WGSF-TV Cox - Wheeler 1963-64

Dana Cox, WGSF Manager, seated at the control console; Bill Wheeler, Ohio Power, standing. Circa 1964   < More >

This photograph shows most of the equipment at WGSF in late 1963 and 1964. The General Electric television transmitter is in the background; the visual amplifier is on the left, and the aural amplifier in the right cabinet. Bill Wheeler is leaning on an oscilloscope that monitors the visual (picture) waveform, one of the FCC requirements.  The cart holding the television receiver was constructed in the Newark High School Industrial Arts shop, and served many purposes over the years. The iconoscope television camera was obsolete in the television industry by the 1950's, but remained in use at WGSF until the station shut down in 1976. It was then donated to the Ohio Historical Society, and later acquired by the Early Television Museum. The slide projector came from Lincoln Jr. High School. (Note the 'I' beam holding the projector stand.) An ID (Station Identification) image was projected directly upon the face of the iconoscope tube in the box at upper left.

The equipment racks contained the rest of the control room equipment. At the top of the left hand rack is the operating frequency and modulation monitor.  The bottom of this rack contains a Sarkes-Tarzian video syncronizing pulse generator, or 'sync' generator, which was built by Robert Brooks, Chief Engineer.
The Conrac video monitor at the top of the right hand rack was obtained from WBNS-TV, Channel 10, in Columbus, Ohio.
The Conrac receiver was connected to an antenna on the transmitting tower that picked up the broadcast signal from WOSU-TV, Channel 34, in Columbus, Ohio, at the Ohio State University. The audio and video signals were switched to the WGSF transmitter at the control console.
All broadcast stations were required to monitor for emergency alert broadcasts - called CONELRAD. The WGSF CONELRAD Monitor is next down in the rack. The rest of the equipment supplied the voltages (power supplies) to operate the camera and auxillary equipment.
There was a maze of copper tubing behind the transmitter that combined the output of the aural and visual transmitters into one signal for broadcast, and connected to a 'transmission line,'  - a 3 1/2 inch pipe - that ran up to the transmitting antenna at the top of the tower.
Note that all of the equipment shown here was required to meet the bare minimum requirements for a television broadcast station.
The local sound for announcements or station identification consisted of a reel-to-reel audio recorder, microphone, and home-type turntable, located in a sound-proof room (booth) at the left side of the room (not shown).
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