TV History

ABC Hollywood…1533-44 North Vine Street, A Truly Historic Address Did you know America’s first network Disc Jockeys broadcast from this building? Or, that this was ABC’s first studio? As we’ll see below, all that and more is true, but let’s start with the building itself. As you see in the first (big) photo from…

The Answer To A Chicken & Egg Question On Video Tape… As I wrote and posted these 3M stories on video tape’s development, I kept wondering how Ampex could develop their machines if 3M only joined the party the day before the debut. If 3M didn’t make videotape before the debut, then who did?…

“The Rest Of The Story”…A Narrative By Neil Gjere Thanks to Neil’s efforts, over this past week, we have been able to see things few have ever seen and get to meet the man behind the creation of the world’s first commercially available brand of video tape. Without him, we would not have been…

The History Of Video Tape Development By The Man Who Did It! Above is Melvin Sater’s 18 page account of those early days of developing the first commercially available line of video tape. Most of this amazing read has to do with the 1956 and ’57 period, but takes us into the mid ’60s…

History From A Different Angle…NBC Radio City West The street on the left is Sunset Boulevard and the next cross street is Vine Street. Less than a block behind the photographer is CBS Columbia Square and less than a block up on Vine Street was ABC’s broadcast center. This whole area was radio city!…

Happy Birthday To Mickey Mouse…86 Years Old Today On November 18, 1928, ‘Steamboat Willie’, starring Mickey Mouse, was released and shown in theaters across the country. It was wildly popular. This was the first cartoon with synchronized sound and was the first cartoon to feature a fully post-produced soundtrack which distinguished it from earlier…

November 13, 1976…Carol Burnett’s ‘Went With The Wind’ Sketch Debut One of the funniest and most memorable moments in American television came to us thirty eight years ago this month. In the clip below, Carol talks about the sketch and the dress. In another interview, I’ve heard her say that only she and Harvey…

Bonded Cellular = Live TV Anywhere, Anytime With No News Van? This is just amazing. It may be old hat to a lot of you, but I’m just learning about this and thought I’d pass this along. This video is a demonstration of how the top of the line, LiveU LU 70 backpack mobile…

By Request…How The Yellow Down Marker Appears In Football In a comment on yesterday’s CBS/NFL video, Pat Phos Martin wondered how the yellow first down markers and blue line of scrimmage marker magically appear on our screens. By the way, on the Sport Vision site, you can see how other sports graphics work too.…

November 17, 1968…’Heidi’ Trumps The Jets – Raiders Finale On NBC I remember watching this…I had just turned 18. Did you see this? For all intents and purposes, it looked like the Jets had won and with only a minute left, there was no way for an Oakland comeback…BUT, comeback they DID! Here’s a…

November 15, 1926…The First NBC Radio Broadcast, Part 1 The Bedrock History And Timeline…Please Start Here Below is a history of how this all started and by understanding this timeline and these events, you will better understand the parts that follow. It’s a story that I will need to tell in several parts and…

November 15, 1926…The First NBC Radio Broadcast, Part 2 The Basis Of The Red And Blue Networks In part one, we laid out the important basics of how all this came to be, so if you haven’t read that, go there first and this will make a lot more sense. Many believe that NBC…

November 15, 1926…The First NBC Radio Broadcast, Part 3 The “Color” Networks…Red, Blue, White, Gold And Orange If you thought there was just Red and Blue, think again, but these didn’t all occur on November 15, 1926. In the beginning, NBC operated two networks: NBC Blue, headed by station WJZ, and NBC Red, headed…

November 15, 1926…The First NBC Radio Broadcast, Part 4 Excerpts From The First Broadcast And Amazing Stories If this page comes up for you the way it does for me, in the upper right hand corner, click to play program 2 with Ben Grauer as our host. Around 2:20, you’ll hear parts of that…

Original Edit…’This Week With David Brinkley’, Berlin Wall Remote As we saw earlier in the week, the Berlin Wall opened on Thursday, November 9, 1989…this is the 25th Anniversary. When the Sunday talk shows rolled around that weekend, this was still the top story. Ed Eaves has been with NBC News in NY since…

The Latest From 3000 West Alameda…Former NBC Burbank Thanks to Ray Rivera, here are some recent photos from what is now, The Burbank Studios. I think most of these were taken in the area around what was KNBC Studio 10. Except for Studio 3 which Clear Channel took over and made into the iHeart…

How The Ultra Rare 3M ’20 Years Of Video Tape’ Survived… A few days ago, I heard from Neil Gjere who told me a very interesting story and today, we get part one of the story in the form of the historic video in today’s first post and this…the backstory of how it is…

Television’s First Electronic Zoom Lens…The RCA Electra Zoom As we saw in the article just before this, Zoomar came to television in the middle of 1949 and was the first zoom for TV use. The first use of the RCA Electra Zoom lens was at NBC New York, and I think arrived a month…