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Melvin Sater’s 18 page account of those early days of developing the first commercially available line of video tape, at 3M. Above is Melvin Sater’s 18 page account of those early days of developing the first commercially available line of video tape, at 3M. Most of this amazing read has to do with the…

Television’s first real studio was RCA’s Studio 3H inside NBC. Operating in secret, for the first year of 1935, RCA had built 3 studio style Iconoscope cameras for 3H, and only 3, but in 1939, they built 3 more for CBS, for use on W2XAB. Also in 1935, RCA was approached by Alda Bedford…

This is a rare, digitally enhanced photo of the NBC Radio Master Control board from 1933…the year RCA and NBC moved into 30 Rockefeller Plaza. In the beginning, Studio 3H was radio studio, just one of six medium sized spaces on the 3rd floor, which were about half the size of 3A and 3B.…

Sometimes, it’s good to put things is perspective with a big picture overview of how television developed. Here is a look at the early milestones of the new media…baby steps along the way. By the way, W2XBS became WNBT or what we now know as WNBC. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee Apr. 30, 1939.…

This photo is from a 1948 RCA Broadcast News Magazine. The article was about some new equipment at the NBC Washington station, WNBW and this was added as a reminder of how far television had come. Note the caption states that, aside from an antenna, this is the whole station! The transmitter is on…

These Photos Unlocks Some Mysteries! If you ever wondered what happened to NBC’s “Felix The Cat” mechanical camera after tests were concluded in 1932, here’s the answer. It was on display at the RCA Pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. In the diagram, we see it in the Museum being displayed…

There are some TV secrets hiding in plane sight in this pristine color photo of NBC’s “Miss Color TV”, Marie McNamara. This is The Colonial Theater, NBC’s first real color studio. Notice that all four prototype cameras are mounted on prototype pan heads. This cradle head model was on the Houston Fearless drawing board,…

This is the 8H studio map, the rehearsal and run sheets for the April 12, 2014 show with Seth Rogen as host. At the link above is a clip of the Undercover Sharpton sketch you should watch for context. Notice on the map that sketch sets are often set in front of other sketch…

From the October 1957 edition of “Radio Age” magazine (page 20), here’s a shot of the first use of a portable camera on the sidelines. The article describes the 4 camera coverage plan, plus the sideline mini cam that at this time was all directed by the man who would become a legend in…

This is the entire 1949 picture book “Close Up” that was written and published by CBS. It is the real time story of how this primetime drama came from an idea to a sixty minute live television play. This will also show us some rare photos of the old CBS facility at Grand Central…

The whole backstory of that week in the studio is beautifully told by a Salon Magazine article that I have included here, below the video frame.  This was to be the 7th episode of the brand new, late night NBC weekend comedy show “Saturday Night” scheduled to air December 13, 1975, and the one…

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve had a lot of exposure to magnetic recording, especially video. We’ve also learned just how deeply involved Bing Crosby and Ampex were in building the foundations of this media, so today, we are going to look at the beginning of audio tape and it’s use in radio…

Below is Part 2 of Mr. Philips first hand account of the problems and solutions Bing Crosby encountered when he decided to leave live radio and instead, record his shows. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee _________________________________________________ While the Crosby show was struggling with the disk recordings, a new technology had arrived. Jack Mullin had…

This is a must read for anyone interested in the early days of audio and video recording! While researching today’s story on the first demonstration of videotape, I happened to find this gem…it’s from The American Heritage series on Invention and Technology. This seven page article is as good as it gets and is…

Here you’ll see everything from the TK60s and 41s to lenses, pedestals, heads, cranes, lights, control room and telecine gear and more…it’s the whole magilla. In case you have never visited David Gleason’s American Radio History site, you should! He has almost every broadcast publication ever printed and it’s all readable and searchable. A…

Seated on the right is director John Frankenheimer watching Ross Murray edit “Old Man”, which was a ‘Playhouse 90’ presentation that aired November 20, 1958. This was the first time an entire production had ever been videotaped in advance and edited for air. The year before, Frankenheimer had used videotaped inserts in the live…

This the first time I have ever seen close ups like this and we even have a photo of the camera in it’s carrying mode. This is the second version of this camera and is probably from 1942 or ’43. In the last photo, we see the early, 1940 version of the camera with…