnny remembered being excited about the opportunity that was just hours away, and he was wide-eyed about the budding technology. He recalled being particularly interested in the large array of overhead and floor-level lighting equipment, and impressed by the futuristic-appearing control room where engineers had the choice of images from three live cameras and three film projectors.

Of GE, Johnny commented,, “They had one of only six television broadcasting stations in the country.” He characterized the owners of the other stations in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Los Angeles as guarding them like Ft. Knox because they were either unable or unwilling to open their doors to outsiders and possible future competitors. Johnny reported, “The attitude of the GE men was refreshingly different. They were happy to share both their facilities and broadcasting experience.”

Johnny’s first experience with television was in a superior environment at GE’s upstate outpost, a facility that the company boasted was the first building in the United States specifically designed and constructed for television. Chicago television pioneer Captain Bill Eddy toured the facility several months after Johnny’s inaugural broadcast and wrote that the studio was an immense 42 by 70 feet, topped by a 25-foot-high ceiling. That height enabled lighting to be placed far enough from the performers to keep the heat manageable. Combined with a water cooling system for the motor-controlled lights and the building’s oversized air conditioning capacity, WRGB was comparatively comfortable among early television studios.

Johnny reported, “Lights became so hot they melted mascara on women’s faces in early television. GE tried to lick the problem with a type cooled by water.” In the course of the broadcast, one of those light assemblies exploded and sprinkled part of the studio audience with warm water. “‘My God, my time has come,’ shouted a pregnant woman caught in the downpour. When she found it hadn’t, she laughed. Penny and some others wiped up the water. We finished the program with everybody convinced that television had great possibilities.”

Those are some serious connectors for the camera cables, and that ped on the right is an interesting design.