Rca Tk-41

[John Hafer]

W.B.,

Interesting about WOR-TV using all RCA. If I am not mistaken, back then was WOR-TV an RKO General station? I know that WNAC-TV ch. 7 in Boston was an RKO General station and they did have GE PE-250 (live) and PE-24/240 (film) color cameras. I had a tour of that station back in the 60s' and saw the studios and film chains. I remember the telecine islands were RCA (TP-7) slide projectors, with TP-15 mutiplexers, but they had replaced their RCA TP-6 16mm projectores with Eastman 285 projectors and all were feeding into the GE color film cameras. Videotape was all Ampex (either VR1200B or VR2000B high-band VTRs' - I can't remember)

As far as other Boston stations, if I recall, WBZ-TV (Westinghouse Broadcasting) had RCA TK-42 and TK-27 cameras, WHDH-TV ch. 5 (first with color) had RCA TK-41 and TK-26 with TK-43 remote cameras for Boston Redsox home games, WNAC-TV with GE equipment (as mentioned above), WSBK-TV ch.38 GE PE-240 color film, (still no live color at the time but later PE-250 live color cameras), and WKBG-TV ch.56 had all RCA with TK-42 and TK-27. Finally, if I remember, I think WGBH-TV ch.2 (Edu) which had RCA TK-60 B&W cameras went with Marconi 4-tube live color cameras. Not not know about their film cameras.

[W.B.]

Originally Posted by John Hafer

W.B.,

Interesting about WOR-TV using all RCA. If I am not mistaken, back then was WOR-TV an RKO General station? I know that WNAC-TV ch. 7 in Boston was an RKO General station and they did have GE PE-250 (live) and PE-24/240 (film) color cameras. I had a tour of that station back in the 60s' and saw the studios and film chains. I remember the telecine islands were RCA (TP-7) slide projectors, with TP-15 mutiplexers, but they had replaced their RCA TP-6 16mm projectores with Eastman 285 projectors and all were feeding into the GE color film cameras. Videotape was all Ampex (either VR1200B or VR2000B high-band VTRs' - I can't remember)

As far as other Boston stations, if I recall, WBZ-TV (Westinghouse Broadcasting) had RCA TK-42 and TK-27 cameras, WHDH-TV ch. 5 (first with color) had RCA TK-41 and TK-26 with TK-43 remote cameras for Boston Redsox home games, WNAC-TV with GE equipment (as mentioned above), WSBK-TV ch.38 GE PE-240 color film, (still no live color at the time but later PE-250 live color cameras), and WKBG-TV ch.56 had all RCA with TK-42 and TK-27. Finally, if I remember, I think WGBH-TV ch.2 (Edu) which had RCA TK-60 B&W cameras went with Marconi 4-tube live color cameras. Not not know about their film cameras.

RKO had a reputation for being notoriously cheap - and I think the fact that WOR-TV didn't switch to GE film chains in '64 may've had to do with their having shown films in color beginning in 1960, when RCA was practically the only game in town, and their TK-26's working just fine and dandy . . . only upgrading their telecine when they moved their studios and prodution facilities.

To be sure, WOR-TV did have GE PE-250 studio cameras. Beginning in 1967, as a replacement for the B&W RCA TK-11's they had from their earliest days in 1949, and for the TK-41 color cameras that since c.1963-64 had been at the studio in the off-(baseball) season and at Shea Stadium when the Mets were playing their then-hapless seasons. (WPIX was another NYC station that had PE-250's, also starting around 1966-67.) * EDIT: WOR-TV, in late 1967, ordered nine (surprise, surprise) PE-250's - six for use at Shea during Mets games, the other three to their studios for year-round local live color programming. *

Back to Boston: After WHDH-TV was kicked off Channel 5 in 1972 and the then-new WCVB-TV took over, which film chains did the new station use?

And as for the Marconi 4-tube color cameras used by WGBH: Sounds like the Mark VII, in a 'YRGB' arrangement; their subsequent Mark VIII was three-tube, arranged as 'GRB'.

[John Hafer]

Originally Posted by W.B.

After WHDH-TV was kicked off Channel 5 in 1972 and the then-new WCVB-TV took over, which film chains did the new station use?

That was the million dollar question. I never was able to find out. If I remember, when they signed on in 1972, their studio cameras were Phillips. so I was thinking they went with Phillips film chains. The only thing I never could figure was if Phillips made telecine units. I think they did at some point but I don't recall if they had them in 1972 or not.

WCVB-TV did have to go with all new broadcast equipment because WHDH-TV would not give up anything for them. They held out to the end in hoping they would win the legal battle to stay on the air.

[W.B.]

Originally Posted by John Hafer

That was the million dollar question. I never was able to find out. If I remember, when they signed on in 1972, their studio cameras were Phillips. so I was thinking they went with Phillips film chains. The only thing I never could figure was if Phillips made telecine units. I think they did at some point but I don't recall if they had them in 1972 or not.

WCVB-TV did have to go with all new broadcast equipment because WHDH-TV would not give up anything for them. They held out to the end in hoping they would win the legal battle to stay on the air.

Philips/Norelco did make some telecine equipment, which few stations, it seemed, had used. One such unit, produced in the late 1960's, was called the PCF-701, a three-Plumbicon (what else?) color film camera, used in conjunction with a PCM-800 multiplexer (I may've mentioned this earlier). The PCF-701 was as big in size, from what I've seen in old Broadcast Engineering issues, as GE's PE-24/240's and RCA's TK-26/27/28's. However, most 3-Plumbicon color telecine cameras Philips/Norelco made, especially by the early 1970's, were small compact units, generally for smaller TV outfits (like public-access channels or college TV stations). For that matter, I've read that RCA's TK-28's had the option of using vidicons or Plumbicons.

I seem to recall that when WCVB-TV first took to the air, they used Philips/Norelco PC-100's - one of the few in the U.S. to do so.

[Fenway]

Originally Posted by John Hafer

W.B.,

Interesting about WOR-TV using all RCA. If I am not mistaken, back then was WOR-TV an RKO General station? I know that WNAC-TV ch. 7 in Boston was an RKO General station and they did have GE PE-250 (live) and PE-24/240 (film) color cameras. I had a tour of that station back in the 60s' and saw the studios and film chains. I remember the telecine islands were RCA (TP-7) slide projectors, with TP-15 mutiplexers, but they had replaced their RCA TP-6 16mm projectores with Eastman 285 projectors and all were feeding into the GE color film cameras. Videotape was all Ampex (either VR1200B or VR2000B high-band VTRs' - I can't remember)

As far as other Boston stations, if I recall, WBZ-TV (Westinghouse Broadcasting) had RCA TK-42 and TK-27 cameras, WHDH-TV ch. 5 (first with color) had RCA TK-41 and TK-26 with TK-43 remote cameras for Boston Redsox home games, WNAC-TV with GE equipment (as mentioned above), WSBK-TV ch.38 GE PE-240 color film, (still no live color at the time but later PE-250 live color cameras), and WKBG-TV ch.56 had all RCA with TK-42 and TK-27. Finally, if I remember, I think WGBH-TV ch.2 (Edu) which had RCA TK-60 B&W cameras went with Marconi 4-tube live color cameras. Not not know about their film cameras.

Here is WCVB's projection room in 1977

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...0HZpZqA#t=400s

WMUR-TV in Manchester also had a TK-27 chain.