I moved from Columbus three years ago. I used to work at WGSF in
Newark, then WBNS-TV in Columbus.
I was just looking over your Website for the first time in a while and
ran across the pictures from KDYL. In your description of getting the
TRK from KDYL, you mention it was then KCPX. You have probably already
figured this out, but that should mean the picture of the KDYL remote
truck at the parade in 1948 is a picture of the WGSF truck now at the Ohio
Historical Society when it was brand spanking new.
That may even have
been KDYL's first remote, since we were told from the start it was new in
1948.
One bit of possible confirmation is in the other picture at ground
level. The camera on the left has a dolly identical to the ones on the WGSF truck; a style that I have seen nowhere else in thirty years of
looking at pictures of old gear.
I started at WGSF in the summer school class in the summer of 1969,
literally within days of the truck's arrival. Leland Hubbell, the
Station Manager, drove it back from Salt Lake City after it was
purchased for the station for $9000 by a local group.
He said they told him they had used the truck only to cover an annual
parade for a number of years.
It had KCPX markings on it and on most of the gear, though there were
different call letters, not KDYL that I remember, on some items.
The truck was in mostly original condition. The three cameras, the
switcher, sync generator and power systems were all stock RCA except for
orbiters added to the cameras at some point. An air conditioner had also
been added along the way. The original cable reels in the back had been
removed.
I did about 145 remotes with that truck over the four years we used it
at WGSF. At first I worked as crew. When our maintenance tech quit, I
did a lot of the maintenance of the equipment and I drove the truck for
about a year after I got my drivers' license.
My first technical work at the station was helping check the tubes in
that sync generator prior to its first use, and that was a lot of tubes.
One interesting note. There were curtains between the drivers seat and
the production area. Our technician decided to cut them up and make them
into individual covers for the windows so we could use all the space in
the truck. Shortly after he did that a gentleman walked by the truck,
saw the cloth over the windows and stopped to ask if we had any more of
the cloth. He was shocked when he was told how big the pieces used to
be. The cloth was the same as was used in 1948 Lincolns and would have
been worth a nice chunk of change if we had sold it to a classic car
restorer.
WGSF already had two TK30s in the studio, so the equipment in the truck
was quite familiar to everyone.
A shelf was added to support the one tape machine that the station
owned: an Ampex VR-660 2 inch helical machine. Using that we did
numerous location shoots for later airing. Educational shows for the
schools, general interest shows, high school sports of all kinds, drag
racing at National Trails, the Hartford Fair, a regular show for the
local art association, on and on.
After getting the RCA TTR1C microwave that came with the truck licensed
we also did a large number of live remotes of all different sorts; high
school football and basketball, League of Women Voters candidate
debates, election coverage, an orchestra performance, a bowling
tournament, and variety shows that were part of a local summer festival.
The first year we had the truck it averaged over one remote a week. By
comparison, the other remote truck in the market, the one WBNS-TV had,
was used for the State Fair and usually one or two other remotes a year. |
