Wanted: TK-40/41/42 outdoor broadcast footage!!!

[Steve D.]

Hey Guys,

As noted on other posts, I worked with these TK-41's for several years in the 60's & eary 70's. KTLA was an independent station in L.A. and had color equipment since late 1954. Thye technical quality of our color broadcasts were among the best in the business. We always took great pride in providing superior color even when there were few color sets out there. The dot crawl was always apparent on b&w sets showing a color telecast. This was, as Steve Hoffman pointed out, due to the color sub carrier inherent in the NTSC compatible color system. This is different from a badly converged/aligned color camera. I recall those KTLA 41's always being knocked about on remote telecasts.
But the video guys spent hours on the test pattern getting the color tubes aligned properly. Then more time on the gray scale "chip chart" balancing the RGB to get natural color. The operators NEVER knowingly would point the cameras at bright lights, the sun or any light reflecting surface for fear of burning the I.O.'s. I'm sure there are several hours of TK-41 remote color video footage in the KTLA archives. Althought much was taped over and reused to conserve costs.
Steve