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This Is The ONLY TK42/43 NBC Ever Owned…Shocking But True

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

This Is The ONLY TK42/43 NBC Ever Owned…Shocking But True

As you know, RCA owned NBC and was the world’s leading maker of television broadcast equipment so…it’s quite a wake up call when your own network doesn’t buy your “next big thing” in color cameras. Here’s the bitter sweet back story. The RCA TK42 came out in 1965, the same year Norelco debuted the PC60 Plumbicon camera. The TK42 had a black and white 4.5 inch tube for luminance and three Vidicon tubes for color. Frankly, the Norelco made a better picture and CBS bought them by the dozens. NBC’s equipment manager, Fred Himelfarb who was a former RCA engineer, was in on the testing but did not buy them for the network. He did however buy 35 Norelcos for the sports trucks. Even when the TK42 came out, another group of RCA engineers was working in secret on the TK44 which at that point was designed with three Vidicon tubes. In ’66, RCA came out with the TK43 with an external lens and took one to NBC NY to use on the network’s mid term election coverage. It was not ready at air time but an NBC logo was applied and a cameraman put behind it and was used as a prop of sorts. Later this camera went to the fifth floor for use in an “always on” news studio used for breaking news and WNBC’s 2AM news briefs. In a way, it all worked out the NBC’s advantage because RCA engineer Lou Bazin, who was heading up the TK44 team, got an unexpected invitation to visit Norelco’s US tube maker. Amperex was a Phillips subsidiary (as was Norelco) and the US source for the new Plumbicon tubes and yokes…the main component of Norelco’s ‘magic pictures’. This was a ‘no no’ as Amperex was not authorized to share this technology with RCA, but, Phillips was way over there in Holland and Amperex was just a short ride from Camden. There was money to be made is selling tubes to RCA. The plumbicon tubes were made in Rhode Island at another Phillips subsidiary. So, by waiting three years and keeping their well maintained fleet of TK41s humming along, NBC saved a lot of money by waiting for the TK44A Plumbicon which came in 1968. It wasn’t all tears at RCA though as nearly 400 TK42/43s were sold.

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12 responses to “This Is The ONLY TK42/43 NBC Ever Owned…Shocking But True”

  1. Jay Ballard

    One of the TK-43s, possibly from 5HN, was installed in the RCA Exhibition Hall in view by passersby. My recollection is that it fed a current RCA color television receiver.

  2. Jay Ballard

    Two of these cameras went to 5 HN, and I believe the lens pictured is a servo controlled Varotal V. They were part of six cameras “promised” to NBC for testing in actual use, as RCA was getting heat from prospective customers that NBC was not using TK-42/43s.
    There is a picture in “Broadcast News” of several TK-43s covering the 1966 mid term elections in 8H, and when I showed the picture to Fred Himelfarb, he said that the cameras were never connected to the production switcher.

  3. Curtis R Anderson

    http://www.nimaging.com And Narrangansett Imaging is still going strong with Plumbicon tubes, but none for our TV cameras, other than what is in stock.

  4. Debra Oliver

    First camera I ever ran back in 1976.

  5. Bob Batsche

    I remember seeing this TK42 outside of NYC NBC Studio 8H in 1967. It was being tested as it was operational–on. That’s all I remember as I was drafted soon thereafter.

  6. Dennis Degan

    Looks like a Schneider lens that doesn’t belong on there. TK-42’s had an internal lens. The TK-43 version used a relay lens internally so that external lenses could be mounted on the front. I worked at WYEA-TV in Columbus, GA in 1974. They had one of each version: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dennisdegan/558126149/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/dennisdegan/557859754/

  7. Grant Fletcher

    We had one just like this in the garage of a CBS station where I worked. The way the sides opened (you’ll consider this a sin) I wanted to gut it and make a liquor cabinet.

  8. John Ondo

    I had one of these I acquired from a TV gear hoarder. It weighed a million pounds. It ended up in the basement of a apt I rented and is probleby still there because I left it hidden in a corner. But I have the COLOR plates in my collection.

  9. Rick Bozeman

    The 3 TK42’s at WEDU=TV in Tampa c.1971

  10. Gary Walters

    We had TK-42’s at KODE-TV and in the time I was there were replaced with TK-46’s by 1978.

  11. Bob Storck

    As I recall with the TK42s we had at WBTV, with one image orth. and three vidicons, keeping them converged was nearly always an issue.

  12. Sean Caldwell

    That Houston Fearless looks familiar. From where I’m sitting right now, I can see two of them. Not exactly mint condition but they work pretty well.

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