TV History

Election Night: 1952, The First Computer Assisted Predictions An Interesting Story…The computer was right but CBS balked At CBS, Charles Collingwood sits in the Univac set on election night of 1952. What you see here is just for show as the actual computer was an 8 ton beast the size of a single car…

Classic Photo At WWL in New Orleans, a TK11 shoots the news with Jim Kincaid, Hap Glaudi and Don Westbrook in the late 1950s or early 60s. Thanks to Craig Harper for the photo. Source

From the 1950 RCA Catalog Source

RCA Electra-Zoom Lens, Part 1 The Electra-Zoom was in use at NBC for the debut of the Today Show in January of 1952. When this actually became available, I don’t know, but we do know from the RCA catalog description that there were two ways to operate the lens. Manually, it was done with…

RCA Electra-Zoom Lens, Part 2 Source

From The 1959 RCA Catalog Source

From The 1959 RCA Catalog Source

Revision From Friday Post Friday, I posted a photo I though was from WKY, but it’s from WHDH in Boston in 1958. Here is the photo again, but with a labeling of the Telecine equipment. Thanks to Lytle Hoover and Oldradio.com Source

Interesting RCA Factoid This photo brings to mind an oddity. Notice the 4 lens turret has only 3 lenses…a 50mm, a 90mm and a 135mm. Oddly, this was the standard factory compliment of lenses from RCA with all TK10s, TK30s and TK11/31s. The 4th lens, you had to buy separably, and even then, they…

Look What I Found In An RCA Catalog! A few weeks back, on October 12, I had commented on the tripod dolly under an RCA TK11 at KRON. I had wondered who made them and noticed they seemed kind of ‘foot steerable’ with the arch in the back for the cameraman. Now we know…

How Nostalgic Here’s an old 3 sided test pattern rack. Notice the ‘Willie Wirehand’ statuette in the background. Willie was the mascot/trademark of the Rural Electrification Association and well known in the ’50s and ’60s. He was called ‘Ready Kilowatt’ too and was a mascot for electric utility companies. Source

The One And Only of the One And Only This is the one and only photo, of the one and only RCA TK42/43 at NBC. RCA engineer Harry Wright gave me this photo of the camera RCA took to 30 Rockefeller Plaza. NBC never bought a 42 or 43. This camera was put in…

Super Classic: NBC Brooklyn I’ve had this photo since I was 15. It was sent to me by Mrs. Katheryn Cole from NBC in New York. Source

Letterman and Fallon: Alone with Sandy! Neither had studio audiences for yesterday afternoon’s taping sessions. If you go to the link, you can see clips from each show with eerily empty seats. Sandy Fallout: David Letterman, Jimmy Fallon Tape With No Audiences If David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon crack wise and no one’s around…

STOP THE PRESSES! GUESS WHO’S BACK!!! A few months back, I told you that the historic Chapman Electra Crane in NBC Studio 8H was being retired and replaced by a newer model…WELL GUESS WHAT! THE OLD CRANE IS BACK! The driver of the crane, Philip Pernice just told me that the turning radius on…

Inside The RCA TK41 Source

Sam And Friends Earlier in the week, I posted a photo of Jim Henson and Kermit. Someone mentioned remembering them from their first TV show, so here’s a photo. ‘Sam And Friends’ was a 5 minute weekday show produced in Washington, D.C. on WRC-TV in black-and-white, and later, color. There were 86 episodes and…

The Beautiful RCA TK11 I think this is one of the best looking cameras ever made. This is Home Ec class from the University of North Carolina’s WUNC. The TK11 is mounted on a Houston Fearless friction head and a Houston Fearless TD 3 counterbalance pedestal. Source

Now THIS Will Take You Back! From the early 1950’s, here’s a generic weather package for sale to local stations. Compared to what we have today, the weather reports on the local news stations were not much more than ‘chalk talks’. Some used actual chalk boards, some had fancy plastic covered maps they drew…

30 Rock Set: Silvercup Studios This is the studio set that stands in for NBC’s Studio 8H, home of ‘Saturday Night Live’. The main lot is at 4222 22nd Street in Long Island City. Other shows taping there are ‘White Collar’ and ‘Person Of Interest’. To see more, click the link. http://www.silvercupstudios.com/ Source