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In The Beginning…ESPN
On the right is ESPN’s first remote truck, pictured here at Compact Video in Burbank around 1979. The unit was called “140” and looks to be equipped with either Hitachi or Thomson cameras. The photo on the left is also from the early days and the camera on the pickup is probably hooked up to “140” at what may be Iowa State. Thanks to David Sturtevant for the photos.
Mr. Crawford, I think we might have done a game or two in an ESPN truck. At least the era would be right. Also as I recall at least one of their trucks had an uplink built on the tractor.
I remember at Wyoming (I think) the truck could park indoors, but the tractor had to be outside due to the uplink.
We had SK-70’s in the News studio at WJBK-TV in Detroit for a while and they were awfull.
This was one of the first football games I did after starting full time at ESPN. I remember that the local cable affiliate was so excited that ESPN had come to town, they baked us a cake and brought it out to the truck! It was decorated with an ESPN logo and the ISU Cardinal mascot. I thought if every show is like this, we’re going to have a lot of fun. Needless to say, they weren’t all like that.
Hey guys, it’s good to see these photos again. I was EIC of this truck from May 1980 until some time in 1983 or so. It was a lot of tough work, but some of the best times of my career.
The stadium pictured is Iowa State. It opened in 1975. (I was a student there at the dedication) The ESPN truck was almost finished in the fall of 1979, and Compact Video gave tours of it at their facility during the Los Angeles SMPTE convention. It had Hitachi cameras and Sony BVH 500 portable recorders as well as Sony BVH-1000 recorders. They hyped the fact that the on board generator could power the unit on it’s way to the location so it would arrive warmed up and ready to go.
Compact Video – I spent a lot of time there back then when I was with Showtime…
Compact Video was a good Post House… not sure how much they knew about making a truck
Que ça me rappelle des souvenirs….
Love the Chevy love truck!!
I did part of my growing up in Ames, Iowa (home of Iowa State University) when my dad was the news anchor at WOI-TV, then the only commercial broadcast station owned and operated by a state government entity. That is, indeed, ISU in the football photo. The logo on the university truck looks to be correct for that era.
Ahh. The good old days. I probably worked that game. With Roger!
The Picture on the Right Was Posted by Dwight Sturtevant and Not David Sturtevant
ESPN also had 3 Compact built 27 footers.
The cameras were Hitachi SK-70’s with Fujunon 22×1 lenses, the camera could be broken down to become a handheld connected to the electronics with a multi core cable and then connected to the truck by triax. ESPN had another identical truck called 240. Both were equipped with generators on the back of the tractors.
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