Yet Another Old Perserved VTR Recording

[W3XWT]

It’s not often that an old B&W VTR of local origination from a non-major market station crops up. But, here’s one circa 1961 from WIS-TV channel 10 in Columbia, South Carolina. (A year earlier, this was the first TV station I’d set foot in, courtesy of my then 76-year-old grandfather who wanted to see inside a radio and TV station when WIS had an open house to celebrate the 30th anniversary of WIS radio.) The announcers on this program were “borrowed” from WIS-AM (560 kc), with one slipping and saying “listening”…! With the exception of the main transmitter, it’s likely that everything was still 1953 RCA, although WIS-TV did carry color off the NBC-TV network. (WIS-TV went to a 1526’ (1546’ HAAT (1877’ AMSL!) tower in the vicinity of Lugoff and Elgin, S.C. in Kershaw County a couple of years earlier –with another RCA rig. They ran 316 KW visual and 63.2 KW aural. Before that, they had a 582’ (643’ HAAT) tower behind the studio building, running 265 KW visual and 160 KW aural. (Originally 106.5 KW Visual, IIRC)) They sold off much of the old tower years ago to the S.C. highway department.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w0hanSL_nM

By contrast, here’s a clip from the first WIS-TV newscast in HD… Notice how the cameras tracks one of the anchors!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcA3j6a0kpg

73,

John
W3XWT/4

[Dangler]

I got a kick out of the Babcock Motors commercials, but I don't know if I would have bought a car from him though.

[Sandy G]

We had Cas Walker up here, on Knoxville TV...Cas was a local politico, & he owned a chain of grocery stores thruout E. Tenn.. He sponsored cornpone singing acts, & a few backwoodsy preachers..One was Mull's Singing Convention, starring J. Bazzle & his wife, Lady Mull..J. Bazzle was a little toad-frog of a man, had a raspy voice, but proclaimed the Gospel over Cas' weekly program...One time, Cas had gotten a bunch of Coconuts, & J. Bazzle was hawkin' 'em to the skies...He said, "Lady Miz Mull, does Cas Walker have the Biggest Nuts in town ?!? " & she droned back, "Yass,J. Bazzle, he DOES !!" completely oblivious, in all her sky-high Beehive hairdo Glory.....And now, let's hand it over to the Glory Land Quartet..."

[old_tv_nut]

Besides the car salesman, several things struck me.

Johnny Evans either wasn't local or else went to announcer school to learn to speak with a "standard midwest" accent.

The Hired Hands quartet was really well balanced with that single mic pickup. I'm trying to figure out how the guy on the left could sing while barely opening his mouth.

A nicely put together, simple, local show - I wonder if anything similar survives today?

Also reminds me of the fact that TV variety shows apparently can't get an audience any more.

[Dave A]

Great find and fun to watch for an old director. Two cameras with a director that knew the tunes. Nice staging of the singers and instrumentals moving in to the 77 as needed. Someone knew their staging. If you look closely at the corners of some of the shots you can see the IO orbiters in action. A little lense edge wanders in and out of view on the cameras.

Good ol' Huck thanks the host during the first commercial for being here "tonight" on a daytime show. The miracle of videotape. And $895 for a '57 Chevy? That would not buy you a NOS steering wheel for that car now.

I had a Huck at my station in Rockford, IL in the 70's. Parky Parkinson had a corner used car lot and was smart to tv. He rolled in once to tape a spot with a Dodge of some sort that had a rust spot the size of a cigar box on the camera side. The other side was worse. He slapped some of our white scenic paint over it and the RCA TK-42 never saw it.

And the first commercial for Huck runs three minutes! Must have been before the NAB code or FCC rules on timing of "non-program" material which became a two-minute limit.

[old_coot88]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

Besides the car salesman, several things struck me.
A nicely put together, simple, local show - I wonder if anything similar survives

Wunner if this here might qualify...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BZnDt2wEFjk

[holmesuser01]

Back in the late 1960's, I lived in Candler, NC, about 10 miles west of Asheville, NC.

I could regularly find WIS-TV on channel 10, but only for a few minutes at a time.

We had a 50 foot tower with a huge fringe antenna and a rotor.

I sent a letter to WIS-TV, and they wrote me back, and were amazed that their signal made it this far, too. The letter I sent them listed the time of day, and the stuff they were playing.

Later, they sent me a letter confirming that I had indeed received their signal, from their chief engineer at their transmitter site.

After a few weeks of receiving their signal for an hour or so a day, it gradually faded away. I've never seen it again, either.

I love seeing all these old snippets of TV from the days of my youth.

[KentTeffeteller]

In Knoxville, Bonnie Lou & Buster were sponsored by Clayton Mobile Homes and Clayton Used Cars. On WBIR-TV 10. This arrangement was ongoing for many years.