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November 30, 1956…A Videotape Milestone

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

November 30, 1956…A Videotape Milestone

On this day in 1956, at Television City, CBS made broadcast history when they achieved the first ever videotape delay of east coast programming. The show was ‘The Evening News With Douglas Edwards’, and after recording the live feed coming down the network line from New York, the program was played back three hours later for the west coast.

In the photo, we see CBS Engineer John Radis at the Ampex VRX-1000 recording the show. Just in case, a kinescope of the newscast was rolled simultaneously, but fortunately, it was not needed.

This VRX-1000 is one of only 16 hand-built machines Ampex rushed to produce after debuting the VTR eight months before.

It would take over a year for CBS New York to get videotape machines due to a huge backlog, even though the networks got priority. In early 1958, 14 VR 1000 went into service at CBS Grand Central. NBC too had the bulk of their machines on the west coast but both CBS and NBC had two VTRs in New York which were mostly used for testing and engineering purposes.

This historic machine was retired in 1978. Early on, it had been fitted with RCA color modules as Ampex and RCA traded technology rights. RCA had developed color recording in 1954 and allowed Ampex to use it if they would allow RCA to use the Qaud recording head. -Bobby Ellerbee

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18 responses to “November 30, 1956…A Videotape Milestone”

  1. jbledsoe

    To answer the question about how the west coast got their feed – prior to satellites, networks distributed their feeds via special feeds via the AT&T Long Lines phone system. So this was either microwave or coax cable. Typically the west coast stations got their feeds from Los Angeles since they recorded the feeds from the East Coast and fed them down the line after a three hour delay. Originally on kinescope, later on tape as you see here.

  2. Jeff Rooney

    All CBS programs from New York were seen in Los Angeles on tape delay ( on KNXT Channel 2, as it was called then ). Taped shows produced at TV City were rewound on tape and shown again for L.A. ( the sound & picture quality were better than watching it over a coaxial cable network feed ).

  3. Royce Sallstrom

    Isn’t she beautiful 🙂 The Adam of its kind.

  4. Kenneth Johannessen

    Too bad that tape wasn’t saved, like the tape of “The Edsel Show” was.

  5. John Bolin

    Today is a landmark day in broadcasting history. Bobby, thanks for the detailed reminder. Just think where we would be today if Ray Dolby and his team had never invented this historic machine.

  6. Juan Manuel Castillo Lizardo

    Born

  7. Juan Manuel Castillo Lizardo

    Cool I am bien in this year

  8. Wally Kennedy

    Totally revolutionized tv. There never could have been a “laugh in” without tape. Story goes that when the designers came up with the technology they didn’t have the money to market it, so they brought their case to, of all people, Bing Crosby, who helped bankroll it. Made him a very wealthy man.

  9. Kenneth Johannessen

    Just a slight, nitpicky correction – it was “Douglas Edwards with the News,” not “The Evening News with Douglas Edwards.”

  10. Daniel Rochford

    Cool

  11. D Dale Beaty Jr

    John Radis was my Best Friend Father, from the age of 12 till I was 23(I lost touch with Bill Radis) anyway… I had the pleasure and awww of going to CBS Hollywood studios… It was a Monday(Labor Day Holiday), so John gave Bill and I a complete tour and demonstration of the West Coast broadcast facility… From the Small 10 x 10 Emergency Broadcast News break in desk, where a camera is ON and ready to broadcast at a drop of a hat, to that same area (in the pic) where we watched that weeks Beverly Hillbillies and Hogans Heroes!!! SO bizarre they would transmit the week sitcoms and drama shows from the West Coast to the East Coast to then record the East Coast Feed and delay it 3 hours!!!! As a techno nerd we had complete run of the facilities due to John Radis was such big wig!!! Got to play with the Instant replay sports machine, Ampex HS-100, which had a 30-second capacity and freeze frame capability… it had magnetic disks with record and play heads… it sounded like a 747 taking off when it spun up!!! Because of John Radis, I knew one day I would working in the TV industry!!

  12. Chuck Tyrrell

    I worked at KEPR TV in Kennewick, Wa in the early 70’s. They had one of these VRX 1000’s that had been upgraded to color. Thanks for the memories.

  13. Allan McConnell Jr

    We had a VR1000 at Maxwell AFB in the very late 60s. That in addition to two TRT-1 vtrs.

  14. Tim Bogart

    The first one I worked on was a TR22

  15. Rick Watts

    That’s the way I always worked the tape room, in a suit!

  16. Shawn Mullins

    Silly question. How were they getting the feed on the west coast?

  17. Richard Michalak

    amazing that it ran and was used for 22 years

  18. Jim Palmer

    Does the VRX-1000, original 2″ tape or kine (16mm?) still exist?

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